links to unrelated classes defined in same source file

Name: akC45999 Date: 03/04/99



Create a .java file containing the following text:

class a {}
class b {}
class c {}

If you compile this file and then look at the A.class file you will find
entries in its constant pool for the B and C classes even though those
classes have no dependencies or runtime relationship to the A class.

class a {
  0xCAFEBABE;
  3; // minor version
  45; // version
  [] { // Constant Pool
    ; // first element is empty
    class #12; // #1
    class #14; // #2
    class #15; // #3
    class #16; // #4
    Method #4 #6; // #5
    NameAndType #8 #7; // #6
    Utf8 "()V"; // #7
    Utf8 "<init>"; // #8
    Utf8 "Code"; // #9
    Utf8 "LineNumberTable"; // #10
    Utf8 "SourceFile"; // #11
    Utf8 "a"; // #12
    Utf8 "a.java"; // #13
    Utf8 "b"; // #14
    Utf8 "c"; // #15
    Utf8 "java/lang/Object"; // #16
  } // Constant Pool
...

The problem is that some JVMs some JVMs may use eager (not lazy) linking.
In this case symbolic references from Constant Pool are resolved during
linking. If Constant Pool contains some extraneous references resolution
may fail. For example the valid class "a", described above, will be
discarded by JVM with eager linking if unrelated classes "b" and "c" are
not found.

Note that this bug can invalidate some of JCK test cases. As workaround
we are going to split JCK121 tests (which have several classes in one
source) into several source files.

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