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JEP
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Resolution: Delivered
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P2
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Feature
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Open
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SE
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M
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M
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238
Summary
Extend the JAR file format to allow multiple, Java-release-specific versions of class files to coexist in a single archive.
Goals
Enhance the Java Archive Tool (
jar
) so that it can create multi-release JAR files.Implement multi-release JAR files in the JRE, including support in the standard class loaders and
JarFile
API.Enhance other critical tools (e.g.,
javac
,javap
,jdeps
, etc.) to interpret multi-release JAR files.Support multi-release modular JAR files for goals 1 to 3.
Preserve performance: The performance of tools and components that use multi-release JAR files must not be significantly impacted. In particular, performance when accessing ordinary (i.e., not multi-release) JAR files must not be degraded.
Motivation
Third party libraries and frameworks typically support a range of Java platform versions, generally going several versions back. As a consequence they often do not take advantage of language or API features available in newer releases since it is difficult to express conditional platform dependencies, which generally involves reflection, or to distribute different library artifacts for different platform versions.
This creates a disincentive for libraries and frameworks to use new features, that in turn creates a disincentive for users to upgrade to new JDK versions---a vicious circle that impedes adoption, to everyone's detriment.
Some libraries and frameworks, furthermore, use internal APIs of the JDK that will be made inaccessible in Java 9 when module boundaries are strictly enforced. This also creates a disincentive to support new platform versions when there are public, supported API replacements for such internal APIs.
Description
A JAR file has a content root, which contains classes and resources, as
well as a META-INF
directory which contains metadata about the JAR.
By adding some versioning metadata to specific groups of files the JAR
format can encode, in a compatible way, multiple versions of a library
for different target Java
platform releases.
A multi-release JAR ("MRJAR") will contain the main attribute:
Multi-Release: true
declared in the main section of the JAR MANIFEST.MF
. The attribute
name is also declared as a constant java.util.jar.Attributes.MULTI_RELEASE
.
Like other main attributes the name declared in the MANIFEST.MF
is
case insensitive. The value is also case-insensitive, but there must be
no preceding or trailing white space (such a restriction helps ensure
the performance goal is met).
A multi-release JAR ("MRJAR") will contain additional directories for classes and resources specific to particular Java platform releases. A JAR for a typical library might look like this:
jar root
- A.class
- B.class
- C.class
- D.class
Suppose there are alternate versions of A and B that can take advantage of Java 9 features. We can bundle them into a single JAR as follows:
jar root
- A.class
- B.class
- C.class
- D.class
- META-INF
- versions
- 9
- A.class
- B.class
In a JDK that does not support MRJARs, only the classes and resources in the root directory will be visible, and the two packagings will be indistinguishable. In a JDK that does support MRJARs, the directories corresponding to any later Java platform release would be ignored; it would search for classes and resources first in the Java platform-specific directory corresponding to the currently-running major Java platform release version, then search those for lower versions, and finally the JAR root. On a Java 9 JDK, it would be as if there were a JAR-specific class path containing first the version 9 files, and then the JAR root; on a Java 8 JDK, this class path would contain only the JAR root.
Suppose later on in the future Java 10 is released and A is updated to take advantage of Java 10 features. The MRJAR may then look like this:
jar root
- A.class
- B.class
- C.class
- D.class
- META-INF
- versions
- 9
- A.class
- B.class
- 10
- A.class
By this scheme, it is possible for versions of a class designed for a later Java platform release to override the version of that same class designed for an earlier Java platform release. In the example above, when running on an MRJAR-aware Java 9 JDK, it would see the 9-specific versions of A and B and the general versions of C and D; on a future MRJAR-aware Java 10 JDK, it would see the 10-specific version of A and the 9-specific version of B; on older or non-MRJAR-aware JDKs it would only see the root versions of all.
JAR metadata, such as that found in the MANIFEST.MF
file and the
META-INF/services
directory, need not be versioned. An MRJAR is
essentially one unit of release, so it has just one release version
(which is no different from a normal JAR, distributed say via Maven
Central), even though internally it contains multiple versions of a
library implementation for use on different Java platform releases.
Every version of the library should offer the same API; investigation is
required to determine whether this should be strict backwards
compatibility where the API is exactly the same (byte code signature
equality), or whether this can be relaxed to some degree without
necessarily enabling the introduction of new enhancements that would
blur the notion of one unit of release. This may imply, at a minimum,
that a public class present in a release-specific directory should also
be present in the root, though it need not be present in an earlier
release directory. The run-time system will not verify this property,
but tooling can and should detect such API compatibility issues, and a
library method may also be provided to perform such varification (for
example on java.util.jar.JarFile
).
Ultimately, this mechanism enables library and framework developers to decouple the use of APIs in a specific Java platform release version from the requirement that all their users migrate to that version. Library and framework maintainers can gradually migrate to and support new features while still carrying around support for the old features, breaking the chicken-and-egg cycle so that a library can be "Java 9-ready" without actually requiring Java 9.
Details
The following components of the JDK will be modified in order to support multi-release JAR files.
The JAR-based
URLClassLoader
must read selected versions of class files as indicated by the running Java platform version. The module-based class loader introduced with Project Jigsaw will require similar modifications.The protocol handler for the
jar
URL scheme andjava.util.jar.JarFile
class must select the appropriate version of a class from a multi-release JAR.The Java compiler (
javac
), via the underlyingJavacFileManager
andZipFileSystem
APIs, must read selected versions of class files as specified by the-target
and-release
command-line options. The toolsjavah
,schemagen
, andwsgen
will leverage the underlying changes toJavacFileManager
andZipFileSystem
.The Java Archive tool (
jar
) will be enhanced so that it can create multi-release JAR files.The JAR packing tool (
pack200
/unpack200
) must be updated (see JDK-8066272).The
javap
tool must be updated to enable selection of versioned class files.The
jdeps
tool will require modifications to display version information and follow version specific class file dependencies.The JAR specification must be revised to describe the multi-release JAR file format and any related changes (e.g., possible additions to the manifest).
Compatibility
By default the behaviour of java.util.jar.JarFile
and the jar
scheme
protocol handlers will remain the same. It is necessary to opt-in to
construct a JarFile
pointing to a MRJAR for version selection of
entries. Likewise it is necessary to opt-in for jar
URLs (see next
section for details).
JarFile
instances created by the runtime for class loading will opt-in
and create instances that are configured to select entries according to
the version of the running Java platform. Such as JarFile
instance
is referred to as being runtime versioned.
Class loader resources
A resource URL, produced by a class loader, identifying a resource in a
MRJAR will refer directly to a versioned entry (if present). For
example for a versioned resource, foo/baz/resource.txt
:
URL r = loader.getResource("foo/baz/resource.txt");
the URL ‘r’ may be:
jar:file:/mrjar.jar!/META-INF/versions/9/foo/baz/resource.txt
rather than:
jar:file:/mrjar.jar!/foo/baz/resource.txt
This approach is considered the least disruptive option. Changing the structure of resources URLs is not without risk (e.g. a new scheme or an appended fragment). Legacy code may process URL characters directly, rather than parsing the URL and correctly extracting the components. While such URL process is incorrect it was considered preferable to not breaking such code.
Modular multi-release JAR files
A modular multi-release JAR file is a multi-release JAR file that has
a module descriptor, module-info.class
, in the root at the top, just
like a modular JAR file (see the Packaging: Modular JAR
section of JEP 261). In addition modular descriptors may be present
in versioned areas. Such versioned descriptors must be identical to the
root module descriptor, with two exceptions:
A versioned descriptor can have different non-
transitive
requires
clauses ofjava.*
andjdk.*
modules; andA versioned descriptor can have different
uses
clauses, even of service types defined outside ofjava.*
andjdk.*
modules.
The reasoning here is that these are implementation details rather than
parts of a module's API surface, and that one may well want to change
them as the JDK itself evolves. Changes to non-public requires
of
non-JDK modules are not allowed. If that is necessary then new version
of the module is required (at least increasing it's version number) and
this is a different kind of compatibility problem, and one that's beyond
the scope of MRJARs.
A multi-release modular need not have a module descriptor at the located root. In this respect a module descriptor would be treated no differently to any other class or resource file. This can ensure that, for example, only Java 8 versioned classes are present in the root area while Java 9 versioned classes (including the module descriptor) are present in the 9 versioned area.
Classpath and modulepath
A modular JAR can be constructed such that it works correctly on the
classpath of a Java 8 runtime, the classpath of a Java 9 runtime, or
the modulepath of a Java 9 runtime. The situation is the same for a
modular multi-release JAR file (which in addition to the
module-info.class
other classes may be compiled for the Java 9
platform).
If a module descriptor does not declare some packages as exported, and therefore public classes in those packages are private to the module, then when the corresponding JAR file is placed on the module path the classes will not be accessible. However, if the JAR file is placed on the classpath then those classes will be accessible. This is an unfortunate consequence of supporting the classpath and modulepath.
As a consequence the public API for multi-release JAR file may be different when placed on the classpath compared to when placed on the module path. Ordinarily the jar tool when constructing a multi-release JAR file will, on a best effort basis, fail if any observed differences in the public API are detected. However, when constructing a modular multi-release JAR file it is proposed the jar tool output a warning if public API differences are a result of module private classes being accessible when the JAR file is placed on the classpath.
Multi-release jars and the boot loader
Multi-release JARs are not supported by the boot loader (for example, when a multi-release JAR file is declared with the -Xbootclasspath/a option). Such support would complicate the boot loader implementation for what is considered a rare use-case.
Alternatives
A common approach is to use a static reflective check to determine if an API feature is present or not and accordingly select an appropriate class that respectively depends on that feature or not. The reflective cost is incurred at class initialization and not every time the dependent feature is used. A Java platform release is selected for compilation with the source and target flags set to a lower release to generate class files compatible with that lower release. This approach is often augmented with tools such as Animal Sniffer to check for API incompatibilities, where in addition to enforcing API compatibility code can be annotated to state whether it depends on a later Java platform release. There are a number of limitations with this approach:
The reflective checks need to be carefully maintained.
It is not possible to utilize newer language features.
If a platform release API feature is removed (perhaps an internal API) then dependent code will fail to compile.
"Fat" class files were considered, where a class may have one or more methods targeted to different Java platform versions. This was deemed too complicated in terms of the language and runtime features required to support such method declarations and dynamic selection.
Method handles (invokedynamic
) cannot be used because of the need to
maintain binary compatibility.
Risks and Assumptions
It is anticipated that the production of MRJARs is primarily compatible with existing popular build tools and therefore IDEs that support such tools, but the developer experience could be improved with enhancements.
The source layout and building of an MRJAR file can be supported by
Maven using a multi-module project. For example, see this
example Maven project that can produce a, currently rudimentary, MRJAR
file. There would be a sub-project for the root and specific Java
platform releases, and a sub-project to assemble the aforementioned
sub-projects into an MVJAR. The assembly process could be enhanced,
perhaps using a specific Maven plugin, leveraging the same features as
the jar
tool to enforce backwards compatibility.
The design and implementation of the runtime processing of MRJARs
currently assumes that a runtime uses the URL class loader or a custom
class loader leverages JarFile
to obtain platform-specific class
files. Runtimes whose class loaders use ZipFile
to load classes will
not be MRJAR aware. Popular application frameworks and tools, such as
Jetty, Tomcat, and Maven, etc., need to be checked for compatibility.
Dependences
The enhanced JAR-file format under consideration for the Java Platform Module System will need to take multi-release JAR metadata into account.
JEP 247 (Compile for Older Platform Versions), which supports compiling against older versions of the platform libraries, may aid build tools in the production of multi-release JAR files.
- is blocked by
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JDK-8150681 Update JAR specification for multi-release jar files
- Closed
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JDK-8165782 java.util.jar.JarFile.runtimeVersion() spec needs clarification
- Closed
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JDK-8166735 JarFile#getVersion spec clarification for unversioned jars
- Closed
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JDK-8146486 Modular JARs as multi-release JARs
- Resolved
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JDK-8066272 pack200 must support Multi-Release Jars
- Closed
- relates to
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JDK-8075629 JDK 8 Multiversion Jar Runtime Support
- Closed
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JDK-8144355 JDK 9 changes to ZipFileSystem to support multi-release jar files
- Closed
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JDK-8149757 Implement Multi-Release jar aware JavacFileManager for javac
- Closed
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JDK-8166735 JarFile#getVersion spec clarification for unversioned jars
- Closed
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JDK-8132734 JDK 9 runtime changes to java.util.jar to support multi-release jar files
- Closed
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JDK-8073962 PIT testing: Multiversion jar tool works incorrectly with anonymous classes
- Closed
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JDK-8074285 Multiversion JAR feature: jarsigner do not list version-specific files while signing
- Closed
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JDK-8071566 Improve testing for multi-version JAR file maker tool
- Resolved
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JDK-8075884 Test task: Create tests to check runtime usage with Multi-Release jar files
- Resolved
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JDK-8075887 Test task: Create tests to check Nashorn jjs launcher works with MV jar files
- Resolved
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JDK-8075889 Test task: Create tests to check java runtime works with MV jar files
- Resolved
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JDK-8075616 Test task: Create tests to check schemagen work with multi-version jar
- Resolved
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JDK-8075617 Test task: Create tests to check wsgen work with multi-version jar
- Resolved