Summary

IllegalAccessError will not be thrown when resolving a default method named registerNatives() method. Previously IAE was thrown because private native Object::registerNatives method was selected in method resolution.

Problem

Consider this Java program:

public class RegisterNatives {
    interface I {
        default public void registerNatives() { 
            System.out.println("I");
        }
    }
    static class A implements I { }
    public static void main(String... args) {
      A varA = new A();
      varA.registerNatives();
    }
}

Previously, this would throw an IllegalAccessError due the resolution logic giving priority to a private registerNatives method declared in Object rather than the default method in interface I:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.IllegalAccessError: class RegisterNatives tried to access private method 'void java.lang.Object.registerNatives()'
 (RegisterNatives is in unnamed module of loader 'app'; java.lang.Object is in module java.base of loader 'bootstrap')
        at RegisterNatives.main(RegisterNatives.java:6)

When the private Object::registerNatives method is removed, the method resolution A::registerNatives will resolve successfully to the default method I::registerNatives.

Solution

The behavioral change does not have any compatibility risk since the previous behavior results in an error.

Specification

No spec change.