Summary

Change Lookup::defineClass to throw IllegalArgumentException if the given bytes has ACC_MODULE flag set in the access_flags item consistent with Lookup::defineHiddenClass.

Problem

Lookup::defineClass does not specify what exception to throw if the given bytes has ACC_MODULE flag set in the access_flags item. The current implementation throws NoClassDefFoundError (which is the behavior specified in JVMS 5.3.5).

This CSR proposes Lookup::defineClass to specify and throw IllegalArgumentException if the bytes has ACC_MODULE flag set in its access_flags item to be consistent with Lookup::defineHiddenClass.

Solution

Specify Lookup::defineClass to throw IllegalArgumentException if the given bytes has ACC_MODULE flag set in the access_flags item

Specification

Spec change in the Lookup::defineClass method:

-         * @throws IllegalArgumentException the bytes are for a class in a different package
-         * to the lookup class
+         * @throws IllegalArgumentException if {@code bytes} is not a class or interface
+         * ({@code ACC_MODULE} flag is set in the value of the {@code access_flags} item) or
+         * {@bytes} denotes a class in a different package than the lookup class