$ jlink --add-modules jdk.compiler --output comp_only
$ cd comp_only/bin

$ cat Main.java
class Main {
   public static void main(String[] args) {
     System.out.println("hello world");
   }
}

./java --enable-preview --source 18 Main.java
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: error: release version 18 not supported
at jdk.compiler/com.sun.tools.javac.main.Arguments.reportDiag(Arguments.java:889)
at jdk.compiler/com.sun.tools.javac.main.Arguments.handleReleaseOptions(Arguments.java:311)
at jdk.compiler/com.sun.tools.javac.main.Arguments.processArgs(Arguments.java:350)
at jdk.compiler/com.sun.tools.javac.main.Arguments.init(Arguments.java:246)
at jdk.compiler/com.sun.tools.javac.api.JavacTool.getTask(JavacTool.java:191)
at jdk.compiler/com.sun.tools.javac.api.JavacTool.getTask(JavacTool.java:119)
at jdk.compiler/com.sun.tools.javac.launcher.Main.compile(Main.java:383)
at jdk.compiler/com.sun.tools.javac.launcher.Main.run(Main.java:189)
at jdk.compiler/com.sun.tools.javac.launcher.Main.main(Main.java:132)


But separate compilation and run works with --enable-preview option.

$ ./javac --enable-preview --source=18 Main.java
$ ./java --enable-preview Main
hello world