Currently there is no way to produce smaller, application specific images from a given JDK unless the packaged modules (directory 'jmods') are present:

$ ./jdk-22/bin/jlink --add-modules jdk.jlink,java.base --output jdk22-jlink-min
$ ./jdk22-jlink-min/bin/jlink --add-modules java.base --output java-base-runtime
Error: --module-path is not specified and this runtime image does not contain jmods directory.
Usage: jlink <options> --module-path <modulepath> --add-modules <module>[,<module>...]
Use --help for a list of possible options


Use cases in the container world include providing a JDK in layer A and adding the application in layer B. It would be nice to support layer C: Application + only needed modules for that application *without* packaged modules present in layer A. Allowing the jlink feature on a JDK without packaged modules has size advantages as compared to the packaged modules workflow. For example for JDK 22+4 we see this on Linux:

$ du -sh ./jdk-22/
350M ./jdk-22/
$ du -sh ./jdk-22/jmods
89M ./jdk-22/jmods

One limitation of such a feature would be that it's not possible to use this mode in a cross-link setup (i.e. jlink a runtime on platform A which targets platform B given a JDK with packaged modules is available on host A for platform B).