In over 70 cases in the JDK, we obtain a static VarHandle for some variables and need to go through tedious static initialization blocks. It would be better to provide a utility method that captures any exceptions and wraps them into an Error.

Old:

    private static final VarHandle STATE;
    static {
        try {
            MethodHandles.Lookup l = MethodHandles.lookup();
            STATE = l.findVarHandle(Phaser.class, "state", long.class);
        } catch (ReflectiveOperationException e) {
            throw new ExceptionInInitializerError(e);
        }


New:

    private static final VarHandle STATE =
        XUtil.findVarHandleOrThrow(MethodHandles.lookup(), Phaser.class, "state", long.class);

Old:

    private static final VarHandle RESULT;
    private static final VarHandle STACK;
    private static final VarHandle NEXT;
    static {
        try {
            MethodHandles.Lookup l = MethodHandles.lookup();
            RESULT = l.findVarHandle(CompletableFuture.class, "result", Object.class);
            STACK = l.findVarHandle(CompletableFuture.class, "stack", Completion.class);
            NEXT = l.findVarHandle(Completion.class, "next", Completion.class);
        } catch (ReflectiveOperationException e) {
            throw new ExceptionInInitializerError(e);
        }
    }
New:

    private static final VarHandle RESULT;
    private static final VarHandle STACK;
    private static final VarHandle NEXT;
    static {
        MethodHandles.Lookup l = MethodHandles.lookup();
        RESULT = XUtil.findVarHandleOrThrow(l, CompletableFuture.class, "result", Object.class);
        STACK = XUtil.findVarHandleOrThrow(l, CompletableFuture.class, "stack", Completion.class);
        NEXT = XUtil.findVarHandleOrThrow(l, Completion.class, "next", Completion.class);
    }


The use of these handles is covered extensively by existing tests so I've marked this issue "noreg-other".