Since JEP 483 (JDK-8315737), VM options such as -XX:AOTCache are implemented as aliases of "classical" CDS options such as -XX:SharedArchiveFile.

Example:
https://github.com/openjdk/jdk/blob/b01026abaab0b65f9ec0920d66a8ff1fa868d351/src/hotspot/share/cds/cdsConfig.cpp#L414-L417

In anticipation of the JEP "Ahead-of-time Command Line Ergonomics" (JDK-8350022), we should refactor the code that deals with the AOT options. Specifically, as we expect the JVM to be able to load from an "input AOT cache" and write to an "output AOT cache", we should clearly identify the input and output caches in separate APIs:

    const char* CDSConfig::input_static_archive_path();
    const char* CDSConfig::input_dynamic_archive_path();
    const char* CDSConfig::output_archive_path();

(Currently, the above information is obtained from global variables such as SharedArchiveFile, ArchiveClassesAtExit, and AOTCache, so the logic is difficult to understand).