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Re: Bug#786895: lintian: incompatible-java-bytecode-format warning needs update for Java 1.7



On 2015-05-26 16:52, Rene Engelhard wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> On Tue, May 26, 2015 at 03:58:49PM +0200, Markus Koschany wrote:
>> I think it is time to adjust the lintian warning about
>> "incompatible-java-bytecode-format". The current version of Lintian
>> still warns about Java 1.7 bytecode, however Java 1.7 is the default
>> in Jessie and it is reasonable to update the check now.
> 
> Right. And with that you make stuff use 1.7 bytecode which will break
> gcj-using archs. kfreebsd-* (which is not in jessie, admittedly) and
> maybe ips* in the future (openjdk-8 disabled mips* building, so if one
> transitions to that and removes 7...)
> 
> I think we should decide what our Java baseline is and how it affects
> release archs_before_ changing this.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Rene
> 
> 

I agree that the is a good idea to clarify this.  My personal
recommendation is to declare that:

 * gcj-jdk is not considered a suitable Java implementation for our end
   users nor for implementing the default-java.

Our previous approach of pretending that gcj-jdk is actually usable (for
end users) have let us to implement a misfeature:

 * It was a lot of busy to force everything to be compiled with major
   version 5.
 * It defeats several of the advantages of Java 7 and later to keep this
   version 5-6 enforcement.
 * Despite our best intend, things compiled for Java 5 does in fact not
   run ensure gcj can run it - see #575374.  To solve this, you need to
   setup a "bootstrap classpath" to ensure only Java 5 classes are
   available.
   - If you actually try to enforce this, let me know so I can make
     some popcorn in time to /watch the world burn!/ [1] XD.  Seriously
     though, I think you will find this to be a long cruel uphill battle
     with very little understanding/acceptance from Java upstreams.

Thanks,
~Niels

[1]
http://33.media.tumblr.com/8709facd551bf255501032bfa6bd9faf/tumblr_inline_mhesp3VSVC1qz4rgp.gif



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