Switch to Java 1.6 for Sakai 2.6.0
Description
Environment
Test Plan
depends on
is related to
Activity
Peter Knoop March 24, 2009 at 7:59 AM
See for discussion on switching to Java 1.6 post-2.6.0, as Java 1.5 is nearing end-of-life in October 2009 (http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index_jdk5.jsp).
Peter Knoop October 24, 2008 at 8:48 AMEdited
The switch to Java 1.6 will not occur for Sakai 2.6.0.
Matthew Jones September 3, 2008 at 12:04 PM
I've been running Java 6 JVM on an experimental machine for a month or two now with no adverse effects, and it's seen a lot of use. Still compiling everything with Java 5. I think I saw that error concerning the ClassDef you mentioned and fixed it by adding "-Dsun.lang.ClassLoader.allowArraySyntax=true" to my JAVA_OPTS, as I don't see it anymore. I guess whatever 'causes' that maybe should be fixed, or else this should be the official stance to use this option for J5 compatibility.
The big advantage of using J6 on a development machine (and why I tried it in the first place) is you can open the debugging jpda port and it won't crash tomcat when people 'accidently' connect to it with something other than a debugger. (like telnet, happened a few times a week with J5 running it) It's also 'supposed' to be 10-20% faster over J5, but running it with debugging kind of negates that bonus anyway.
Peter Knoop July 20, 2008 at 8:04 AM
Some observations from Carl Hall in a message to sakai-dev (Tue 5/6/2008 10:00AM Eastern US):
J6 should be backwards compatible with code compile with earlier versions of
the JDK. I've run Sakai (2-4-x and 2-5) on a Java 6 JVM with no discernible
problems. I saw 2 places in the log where an exception like
"NoClassDefFound: Ljava.lang.String" would show up but it never hindered any
of the functionality I tested. Please don't take this as a true test of J6
viability but more of a development perspective.
As for compiling w/ J6, the code base needs to implement a couple of new
methods from java.sql before that happens.
Stephen Marquard March 25, 2008 at 1:38 AM
From sakai-dev:
>>> Charles Hedrick <hedrick@rutgers.edu> 2008/03/23 09:27 PM >>>
FYI: I have inadvertenly been doing my testing under Java 6. Not
building: my script set the jvm to 5, but running. The only problem
I've run into is this: http://forums.java.net/jive/thread.jspa?threadID=15823
Presumably this should be fairly easy to fix.
Make necessary changes to enable Sakai 2.6 to build and run under Java 1.6.
If a change switches Sakai to a state where it is using Java 1.6-only funcitionality, making Java 1.6 a requirement, then please make sure to note that in this issue (as well as any related issues.)