Hi devs, A new major version of Java went out recently [0]: "OpenJDK 8" but we do not have a package for it (for the following reason) and some Archers are asking questions [1] or flagging our openjdk7 package as out of date: All Linux distros - including Arch - build OpenJDK using the IcedTea project [2]. Its goal is to cleanly build OpenJDK from Oracle, bring some more feature and it **was** also to re-implement closed source parts. I expected IcedTea to quickly release a version for OpenJDK8 but it seems this is not their first priority [3] (which I totally understand). Nowadays there is no closed source part anymore in OpenJDK, and the license is clearly "GPL with classpath exception" which is a standard in the Java world. I have been working on a package based on OpenJDK8 built from source but without IcedTea that I think would fit to our repos. I still have some work for it to be released but I would be in favor of pushing this "OpenJDK without IcedTea" to extra until IcedTea v3.0 stable is out and could be used to build/augment our package. Any thought/objection/remark about? [0] http://mail.openjdk.java.net/pipermail/announce/2014-March/000166.html [1] https://mailman.archlinux.org/pipermail/arch-general/2014-March/035700.html [2] http://icedtea.classpath.org [3] http://mail.openjdk.java.net/pipermail/distro-pkg-dev/2014-March/026727.html -- Guillaume ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Guillaume ALAUX <guillaume@archlinux.org> Date: 29 March 2014 01:02 Subject: Re: [arch-general] Java 8 To: General Discussion about Arch Linux <arch-general@archlinux.org> On 28 March 2014 18:30, Caleb Cushing <xenoterracide@gmail.com> wrote:
I'm just wondering what the plan is, if any, for getting java 8 packages into arch?
-- Caleb Cushing
Calendar: https://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=xenoterracide%40gmail.com&ctz=America/Chicago
Hello, There is no official Java 8 package in Arch Linux because the OpenJDK we provide uses the IcedTea [0] but unfortunately IcedTea has no stable version available **yet** for Java 8. More details about IcedTea roadmap here [1]. So the plan (for me at least) is to wait for IcedTea 3.0 that will support Java 8. Shipping a "vanilla" OpenJDK8 into extra (possibly from the binaries provided by Oracle) could be an option in the meantime. [0] http://icedtea.classpath.org/wiki/Main_Page [1] http://mail.openjdk.java.net/pipermail/distro-pkg-dev/2014-March/026727.html -- Guillaume