Official compiler and OS versions for building OracleJDK are being
evaluated. A wanted feature is to be able to separate compiler version
from OS version for the linux build, as is already the case for all
other platforms. This could be achieved by creating portable self
contained compiler bundles. Support for such devkits already exist in
the OpenJDK configure scripts, but since it's rarely used, there are a
couple of issues with it that needs to be fixed.
This patch fixes those issues and also provides makefiles that can be
used to replicate the devkits being evaluated. More information on how
to build them can be found in the comments in
common/makefiles/devkit/Makefile. I don't expect many will try this, but
the information should be open. These makefiles could be left for later.
The configure changes are what we need now.
A devkit like this solves several problems:
1. We need to build on an older OS to create binaries compatible with
both old and new versions of OSes, but we also want to use modern
compilers not likely to be available on an older OS.
2. For developers it's easier to get a working build environment on a
new system since most dependencies will be in the devkit. It also makes
it easier to use the official compiler and libraries for developer builds.
3. Support for cross compilation is included. The x86_64 package
supports the -m32 flag and will function correctly when the jdk
configure script is fed with --with-target-bits=32. The i686 package
contains a full x86_64 cross toolchain.
http://cr.openjdk.java.net/~erikj/8015377/webrev.root.01/
Binary bundles will be made available internally soon.
/Erik
