Hi - I only wanted to mention JDK-8264593 as it's part of the history, and I think we should be able to have code in the JVM that is not called. (because it might be called by some other route). But I think that change was long before other issues were seen. At the time I thought the default visibility on Windows was a problem. (I don't think we were using /OPT:REF and don't see it today with a quick search.)
I see also David's comment that it was the "debug" symbol specifically that clashed in a test. If there's no reason to change/prefix all the debug-time utils that that's great. ________________________________ From: Baesken, Matthias <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, March 9, 2026 11:12 AM To: Kevin Walls <[email protected]>; Erik Joelsson <[email protected]>; [email protected] <[email protected]> Subject: RE: [External] : RE: Exporting debug helpers and 8375311: Some builds are missing debug helpers and exporting debug-helpers > Hi Matthias - > > I did https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8264593 which "promoted" the debug > utils into product builds, and made them available on Windows. So I'm in > favour of them existing, and being available! > >Yes maybe they need better names if the short debug utils have clashed with >something else in the past, maybe it was a clash with some native test. >Maybe JVM_dbg_pp, JVM_dbg_blob, etc..? (We already have dbg_is_safe). I don't >see it spelled out exactly what the clash was. > Hi Kevin, your JBS issue JDK-8264593 states : “For Windows, JNIEXPORT is also needed to make the symbols visible.” . Is it really about visibility on Windows , or is the more aggressive /OPT:REF or other linker options on Windows eliminating those symbols without being exported (that saves them from elimination) ? (on Linux we had such issues too with LTGC or LTO linker options, that’s why I exported them on UNIX too) The very short names of the debug – helpers like help, flush , pp, nm from the debug helpers are probably also problematic on Windows, but seems no one ever complained ? Best regards, Matthias
