As part of the Compact Profiles [1] solution we updated the JAR File
specification to define a new attribute named "Profile" to allow both
main application and library JAR files specify the minimum subset
Profile of Java SE that the code in the JAR file requires.
The Profile attribute has been in for more than 6 months now and on
reflection it may not be the right thing to do. For starters there has
been push-back from folks that have license or other reasons that
prevent them from updating the manifest of main application JAR files.
Another issue is that the value of the attribute is the minimum subset
Profile so there isn't a way to specify that the code requires the full
Java SE platform. Another concern is that it might conflict with future
direction where we have a way to require standard Java SE or JDK
modules. So overall I think the best thing is to remove this attribute,
even though it means the solution doesn't no longer has a way to catch
mis-matches between the compile time and runtime environments.
The webrev with the changes to remove this attribute are here:
http://cr.openjdk.java.net/~alanb/8022921/webrev/
It should be easy to remove because it's code deletion. I plan to
update the JEP so that it reflects the updated solution.
Thanks,
Alan.
[1] http://openjdk.java.net/jeps/161
