System.out can be null, because System.setOut(null) is legal. Regards, Jeroen
> From: David Holmes [mailto:david.hol...@oracle.com] > Sent: Thursday, December 19, 2013 11:14 > To: Alan Bateman > Cc: Jeroen Frijters; core-libs-dev@openjdk.java.net > Subject: Re: Request: Remove System.out check from Class.checkInitted() > > On 4/12/2013 7:00 PM, Alan Bateman wrote: > > On 04/12/2013 08:24, Jeroen Frijters wrote: > >> Hi, > >> > >> I'd like to propose to change Class.checkInitted() to check if the VM > >> initialization has completed by using sun.misc.VM.isBooted() instead > >> of System.out != null. > > This should be changed (I can only guess that whoever added this > > wasn't aware of VM.isBooted). > > Not necessarily. The question is, are there any code paths that lead to > checkInitted being called after setOut0(newPrintStream(fdOut, > props.getProperty("sun.stdout.encoding"))) but before the call to > sun.misc.VM.booted(). If so these would fail under the proposed change. > > The initialization sequence is fragile and intimately tied to the > Hotspot VM - ie the VM initialization process initiates the core class > initialization. In a "normal" initialization System is initialized > before Class and Class must be initialized before checkInitted can be > called, so this doesn't trigger initialization of System. > > I also don't see how System.out being null can be valid post- > initialization state given the call to setOut0(newPrintStream(fdOut, > props.getProperty("sun.stdout.encoding"))) > > David > ----- > > > -Alan. > >
