Let’s reduce the scope of this discussion to @dev only. I agree on the LTS point: Java 11 is getting old now and is only supported commercially [1]. Because of that, I’m not fully convinced that moving the minimum to 9 is really necessary either. The idea I mentioned in another thread [2] is to keep aligning Surefire with the model we already use for the rest of the codebase (plugins, shared components, etc.): - 3.x branch, versioned as 3.x, Core API 3.x (i.e. Java 8 support) - master branch, versioned as 4.x, Core API 4.x (i.e. Java 17 support)
This is a pattern we’ve consistently adopted across all plugins. I don’t really see why we should change it here. Personally, I’d prefer that we focus our efforts on 4.x (core and all plugins), letting Java 17 naturally become the de facto standard for all plugins/shared etc... Regarding the proposed fix in https://github.com/apache/maven-surefire/pull/3252 It deprecates the old pidchecker (which we can’t realistically remove in 3.x anyway, so it can stay around a bit longer in 3.x.x branches while offering an alternative), and it also makes the Surefire plugin work on Windows without requiring the binary (e.g. on windows-latest in GitHub Actions). With this fix: The deprecated part can be fully removed in 4.x (which could start quite soon—see steps in [2]). The only remaining unsupported case would be Windows without the binary on Java 8 (some recent or server Windows version, sorry, I’m not a Windows user, so I can’t be more precise). This should affect a fairly limited number of users, and there are workarounds available: - Use an older Windows runner (e.g. windows-2022 on GHA). If they’re already on Java 8, using an older OS is probably acceptable 🙂 - Use Java 9+ - Install the missing binary (if that’s even possible, again not a Windows user so I have no much idea) Overall, I think we can keep this simple. The simplest path forward, in my view, would be: Release 3.5.5 as described in the proposal from [2] with this fix to help many users immediately. Then move ahead with the rest of the proposal. Regards, Olivier [1] Oracle JDK dates https://endoflife.date/oracle-jdk [2] https://lists.apache.org/thread/phy3g1dzvh0lkj7c3boxwz345180m8vy On Sat, 7 Feb 2026 at 11:26, Gary Gregory <[email protected]> wrote: > > FWIW, it would make more sense to switch to an LTS version, the > closest being 11. > > Gary > > On Fri, Feb 6, 2026 at 7:22 PM Tibor Digaňa <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > Hi all, > > > > I would like to have your opinion regarding this issue reported on GitHub: > > "Surefire and Failsafe stop working on latest versions of Windows due to > > missing wmic" > > Please see the link here > > https://github.com/apache/maven-surefire/issues/3176 > > > > I am the author who developed the PPID Process Checker. When I worked on it > > together with Michael Osipov, we reached a consensus. It was a very nice > > personal collaboration, and now I would be glad to have this guy back in > > the active Maven Team again :-) > > That time we used Java 7 or Java 8, or even both, however Java 9 was > > available in the world. We could not use the Java 9 however it could really > > help us. Therefore we decided to call the system library "wmic" on Windows, > > and "ps" on *Nix world, and not Java 9. > > > > Due to the Microsoft Windows removed "wmic", I am open to move complete > > Surefire project under Java 9. > > > > I remember how problematic life it was when we had to support both Java 7 > > and Java 8 at the same time. I do not want to support two Java versions > > again. > > It would be easier for us to get a confidence from the Maven community and > > switch to Java 9 directly. > > I hope we would get an exception in the list of Maven plugins. > > > > BTW, One more remark. There are strengths to destroy this project. Let's > > ignore these strengths. We can prevent from this happening if we are > > positive and we are friendly working together. > > > > > > Cheers > > Tibor17 > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] > For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected] > --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
