Sorry for reposting the same topic, my other mail client produces emails that the list doesn't like.
I have read several blogs and gone over the javadoc for Java 11 about automatic modules but I running into an issue with the behavior of exports from an automatic module. The ModuleDescriptor javadoc states the following: The module descriptor for an automatic module does not declare any dependences (except for the mandatory dependency on java.base), and does not declare any exported or open packages. Automatic module receive special treatment during resolution so that they read all other modules in the configuration. When an automatic module is instantiated in the Java virtual machine then it reads every unnamed module and is treated as if all packages are exported and open. When launching Java I can use a module path that includes automatic modules along with normal modules that require the automatic module names. Everything works as expected, my normal modules are able to access the packages included in the automatic module as if they are exported. Now I try to use the ModuleLayer API to create a new layer which includes the same set of automatic and normal modules. If I use one of the defineModulesWithOneLoader method it all works just like it would when loading them from the module path. But if I instead use one of the defineModulesWithManyLoaders my normal modules that requires one of the automatic modules can no longer load classes from the automatic module. Looking at the method implementation for jdk.internal.loader.Loader.initRemotePackageMap(Configuration, List<ModuleLayer>) it seems that a loader will only delegate to other loaders that contain module descriptors with real exports(). But the automatic module reports an empty Set for exports. When determining what loaders to delegate to should the code take into account that automatic modules should be treated as if they export all packages they contain? Thereby granting the normal module loader access to delegate to the loader for the automatic module when trying to load packages contained in the automatic loader? Tom Watson
