Re: [PATCH, libjava/classpath]: Fix overriding recipe for target 'gjdoc' build warning

[Andrew Hughes <gnu.andrew@redhat.com>]

----- Original Message -----
> snip...
> > 
> > Having classpath (with binary files!) In the GCC SVN (or future git)
> > repository is a significant burden, not to mention the size of the
> > distributed source tarball.
> > 
> > If we can get rid of that that would be a great step in reducing the
> > burden.
> > 
> > Iff we can even without classpath build enough of java to be useful (do you
> > really need gcj or only gij for bootstrapping openjdk? After all ecj is
> > just
> > a drop-in to gcc as well).
> 
> All the Java compilers are written in Java (ecj & javac). So to run them, you
> need a JVM and its class library.
> 
> It's those binary files which allow gcj to bootstrap the stack. If OpenJDK
> had a minimal binary class library, it would be able to bootstrap itself.
> 
> But, as things stand, you need enough of the JDK to run a Java compiler
> and build the OpenJDK class libraries. GCJ currently fulfils that need
> where there isn't already an OpenJDK installation available.
> --

Actually, this makes me think...

IcedTea already depends on CACAO and JamVM for alternate builds of
OpenJDK. We could instead include the bytecode binaries for GNU Classpath
in IcedTea, bootstrap JamVM and use that to bootstrap OpenJDK. That
would remove our dependency on gcj and make IcedTea largely self-sufficient.
It would also mean we could drop a bunch of conditional code which depends
on what the system bootstrap JDK is, because it would always be the in-tree
solution.

We'd still need more than six months to make this transition though,
as such a change really needs time for testing.
-- 
Andrew :)

Senior Free Java Software Engineer
Red Hat, Inc. (http://www.redhat.com)

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