Currently we build the Java frontend and libjava by default. At the GCC Summit we raised the question of whether should turn this off, thus only building it when java is explicitly selected at configure time with --enable-languages. Among the people at the summit, there was general support for this, and nobody was opposed to it. Here is a patch which implements that. I'm sending this to the mailing lists gcc@ and java@, as well as the relevant -patches@ lists, because it does deserve some broader discussion. This is not a proposal to remove the Java frontend nor is it leading up to that. It is a proposal to not build the frontend by default, putting Java in the same category as Ada and Objective C++. The main argument in favor of this proposal is twofold: 1) building libjava is a large component of gcc bootstrap time, and thus a large component in the amount of time it takes to test changes; 2) it is in practice very unusual for middle-end or back-end changes to cause problems with Java without also causing problems for C/C++, thus building and testing libjava does not in practice help ensure the stability of the compiler. A supporting argument is since Sun has released their Java tools under the GPL, community interest seems to have shifted toward the Sun tools; gcc's Java frontend is in maintenance mode, with little new development currently planned. This patch should not of course change whether or not distros choose to package the Java compiler; undoubtedly they would continue to do so, just as they package the Ada compiler today. Comments? Approvals? Ian gcc/java/ChangeLog: 2010-10-31 Ian Lance Taylor * config-lang.in (build_by_default): Set to no. gcc/ChangeLog: 2010-10-31 Ian Lance Taylor * doc/install.texi (Configuration): Note in two places that Java is not enabled by default.