JDK 9 Release Notes

 Deprecate sun.misc.Unsafe.defineClass 

The method sun.misc.Unsafe.defineClass is deprecated for removal. Use the method java.lang.invoke.MethodHandles.Lookup.defineClass to define a class to the same class loader and in the same runtime package and protection domain of a given Lookup's lookup class.

 Deprecation of Boxed Primitive Constructors 

Classes Boolean, Byte, Short, Character, Integer, Long, Float, and Double are "box" classes that correspond to primitive types. The constructors of these classes have been deprecated.

Given a value of the corresponding primitive type, it is generally unnecessary to construct new instances of these box classes. The recommended alternatives to construction are autoboxing or the valueOf static factory methods. In most cases, autoboxing will work, so an expression whose type is a primitive can be used in locations where a box class is required. This is covered in the Java Language Specification, section 5.1.7, "Boxing Conversion." For example, given List<Integer> intList, the code to add an Integer might be as follows:

This can be replaced with:

Autoboxing should not be used in places where it might affect overload resolution. For example, there are two overloads of the List.remove method:

The code to remove the Integer value 347 might be as follows:

If this code is changed in an attempt to use autoboxing:

This will not remove the Integer value 347, but instead it will resolve to the other overloaded method, and it will attempt to remove the element at index 347.

Autoboxing cannot be used in such cases. Instead, code should be changed to use the valueOf static factory method:

Autoboxing is preferable from a readability standpoint, but a safer transformation is to replace calls to the box constructors with calls to the valueOf static factory method.

Using autoboxing or the valueOf method reduces memory footprint compared to the constructors, as the integral box types will generally cache and reuse instances corresponding to small values. The special case of Boolean has static fields for the two cached instances, namely Boolean.FALSE and Boolean.TRUE.

With the exception of Character, the box classes also have constructors that take a String argument. These parse and convert the string value and return a new instance of the box class. A valueOf overload taking a String is the equivalent static factory method for this constructor. Usually it's preferable to call one of the parse methods (Integer.parseInt, Double.parseDouble, etc.) which convert the string and return primitive values instead of boxed instances.

 Deprecate Object.finalize 

The java.lang.Object.finalize method has been deprecated. The finalization mechanism is inherently problematic and can lead to performance issues, deadlocks, and hangs. The java.lang.ref.Cleaner and java.lang.ref.PhantomReference provide more flexible and efficient ways to release resources when an object becomes unreachable. For further information, please see the java.lang.Object.finalize method specification.

 Ability to double-jar class files is deprecated 

The ability to double-jar (jarjar) a set of class files in Java deployment technologies has been deprecated. The following warning will be issued if a jarjar file is downloaded:

"WARNING: A jarjar file has been loaded. Jarjar files are deprecated and will be removed in a future Java release. This application may not function properly in the future. Jarjar file URL: {URL}"

 Java Packager '-makeall' argument deprecated 

The '-makeall' argument of the Java Packager's command line interface has been deprecated. Use of '-makeall' will result in a warning. In lieu of the '-makeall' command, independent commands should be issued to perform the compilation, createjar, and deploy steps.

 Deprecation of common DOM APIs 

The com.sun.java.browser.plugin2.DOM, and sun.plugin.dom.DOMObject APIs have been deprecated and will be removed in a future release of Java. Applications can use netscape.javascript.JSObject to manipulate the DOM.

 Java Deployment Technologies are deprecated and will be removed in a future release 

Java Applet and WebStart functionality, including the Applet API, The Java plug-in, the Java Applet Viewer, JNLP and Java Web Start including the javaws tool are all deprecated in JDK 9 and will be removed in a future release.

 AutoGCSelectPauseMillis has been deprecated 

The -XX:+AutoGCSelectPauseMillis option was deprecated in JDK 9, following the deprecation of the -XX:+UseAutoGCSelectPolicy option.

 JEP C175 Deprecate the Concurrent Mark Sweep (CMS) Garbage Collector in Oracle builds 

The CMS garbage collector was deprecated in JDK 9. For more information, see -XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC

 UseAutoGCSelectPolicy has been deprecated 

The -XX:+UseAutoGCSelectPolicy option was deprecated in JDK 9, along with the -XX:AutoGCSelectPauseMillis option.

 Deprecate the flag -XXExplicitGCInvokesConcurrentAndUnloadsClasses 

The flag -XX:ExplicitGCInvokesConcurrentAndUnloadsClasses has been deprecated and will be removed in a future release. A user can enable the same functionality by setting the two flags -XX:+ExplicitGCInvokesConcurrent and -XX:+ClassUnloadingWithConcurrentMark.

 Deprecate FlatProfiler 

The VM Option "-Xprof" is deprecated in JDK 9 and will be removed in a future release. The option provides some profiling data for code being executed to standard output. Better data can be gathered with other tools such as Java Flight Recorder and therefore "-Xprof" will no longer be available in a future release.

 Deprecate HostServices.getWebContext method with forRemoval=true 

The HostServices.getWebContext method is deprecated in JDK 9 and is marked as forRemoval=true indicating that it will be removed in a future version of the JDK. Applets are deprecated in JDK 9, and this method is only used when running an FX application as an Applet in a browser.

 VP6 video and FXM/FLV container are deprecated 

Support for VP6 video encoding format and FXM/FLV container are deprecated in JavaFX Media and it will be removed in a future release. Users encouraged to use H.264/AVC1 in MP4 container or HTTP Live Streaming instead.

 Deprecate pre-1.2 SecurityManager methods and fields with forRemoval=true 

The following pre-1.2 deprecated java.lang.SecurityManager methods and fields have been marked with forRemoval=true:

• inCheck field 
• getInCheck method
• classDepth method
• classLoaderDepth method
• currentClassLoader method
• currentLoadedClass method
• inClass method
• inClassLoader method

This field and these methods are subject to removal in a future version of Java SE and should no longer be used.

 Deprecate the java.security.acl API 

The java.security.acl API has been deprecated. The classes in this package should no longer be used. The java.security package contains suitable replacements. See Policy and related classes for details.

 Deprecate the com.sun.jarsigner package 

The com.sun.jarsigner package is now deprecated. This includes the ContentSigner class, the ContentSignerParameters interface, and the jarsigner command's "-altsigner" and "-altsignerpath" options.

 Deprecate security APIs that have been superseded 

The classes and interfaces in the java.security.acl and javax.security.cert packages have been superseded by replacements for a long time and are deprecated in JDK 9. Two methods javax.net.ssl.HandshakeCompletedEvent.getPeerCertificateChain() and javax.net.ssl.SSLSession.getPeerCertificateChain() are also deprecated since they return the javax.security.cert.X509Certificate type.

 Deprecate the javax.security.cert API 

The javax.security.cert API has been deprecated. The classes in this package should no longer be used. The java.security.cert package contains suitable replacements.

 Deprecate methods that reference javax.security.cert APIs 

The java.net.ssl.HandshakeCompletedEvent.getPeerCertificateChain and java.net.ssl.SSLSession.getPeerCertificateChain methods have been deprecated. New applications should use the getPeerCertificates method instead.

 Deprecate policytool 

The policytool security tool is deprecated in JDK 9. It will be removed in a future release.

 The old standard doclet is deprecated and will be removed in a future release 

The standard doclet is the doclet in the JDK that produces the default HTML-formatted API output. The version that was available in previous releases (com.sun.tools.doclets.standard.Standard) has been replaced by a new version (jdk.javadoc.doclet.Standard). The old version is now deprecated and is subject to removal in a future version of Java SE. For more details, see JEP 221. For more details on the new Doclet API, see the jdk.javadoc module.

 Options -d32 and -d64 are deprecated 

The java launcher's data model switches, -d32 and -d64, were used primarily on Solaris platforms. With the removal of 32-bit JDK/JRE on Solaris in JDK8, these options are now obsolete and will be removed in a future release, causing the launcher to fail with an invalid option.