Java™ SE Development Kit 8, Update 20 (JDK 8u20)

The full version string for this update release is 1.8.0_20-b26 (where "b" means "build"). The version number is 8u20.

Highlights

This update release contains several enhancements and changes including the following:

IANA Data 2014c

JDK 8u20 contains IANA time zone data version 2014c. For more information, refer to Timezone Data Versions in the JRE Software.

Security Baselines

The security baselines for the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) at the time of the release of JDK 8u20 are specified in the following table:

For more information about security baselines, see Deploying Java Applets With Family JRE Versions in Java Plug-in for Internet Explorer.

JRE Expiration Date

The JRE expires whenever a new release with security vulnerability fixes becomes available. Critical patch updates, which contain security vulnerability fixes, are announced one year in advance on Critical Patch Updates, Security Alerts and Third Party Bulletin. This JRE (version 8u20) will expire with the release of the next critical patch update scheduled for October 14, 2014.

For systems unable to reach the Oracle Servers, a secondary mechanism expires this JRE (version 8u20) on November 14, 2014. After either condition is met (new release becoming available or expiration date reached), the JRE will provide additional warnings and reminders to users to update to the newer version. For more information, see JRE Expiration Date.

Java Mission Control

This JDK release includes Java Mission Control (JMC) version 5.4. For more information, see JMC 5.4 Release Notes.

Advanced Management Console (AMC) 1.0

Advanced Management Console (AMC) 1.0 is a commercial product available for Java users who license Java SE Advanced or Java SE Suite. AMC is downloaded separately from the JDK and is available to customers from My Oracle Support (MOS) or can be downloaded from OTN for trial purposes.

A primary benefit of Advanced Management Console is the ability to learn which applications are being run in the enterprise as well as the JREs that are being used. Additional information, such as the location of the application, vendor, permission level, number of JAR files and extensions, and number of times the application has been run is also provided. Information from Java Usage Tracker is collected by the AMC Collector, stored in the AMC database and displayed in the AMC UI.

Deployment rules can be created directly from this information and packaged into rule sets. The guided rule creation and packaging support greatly simplifies developing Deployment Rule Sets. The AMC UI can also be used to determine which rules and rule sets an application matches, helping system administrators understand the impact of installing a particular rule set prior to physically testing it in user environments.

For a summary of this feature, see Advanced Management Console documentation.

New Features and Changes

Changes to default methods affect the result of Class.getMethod and Class.getMethods

core-libs/java.lang:reflect

The javadoc for the Class.getMethod and Class.getMethods refer to the definition of inheritance in the Java Language Specification. Java SE 8 changed these rules in order to support default methods and reduce the number of redundant methods inherited from superinterfaces (see JLS 8, 8.4.8).

Class.getMethod and Class.getMethods were not updated with the 8 release to match the new inheritance definition (both may return non-inherited superinterface methods). Typically, the distinction is of no consequence; and for compatibility, it is preferred that the identity and number of returned methods match Java SE 7 as closely as possible. However, when the overriding method is a default method, it is important to filter out other overridden methods. As of 8u20, the implementation has been changed to perform this filtering step when the overrider is a default method.

See JDK-8029674.

sun.security.krb5.KdcComm interprets kdc_timeout as msec instead of sec

security-libs/org.ietf.jgss:krb5

An interoperability issue is found between Java and the native Kerberos implementation on BSD (including macOS) on the kdc_timeout setting in krb5.conf, where Java interpreted it as milliseconds and BSD as seconds when no unit is specified. This code change adds support for the "s" (second) unit. Therefore if the timeout is 5 seconds, Java accepts both "5000" and "5s". Customers concerned about interoperability between Java and BSD should use "5s".

See JDK-8036779.

New flags added to Java Management API

The flags MinHeapFreeRatio and MaxHeapFreeRatio have been made manageable. This means they can be changed at runtime using the management API in Java. Support for these flags have also been added to the ParallelGC as part of the adaptive size policy.

Java Installer Changes

A new Microsoft Windows Installer (MSI) Enterprise JRE Installer which enables user to install the JRE across the enterprise, is available. See Downloading the Installer section in JRE Installation for Microsoft Windows for more information. The MSI Enterprise JRE Installer is only available as part of Java SE Advanced or Java SE Suite. For information about these commercial products, see Java SE Advanced and Java SE Suite.

The following new configuration parameters are added to support commercial features, for use by Java SE Advanced or Java SE Suite licensees only.

USAGETRACKER_CFG=

DEPLOYMENT_RULE_SET=

See Installing With a Configuration File for more information about these and other installer parameters.

The Java Uninstall Tool is integrated with the installer to provide an option to remove older versions of Java from the system. The change is applicable to 32 bit and 64 bit Windows platforms. See Uninstalling the JRE.

JRE Installation Directory

Starting with JDK 8u20 release, the JRE will be installed in a version specific directory. For example:

C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.8.0_20

The version specific directory naming is intentional and it does not indicate that the JRE install is static.

As with the earlier releases, static JRE install is performed only if STATIC=1 option is passed (via command line or config file) by the user.

Existing Java applications that depend on the physical location of the JRE should be updated to reflect the new installation directory format.

Java Control Panel Changes

The Update tab in the Java Control Panel now enables the users to automatically update 64-bit JREs (in addition to 32-bit versions) that are installed on their system.

The Medium security level has been removed. Now only High and Very High levels are available.

Applets that do not conform with the latest security practices can still be authorized to run by including the sites that host them to the Exception Site List.

The exception site list provides users with the option of allowing the same applets that would have been allowed by selecting the Medium option but on a site-by-site basis therefore minimizing the risk of the using more permissive settings.

Java Compiler updated

The javac compiler has been updated to implement definite assignment analysis for blank final field access using "this". See JDK 8 Compatibility Guide for more details.

Change in minimum required Java Version for Java Plugin and Java Webstart

The minimum version of Java required for Java Plugin and Java Webstart is now Java 5. Applets that do not run in Java 5 or later must be ported to a later version of Java to continue to function. Applets written for earlier versions but able to run in at least Java 5 will continue to work.

Change in UsageTracker output formatting

UsageTracker output formatting has been changed to use quoting, to avoid confusion in the log. This may require changes to the way such information is read. The feature can be configured to behave as in previous versions, although the new format is recommended.

See Java Usage Tracker documentation.

Changes to Java Packaging Tools

• javafxpackager has been renamed to javapackager
• The "-B" option has been added to the javapackager deploy command to enable you to pass arguments to the bundlers that are used to create self-contained applications. See javapackager (Windows)/(Unix) documentation for information
• The <fx:bundleArgument> helper parameter argument has been added to JavaFX Ant Task Reference. It enables you to specify an argument (in the <fx:deploy> element) for the bundler that is used to create self-contained applications.

Change in javax.smartcardio.Card.disconnect(boolean reset) method behavior

Prior to the JDK 8u20 and JDK 7u72 releases, the javax.smartcardio.Card.disconnect(boolean reset) method had inverted logic for the 'reset' boolean value passed to it. The card was reset upon a disconnect if false was passed to it and vice versa. Starting with JDK 7u72 and JDK 8u20, the correct behavior as per API documentation has been implemented.

In order to provide backwards compatibility to users who rely on the old behavior, a new system property has been introduced. The following command-line option can be used to enforce the old broken behavior:

-Dsun.security.smartcardio.invertCardReset=true

This property is set by default for 7u72 and later JDK 7 update releases. By default, no behavioral change will be noticed in this area for JDK 7 update releases.

Also the following command-line option can be used to enforce the new correct behavior:

-Dsun.security.smartcardio.invertCardReset=false

This is default for 8u20 and later JDK 8 update releases. In future Java releases, the property will be ignored/disabled and default disconnect method behavior will be as specified by API.

Linux JRE RPM package Name Change

Starting with JDK 8u20, the RPM package name has been changed to include the Java product version.

For example, whereas the rpm name used to be returned simply as "jre", it is now returned as follows:

rpm -qp --qf "%{name}\n" ./jre-8u20-linux-x64.rpm
jre1.8.0_20 

JDK 8 Documentation Updates

New Garbage Collection Tuning Guide added to JDK 8 documentation

The Java HotSpot Virtual Machine Garbage Collection Tuning Guide has been added to the Java SE 8 Developer Guides. This guide describes the garbage collectors included with the Java HotSpot VM and helps you decide which garbage collector can best optimize the performance of your application, especially if it handles large amounts of data (multiple gigabytes), has many threads, and has high transaction rates.

New Deployment Guide

The Java SE Deployment Guide combines information for Java SE and JavaFX deployment into a single guide. This guide provides information about the Java packaging tools, creating self-contained applications, and deploying Java and JavaFX applications that are embedded in a web page or launched from a browser.

Updated Troubleshooting Guide

The Java SE Troubleshooting Guide combines and replaces the Desktop Technologies Troubleshooting Guide and the HotSpot Virtual Machine Troubleshooting Guide, to provide a single location for diagnosing and solving problems that may occur with Java applications created on the Java SE 8 Platform and on Java HotSpot VM. The document introduces the new and improved troubleshooting tools and techniques like Java Mission Control, Java Flight Recordings, and JCMD.

Installation Guide has been updated with changes to Installing With a Configuration File.

Options related to string deduplication have been added to the java command tool page. String deduplication reduces the memory footprint of String objects on the Java heap by taking advantage of the fact that many String objects are identical. Instead of each String object pointing to its own character array, identical String objects can point to and share the same character array. See the option -XX:+UseStringDeduplication for more information.

Bug Fixes

The following are some of the notable bug fixes in this release:

Area: tools/javac

Synopsis: Implement eager resolution of return types

The compiler specification, see JLS8 18.5.2, modified the treatment of nested generic method invocations for which the return type is an inference variable. The compiler has been adapted to implement the new logic. This is important to minimize incompatibility with the javac 7 inference algorithm. Three cases are considered:

• The return type needs to be captured
• The return type needs to have unchecked conversion
• The return type needs to be unboxed

The compiler update implies an eager resolution for generic method invocations, provided that the return type is an inference variable.

See 8030741.

Area: security-libs/org.ietf.jgss:krb5

Synopsis: sun.security.krb5.KdcComm interprets kdc_timeout as msec instead of sec

An interop issue is found between Java and native Kerberos implementation on BSD (including Apple OS X) regarding the kdc_timeout setting in krb5.conf, which Java interprets as milliseconds and BSD as seconds (when no unit is specified). This release adds support for the "s" (seconds) unit. Therefore if the timeout is 5 seconds, Java accepts both "5000" and "5s". Customers concerned about the interop between Java and BSD should use the later format.

See 8044399.

Area: other-libs/corba

Synopsis: org.omg.CORBA.ORBSingletonClass loading no longer uses context class loader

The system property org.omg.CORBA.ORBSingletonClass is used to configure the system-wide/singleton ORB. The handling of this system property has changed in 7u55 release to require that the system wide/singleton ORB be visible to the system class loader.

In this release the handling of this system property has been changed to match the behavior found in JDK versions prior to 7u55 release, i.e. the singleton ORB is once again located using the thread context class loader of the first thread to call the no-argument ORB.init method. The change was made to support applications which have been designed to depend on this behavior. Note that this change is applicable to 8u20, 7u65, 6u85 and 5.0u75 releases. For JDK 9, the new behavior where the system wide/singleton ORB needs to be visible to the system class loader, will continue.

See 8042789.

Area: core-libs/java.util.collections

Synopsis: Collection.sort defers now defers to List.sort

Previously Collection.sort copied the elements of the list to sort into an array, sorted that array, then updated list, in place, with those elements in the array, and the default method List.sort deferred to Collection.sort. This was a non-optimal arrangement.

From 8u20 release onwards Collection.sort defers to List.sort. This means, for example, existing code that calls Collection.sort with an instance of ArrayList will now use the optimal sort implemented by ArrayList.

See 8032636.

Area: core-libs/java.net

Synopsis: Digest authentication interop issue

With older versions of Apache Tomcat, certain protocol parameters are expected to be surrounded by double quotes(""). This was the behavior in JDK 7, but was corrected in JDK 8 to be compatible with RFC2617. This caused digest authentication interoperability issues.

Setting the networking property http.auth.digest.quoteParameters to true restores the JDK 7 behavior for compatibility with the older versions of Tomcat.

See 8034170(not public).

Area: tools/javac

Synopsis: javac crashes when mixing lambdas and inner classes

Previously the following sample code was making the compiler fail with a NPE:

class LambdaExpressionWithNonExistentIdCrashesJavacTest {
    void foo() {
        bar(()-> {
            new NonExistentClass(){
                public void any() {}
            };
        });

    }

    void bar(Runnable r) {}
}

where the NonExistentClass was an existing but inaccessible class. Starting with JDK 8u20, javac produces an error message indicating correctly that symbol "NonExistentClass" can't be found.

See 8030816.

Area: tools/javac

Synopsis: ElementType.TYPE_USE is introduced in JDK 8 and should be considered a logical superset of ElementType.TYPE and ElementType.ANNOTATION_TYPE. However, the javac command does not currently recognize ElementType.TYPE_USE as a superset.

javac has been corrected to recognize ElementType.TYPE_USE appropriately.

See 8029017.

Area: tools/javac

Synopsis: javac generates incorrect exception table for multi-catch statements inside a lambda

Handling of try-catch with multiple catches inside a lambda has been corrected.

See 8036942.

Area: core-libs/java.lang.reflect

Synopsis: Default methods affect the result of Class.getMethod and Class.getMethods

Class.getMethod and Class.getMethods were not updated with the 8 release to match the new inheritance definition (both may return non-inherited superinterface methods). Starting with JDK 8u20, the implementation has been changed to match defintion. See JDK 8 Compatibility Guide for more details.

See 8046505.

Bug Fix List

Known Issues

JDK

Area: install

Synopsis: 64 bit JRE Offline Installer is uncompressed

The 64 bit JRE offline installer for Windows was released as an uncompressed binary in 8u20. In its uncompressed state, the binary is 91.68MB in size.

Only the Windows offline 64 bit JRE bundle is impacted. This does not apply to any other JRE/JDK Windows installers (e.g. 32 bit offline, 32 bit online, or any auto-update bundle, 32 bit or 64 bit).

JavaFX

Area: media

Synopsis: [Linux] JavaFX Media does not run on Ubuntu 14.04

The JavaFX Media component in 8u20 requires the following packages which are not shipped with Ubuntu 14.04:

• libavcodec53
• libavformat53
• libavutil51

Ubuntu 14.04 ships with newer, incompatible versions of these packages.

Workaround: install the specific versions of the required packages.

Area: client-libs

Synopsis: JRE 8u20 crashes while using Japanese IM on Windows

The VM crashes while using Swing controls when some Japanese or Chinese characters are input on Windows platform. There is no workaround.

See 8058858 (not public).