Fedora Core, Java™ and You
Gary Benson
Software Engineer
What is Java?
The word “Java” is used to describe three things:
The Java programming language
The Java virtual machine
The Java platform
To support Java applications Fedora needs all three.
What Fedora uses: GCJ and ECJ
GCJ is the core of Fedora's Java support:
GCJ includes gcj, a compiler for the Java programming language.
GCJ also has a runtime and class library, collectively called libgcj.
The class library is separately known as GNU Classpath.
ECJ is the Eclipse Compiler for Java:
GCJ's compiler gcj is not used for “traditional” Java compilation.
More on that later...
Why libgcj?
There are many free Java Virtual machines:
Cacao, IKVM, JamVM, Jikes RVM, Kaffe, libgcj, Sable VM, ...
There are two main reasons Fedora uses libgcj:
Availability on many platforms.
Ability to use precompiled native code.
GNU Classpath
Free core class library for Java virtual machines and compilers.
The JPackage Project
A collection of some 1,600 Java software packages for Linux:
Distributionagnostic RPM packages.
Both runtimes/development kits and applications.
Segregation between free and nonfree packages.
All free packages built entirely from source.
Multiple runtimes/development kits may be installed.
Fedora includes:
JPackagecompatible runtime and development kit packages.
A whole bunch of applications.
JPackage JOnAS
Fedora's Java Compilers
gcj can operate in several modes:
Java source (.java) to Java bytecode (.class)
Java source (.java) to native machine code (.o)
Java bytecode (.class, .jar) to native machine code (.o)
In Fedora:
ECJ compiles Java source to bytecode.
gcj compiles that bytecode to native machine code.
But, how does the native code fit in?
The original ABI
At first, native Java libraries were much the same as C++ ones:
Standard parameter passing mechanisms used.
Static fields and methods resolved by the linker.
Instance fields looked up by offset.
Instance methods looked up in vtable.
Class names were transformed to locate libraries:
To find org.apache.tools.ant.Main:
●
check /usr/lib/lib-org-apache-tools-ant-Main.so
●
check /usr/lib/lib-org-apache-tools-ant.so
●
check /usr/lib/lib-org-apache-tools.so
●
...etc
Tomcat's class loaders
(system)
common
server shared
webapp 1 webapp 2 webapp 3
Binary Compatibility
Chapter 13 of “The Java Language Specification”:
Methods may be added
Fields may be added
Inheritance tree may change
The C++ linking model is not suitable:
Fixed offsets
Fixed object sizes
Fixed inheritance tree
Supporting class loaders
At build time, for each class:
Generate MD5 digest of bytes.
Store MD5 shared library mapping in database.
Whenever ClassLoader.defineClass(byte[]) is called:
Generate MD5 digest of bytes.
●
If found in database, load corresponding shared library.
●
If not in database, interpret.
This precisely matches the model used by other JVMs.
Future work: API coverage
Future work: performance
libgcj has lost much of its speed advantage:
JITs have improved.
The new ABI hurts performance.
It also uses too much memory.
Now we can run real applications we can profile:
Many useful optimizations have already identified.
Improving IO libraries should pay dividends.
Some methods could be rewritten in C++.
Lack of JIT not expected to be a particular problem.
Other future work
Security audit:
Sandbox
Security manager
gcjwebplugin
Support for 1.5:
Virtual machine
Platform
Compiler
Summary
Fedora includes a free Java implementation that can run huge applications.
If you'd like to use it but are having problems:
fedoradeveljava[email protected]
#fedorajava on irc.freenode.net
