1 Working on OpenJDK using NetBeans 2 This note describes how to work on the OpenJDK from NetBeans. We've 3 provided several NetBeans projects as starting points. Below we'll 4 describe how to use them, as well as how to create your own. 5 6 Getting Started 7 In addition to the source bundle for Open JDK, you'll need to download 8 and install copies of the JDK and of NetBeans 6. And if you want to run 9 tests on the JDK (you do want to run tests, right?), you'll need to 10 install the jtreg test harness. 11 12 In this note, when pathnames are not fully specified, they should be 13 interpreted as being relative to the directory containing this README 14 and the NetBeans projects themselves. 15 16 The JDK build process is largely make-based, and is not 17 exceptionally tolerant of pathnames with spaces in them (such as 18 "Program Files". Please be sure to install everything in a 19 directories whose paths don't have any spaces! 20 21 Downloading the JDK 22 You've probably done this a million times. Download and install it 23 from http://java.sun.com/javase 24 25 Downloading the OpenJDK sources 26 Since you're reading this, d you've already downloaded the OpenJDK 27 source bundle. Later in this document we'll refer to the location 28 where you installed the Open JDK sources as *install-dir*. 29 30 Downloading a pre-built, JDK 7 31 This will be necessary to do builds of some of the projects. In 32 general, you want to download and install a pre-built JDK that 33 corresponds to the OpenJDK sources you download. Building the entire 34 OpenJDK depends on a few parts of the pre-built JDK. Get this from 35 http://download.java.net/jdk7/binaries 36 37 Note: For working on certain projects, like JMX and JConsole, you 38 may find convenient to use a pre-built version of JDK 7 (or 39 OpenJDK) rather than building your own. This will allow you 40 to build only that part of the OpenJDK sources which correspond 41 to that project. 42 43 NetBeans 6 44 Yep, NetBeans *6*. Nope, not FCS'd yet. We're on the edge here, 45 enjoy it! Get the latest working development build of NetBeans 6 46 from http://netbeans.org 47 48 jtreg 49 "jtreg" is the test harness for running OpenJDK's regression tests. 50 Get it from http://openjdk.java.net/jtreg 51 52 Ant 53 NetBeans comes with ant, but if you use a separately-installed copy 54 please make sure that it is at least version 1.7.0. 55 56 Configuring 57 Building OpenJDK is hard and complex. No, strike that. While it's not 58 exactly "easy", we've got it down to *relatively* small set of 59 properties you need to set. 60 61 The NetBeans projects provided here share a fair amount of common 62 structure. They share properties values where it makes sense. Each 63 project loads properties from these properties files, in this order 64 65 ${basedir}/nbproject/private/build.properties 66 $HOME/.openjdk/${ant.project.name}-build.properties 67 $HOME/.openjdk/build.properties 68 ${basedir}/build.properties 69 70 (${basedir} refers to the directory containing a particular NetBeans 71 project.) The first time a property defined determines value: it is 72 *not* overridden if it is read from properties files read later. The net 73 result is that by carefully choosing where to define a property, you can 74 have it for a specific project, all uses of a specific project (useful 75 if you work on multiple copies of the OpenJDK sources), all projects, or 76 only projects in a specific sandbox. 77 78 With that in mind, please set the following properties. Presuming you 79 want the same values for all your work, set them in 80 $HOME/.openjdk/build.properties. 81 82 * bootstrap.jdk 83 Set to the location where you installed JDK 7. 84 85 * jtreg.home 86 Set to the location where you installed jtreg. 87 88 * make.options 89 Some of the projects invoke "make", since they compile native code. 90 The make.options property is for passing information about what you 91 installed where to make. Change the paths to fit your particular 92 situation: 93 94 make.options=\ 95 ALT_BOOTDIR=/home/me/bin/jdk1.6.0 \ 96 ALT_BINARY_PLUGS_PATH=/home/me/bin/openjdk-binary-plugs \ 97 ALT_JDK_IMPORT_PATH=/home/me/bin/jdk1.7.0 \ 98 OPENJDK=true 99 100 The trailing '\' are important, so that make gets the above as a 101 single set of options. 102 103 You might want to add additional additional options: see the README 104 for the project you're using for more information. And see 105 *install-dir*/jdk/make/README-builds.html 106 to read much more about building the JDK. 107 108 Windows-specific configuration 109 First, please note that the entire JDK cannot currently be built on 110 Windows platforms. This will likely limit your ability to build 111 make-based projects. See 112 *install-dir*/jdk/make/README-builds.html 113 for full information on issues with building on the Windows platform. 114 115 That said, there are two ways to work with the Windows-required settings 116 for the Microsoft tools. Either: 117 118 * Set environment variables values in Windows 119 Doing so means accessing the System control panel in Windows, and 120 setting the environment variables there. 121 122 By doing so, you can launch NetBeans by double-clicking its icon, 123 and the environment variable values will be available. 124 125 * Set environment variable values in a shell 126 Doing so means adding the settings to an init file (e.g. .bashrc, 127 .cshrc, etc.) or a file that you source before running NetBeans. In 128 this case, you'll have to launch NetBeans from the command line in a 129 shell in which you've set the environment variables. 130 131 In either case, the end result should be that the settings are available 132 to the make-based build process when it runs from within NetBeans. 133 134 The make-based builds presumes that you're using cygwin, and expects to 135 find "make" in c:\cygwin\bin\make. If you've installed cygwin elsewhere, 136 set "make" in a properties file. 137 138 Configuring Project Properties 139 A note of caution is in order: These are NetBeans *freeform* projects. 140 If you use the NetBeans GUI to examine them, things are likely to not 141 look "right". Please don't edit them there, please instead use a text 142 editor. 143 144 Locale Requirements 145 To build the Open JDK sources, be certain that you are using the "C" 146 locale on Unix (R) platforms, or "English (United States)" locale on 147 Windows. 148 149 Platforms and architectures, oh my! 150 The Open JDK can be built for a variety of operating system platforms 151 and hardware architectures. The resulting builds are always placed in a 152 directory which contains the platform and architecture as part of the 153 pathname, as in *platform*-*arch*. For example, if you build the jdk 154 project on a Linux platform running on x86 hardware, the resulting build 155 will be in: 156 157 *install-dir*/jdk/build/linux-i586 158 159 We've provided support for some platforms and architectures in 160 common/architectures. Add another, if your needs require it. 161 162 Provided NetBeans projects 163 This section describes the NetBeans projects that help you work on 164 particular parts of the JDK. While they're largely similar in structure 165 and should work the way you expect NetBeans projects to work: edit, 166 build, test, etc. But there are some differences. They don't all support 167 the same targets (e.g., there's nothing to run in jarzip project). 168 169 Some projects are built by invoking make, since they involve compilation 170 of native code or other activities that cannot be done by javac. We call 171 these "make-based", and call all others "ant-based". 172 173 They all are configured by way of a build.properties file, which 174 specifies what subdirectories of the JDK sources they manipulate, what 175 directories contain their tests, whether they use make or ant, etc. 176 177 The very first time you open any one of these projects on set of Open 178 JDK sources, NetBeans will scan the entire set of sources, not just 179 those for the project you opened. This will take a few minutes, but will 180 ensure that Go To Type, Go To Source, and so on work as expected. Later, 181 when you open other projects on the same Open JDK sources, there will be 182 at most a slight delay. 183 184 There's a README accompanying each project. Most are text files, which 185 you can Open in NetBeans, some are HTML files, in which case unless you 186 enjoy reading raw HTML, you're better off choosing the *View* menu item 187 from the context menu, which will display the README in your web 188 browser. 189 190 Finally, note that these projects were all created by different people, 191 and are while some attempt has been made to make them look and behave 192 the same, they are maintained separately and will vary somewhat. 193 194 The projects currently provided are: 195 196 jdk (directory "jdk") 197 A convenient starting point for the other projects, and from which 198 you can build the entire OpenJDK. Please note that depending on your 199 hardware, this could take a *very* long time. The results of the 200 build are in *install-dir*/jdk/build/*platform*-*arch*. 201 202 world (directory "world") 203 This project builds both the Hotspot VM and all of JavaSE. Please 204 note that pretty much regardless of your hardware, this *will* take 205 a long time, and use *lots* of disk space (more than 3GB). The 206 results of the build are in 207 *install-dir*/build/*platform*-*arch* and 208 *install-dir*/build/*platform*-*arch*-fastdebug. 209 210 Consult the project's README file for details. 211 212 AWT & Java2d (directory "awt2d") 213 For working on AWT and Java2d. Supports running the Font2DTest demo. 214 215 This is a make-based project: In order to build this project, you 216 should build the jdk project first, since AWT and Java2d include 217 native code. 218 219 JConsole (directory "jconsole") 220 For working on JConsole. Creates ../dist/lib/jconsole.jar. Supports 221 running and debugging JConsole. 222 223 This ant-based project does *not* require that you build the jdk 224 project first, provided that you use a pre-built version of JDK 7. 225 226 Java (TM) Management Extensions (JMX(TM)) API (directory "jmx") 227 For working on JMX source code. Creates ../dist/lib/jmx.jar. 228 229 This ant-based project does *not* require that you build the jdk 230 project first, provided that you use a pre-built version of JDK 7. 231 232 Jar & Zip (directory "jarzip") 233 For working on jar & zip. It builds the zip library (including 234 native code), the jar library, and the jar tool. Creates an 235 executable jar program in ../build/*platform*-*arch*/bin/jar. 236 237 This is a make-based project: In order to build this project, you 238 should build the jdk project first, since AWT and Java2d include 239 native code. 240 241 Swing (directory "swing") 242 For working on Swing. Creates ../dist/lib/swing.jar. Supports 243 running and debugging the SampleTree demo. 244 245 This ant-based project does *not* require that you build the jdk 246 project first, provided that you use a pre-built version of JDK 7. 247 248 In addition, there are projects for building the compiler, javadoc, 249 and related tools, in the OpenJDK langtools component. These 250 projects are separate from those described here, and have their 251 own set of guidelines and conventions. For more details, see the 252 README files in make/netbeans in the OpenJDK langtools component. 253 254 Running Tests 255 We use the jtreg test harness, described more fully at 256 http://openjdk.java.net/jtreg 257 258 The OpenJDK tests are in the default Java package, are public classes, 259 and have a "static void main(String[] args)" with which they are 260 invoked. Some tests are actually shell scripts, which might compile 261 code, etc. jtreg is quite flexible. 262 263 To run tests for a project, use *Test Project* from NetBeans. From the 264 command line, you can invoke "ant jtreg" on any individual project's 265 build.xml file. 266 267 In either NetBeans of on the command line, jtreg prints summary output 268 about the pass/fail nature of each test. An HTML report of the entire 269 test run is 270 271 ../build/*platform*-*arch*/jtreg/*ant-project-name*/JTreport/report.html 272 273 In that same JTreport directory are also individual HTML files 274 summarizing the test environment, test passes and failures, etc. 275 276 More detail on any individual test is under 277 278 ../build/*platform*-*arch*/jtreg/*ant-project-name*/JTwork. 279 280 For example, details about the awt/Modal/SupportedTest/SupportedTest 281 test are under the JTwork directory at the same pathname as the test 282 itself in a ".jtr" file. For example: 283 284 ../build/*platform*-*arch*/jtreg/*ant-project-name*/JTwork/awt/Modal/SupportedTest/SupportedTest.jtr 285 286 Sometimes you will see that running jtreg has resulted in a failure. 287 This does not always mean that a test has an error in it. Jtreg 288 distinguishes between these two cases. There are a number of tests that 289 are "ignored", and not run, and these are reported as failures. 290 291 You can run a single test by right clicking on it and choosing *Run 292 File* from the context menu. Similarly, you can debug a single test by 293 choosing *Debug File*. 294 295 Debugging 296 Debugging is enabled by default in ant-based projects, as if 297 "-g:lines,vars,source" were given. You can alter these settings via 298 entries in one of the configuration properties files. For example: 299 300 javac.debug=false 301 javac.debuglevel=<debug level options> 302 303 To debug a project or test, use NetBeans in the normal way, with *Debug 304 Project* or *Debug File*. Note that not all projects provide a target 305 that can be debugged, but tests can be debugged. 306 307 Creating Javadoc 308 You can create Javadoc for any of the projects: just choose *Generate 309 Javadoc for Project* from the NetBeans menu. Your default browser will 310 open up, displaying the just-generated javadoc. 311 312 Javadoc gets generated into a separate subdirectory for each project. 313 For example, the Jar & Zip project's javadoc gets generated in 314 315 ../build/*platform*-*arch*/jtreg/*ant-project-name*/javadoc/jarzip 316 317 Cleaning projects 318 Each project can of course be cleaned. Make-based and ant-based projects 319 differ a little in what exactly gets cleaned. In both cases, all jtreg 320 results and javadoc are removed. 321 322 In ant-based projects, project-specific files as determined by the 323 project's build.properties file are removed from the classes and gensrc 324 directories that are under ../build/*platform*-*arch*. 325 326 In make-based projects, "make clean" is run in the same directories as 327 "make all" is run when building the project. 328 329 Please note that the jdk project is "special" with respect to 330 cleaning: in this case, the entire ../build directory is removed. 331 Similar for the world project. 332 333 Creating your own NetBeans project 334 The project's we've provided are hopefully a useful starting point, but 335 chances are that you want to work on something else. This section will 336 describe how to select an existing project, and then adapt it to your 337 needs. 338 339 Considerations 340 The first consideration is whether or not the code in which you're 341 interested needs anything beyond javac and copying of resources to 342 build. If so, then you'll need to create a make-based project. If not, 343 an ant-based project is possible. See the project descriptions above to 344 learn which are make-based, and which are ant-based. 345 346 The second consideration is to consider the files that you'll need. Each 347 project is defined by 3 files: 348 349 * build.xml 350 This is the ant build script. For a make-based project, they tend to 351 have a target for "make clean" and another for "make all", each of 352 which invokes "make-run" in the same set of directories. Take a look 353 at jarzip/build.xml for an example. 354 355 For an ant-based project, there might be nothing, with all the work 356 done via the declaration of properties in the build.properties file. 357 Take a look at jconsole/build.xml for an example, and notice how it 358 overrides the -pre-compile and -post-compile targets that are 359 defined in common/shared.xml (where they are defined to do nothing). 360 361 * build.properties 362 This file defines the directories (and possibly files) that are 363 included in and excluded from. Basically, a file is considered to be 364 in a project if it is mentioned in the includes list, or is 365 contained under a directory mentioned in that list, *unless* it is 366 explicitly excluded or is contained under a directory that is 367 excluded. Take a look awt2d/build.properties for an example. 368 369 * nbproject/project.xml 370 This file defines a project for NetBeans for a "freeform" project. 371 Each declares several entity references, which are used later in the 372 project. For an example, see javadoc/nbproject/project.xml, which is 373 an ant-based project. Compare that with 374 jarzip/nbproject/project.xml, which is make-based. Not much 375 difference! That's because while the jarzip project is make-based, 376 it does not have any platform-specifc native code. Contrast that 377 with awt2d/nbproject/project.xml, which does have native code; 378 notice that it uses platform-specific entity references. 379 380 In summary, we recommend exploring the given projects, and choosing one 381 that most closely suits our needs. 382 383 Example: A project for working on collections 384 Let's create a project to work with on the collections classes. There's no native 385 code here, so an ant-based project will do. Therefore, the jconsole 386 project is a reasonable project to use as a starting point. 387 388 Clone the existing project 389 Make a directory for the collections project next to the existing projects: 390 391 % mkdir -p collections/nbproject 392 393 Copy files from the jconsole project: 394 395 % cp jconsole/build.properties collections 396 % cp jconsole/build.xml collections 397 % cp jconsole/nbproject/project.xml collections/nbproject 398 399 Change the set of files included in the project 400 The collections sources are all under one directory, and we want to include 401 them all. The same is true of the tests. So edit 402 collections/build.properties so that it contains these lines: 403 404 includes=\ 405 java/util/ 406 excludes=\ 407 java/util/Calendar.java,\ 408 java/util/jar/,\ 409 java/util/logging/,\ 410 java/util/prefs/,\ 411 java/util/regex/,\ 412 java/util/spi/,\ 413 java/util/zip/,\ 414 **/*-XLocales.java.template 415 jtreg.tests=\ 416 java/util/**/*Collection/ \ 417 java/util/**/*Map/ \ 418 java/util/**/*Set/ \ 419 java/util/**/*List/ 420 421 Notice the trailing "/" in some of those pathnames: that tells NetBeans to 422 treat the path as a directory and include (or exclude) everything beneath 423 it in the hierarchy. Note also how we include java/util, but then exclude 424 several directories under that which are not related to collections. 425 426 The build.xml for collections is about as simple as can be. First, change the 427 name of the project: 428 429 <project name="collections" default="build" basedir="."> 430 431 Then remove the -pre-compile target from the build.xml. Change the 432 -post-compile target to create collections.jar without any manifest, and 433 to only contain the collections-related classes. The jar task now looks 434 like this: 435 436 <jar destfile="${dist.dir}/lib/collections.jar"> 437 <fileset dir="${classes.dir}"> 438 <include name="java/util/*.class"/> 439 <exclude name="java/util/Calendar*.class"/> 440 </fileset> 441 </jar> 442 443 Also, change the clean target to remove collections.jar instead of 444 jconsole.jar. 445 446 Now edit project.xml file. NetBeans uses an internal name and a 447 user-visible name, both of which should be changed: 448 449 <name>Collections</name> <!-- Customized --> 450 451 <property name="name">collections</property> <!-- Customized --> 452 453 Inside of <ide-actions>, you'll see actions defined for "run" and 454 "debug". The Open JDK sources don't include any interesting Collections 455 demos, but leave these here for now: Chances are you'll find or create 456 some collections app of your own, and want to run and or debug it. 457 458 Now, open the Collections project in NetBeans. You'll find that it operates 459 just like all the other projects. 460 461 If/when you want to have this project run a collections demo, change the run 462 target in collections/build.xml to invoke it in whatever manner is appropriate 463 for the app. From NetBeans, you should be able to run and debug the app, 464 including setting breakpoints in collections code. 465 466 Appendix 1: Customizations 467 There are several ways to customize NetBeans projects. These projects 468 share a common structure, based on common/shared.xml and 469 common/make.xml. Because of that sharing, some mechanisms described 470 below apply to most any project. 471 472 Several properties can be user-defined (and several should not be 473 user-defined!). There are different properties files read. Some default 474 targets can be overridden. 475 476 Property files 477 When projects are started, and when when ant runs (whether from NetBeans 478 or the command line), these properties files are loaded in the order 479 shown: 480 481 ${basedir}/nbproject/private/build.properties 482 $HOME/.openjdk/${ant.project.name}-build.properties 483 $HOME/.openjdk/build.properties 484 ${basedir}/build.properties 485 486 Recall that with ant, once a property is defined, its value cannot be 487 changed, so it's "first one wins". 488 489 To set or change a property for all your projects, put the change into 490 $HOME/.openjdk/build.properties. This will affect all projects, 491 regardless of how many copies of the Open JDK sources you have 492 installed. 493 494 Let's say you have 2 copies of the Open JDK sources installed on your 495 machine. To set or change a property for only the jconsole projects, but 496 for both of them, make the change in 497 $HOME/.openjdk/${ant.project.name}-build.properties. If you wanted to 498 make the change for only one of them, do it in that project's 499 ${basedir}/build.properties or 500 ${basedir}/nbproject/private/build.properties. 501 502 Note that the ${basedir}/build.properties file is provided as part of 503 the Open JDK sources. If you want to make a change for a particular 504 project, you can do so there. To be sure that you don't ever 505 accidentally check it in to the Open JDK sources, you might prefer to 506 change it in ${basedir}/nbproject/private/build.properties. 507 508 User-definable Properties 509 You can provide your own definitions for the properties listed below. We 510 don't recommend overriding the definitions of other properties. 511 512 The following two properties should be set before you try to use the 513 projects with NetBeans or ant: 514 515 * bootstrap.jdk 516 Default: None. Please set this, normally in 517 $HOME/.openjdk/build.properties. 518 519 * jtreg.home 520 Default: None. Please set this, normally in 521 $HOME/.openjdk/build.properties. 522 523 These options are for configuring the behavior of make: 524 525 * use.make 526 Default: Not set. Set this, normally in ${basedir}/build.properties, 527 for a project which is make-based. 528 529 * make 530 Default: The right make for the platform, at the normal location, set 531 in *install-dir*/jdk/make/netbeans/common/make.xml 532 533 * make.options 534 Default: Empty string. Set this to any options you want to pass to 535 make, normally in ${basedir}/build.properties. 536 537 The remaining options are for use at your discretion: 538 539 * javac.options 540 Default: -Xlint 541 542 * javac.debug 543 Default: true 544 545 * javac.debuglevel 546 Default: lines,vars,source 547 548 * javadoc.options 549 Default: Empty string. Some projects will need to set this to 550 increase the heap for running javadoc. For example, see the jconsole 551 project. 552 553 * javadoc.packagenames 554 Default: "none". Set this only if your project has packages that 555 should be javadoc'd which are outside of those listed in the javadoc 556 target's packageset. See the jconsole project for an example. 557 558 * jtreg.tests 559 Default: None. Set this to a list of tests and/or directories 560 containing regression tests, normally in 561 ${basedir}/build.properties. 562 563 * jtreg.options 564 Default: Empty string. See http://openjdk.java.net/jtreg 565 566 * jtreg.vm.options 567 Default: Empty string. See http://openjdk.java.net/jtreg 568 569 * jtreg.samevm 570 Default: false. See http://openjdk.java.net/jtreg 571 572 User-overridable Targets 573 The following targets are provided for your convenience in customizing 574 various standard actions of the build process. The default action for 575 each one is to do nothing. 576 577 These come in pairs, allowing your scripts to take some action before or 578 after a standard action. 579 580 * -pre-init 581 Runs before any other initialization has been done. 582 583 * -post-init 584 Runs before after all other initialization has been done. 585 586 * -pre-compile 587 Runs before compilation, whether via ant or make. Note that in the 588 case of make, it is before the -build-make target has run, not after 589 each individual make-run has run. 590 591 * -post-compile 592 Runs after compilation, whether via ant or make. 593 594 * -pre-jtreg 595 Runs before regression tests are run. 596 597 * -post-jtreg 598 Runs before after regression tests are run. 599 600 In a make-based project, you should override these targets to do the 601 build and clean actions required of your project. 602 603 * -build-make 604 * -clean-make 605 606 Known Issues 607 Tests won't run: waiting for lock 608 Occasionally when running tests, there will be a delay, followed by a 609 message like this: 610 Waiting to lock test result cache for 611 /tmp/jdk/build/linux-i586/jtreg/jconsole/JTwork for 20 seconds 612 The workaround is to stop the tests, rm -rf the offending jtreg/<project> 613 directory by hand, and re-run the tests. 614 615 Can't run nor debug a single test in the JConsole test 616 In most projects, you can run a single test by opening it in the editor, 617 and choosing Run File from the context menu. If you try this with the a 618 JConsole test, instead you'll see that *all* tests from *all* projects 619 are run. The workaround is to not try to run a single JConsole test. 620 Debugging is similarly problematic (both running and debugging use the 621 same underlying infrastructure). 622 623 If you do Run File a JConsole tests, you can always stop them by pressing 624 the stop button in the NetBeans output window. But you'll be surprised to 625 learn that they are actually still running in the background. The only 626 way out of this situation is to exit NetBeans. A few more tests will run, 627 but after restarting NetBeans things will be OK. 628 629 Attribution 630 UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries, 631 exclusively licensed through X/Open Company, Ltd. 632