Oracle aligns GraalVM development with Java development

Oracle plans to contribute some code from GraalVM, a high-performance, polyglot version of the Java Development Kit, to OpenJDK. The company’s goal is to more closely align the development of GraalVM technologies with the development of Java itself.

Oracle aims to broaden the adoption of GraalVM and participation in its development by eliminating obstacles such as differences in release schedules, development processes, and features between GraalVM and Java. Specifically, Oracle plans to contribute applicable portions of the GraalVM just-in-time (JIT) compiler and native image, for the development of ahead-of-time compiling of Java code to standalone executables.

GraalVM technologies will be developed with the same transparency and predictability that Java developers expect from other Oracle-led OpenJDK projects, Oracle said. Technologies currently in development for GraalVM will be contributed while previous versions will remain in the GraalVM GitHub organization. For current GraalVM CE (Community Edition) or GraalVM EE (Enterprise Edition) users, ongoing updates will continue as anticipated. The GraalVM release schedule will be aligned with Java releases next year.

GraalVM is designed to accelerate Java application performance while consuming fewer resources. It also makes it possible to mix programming languages in a single application while eliminating foreign language call costs. Oracle announced intentions to align GraalVM with Java development last week and elaborated more on it this week. Specific aspects of aligning future GraalVM releases with the JDK release model include:

• Support for one Java SE platform specification per release.
• Two feature releases per year.
• Four quarterly critical patch updates annually.
• A long-term support release every two years.

The contributions of GraalVM technologies will be made to one or more OpenJDK projects. Technologies will be developed in accordance with methods and processes used in the OpenJDK community. If and when GraalVM technology is ready to become part of a mainline JDK release, a JDK Enhancement Proposal (JEP) will be submitted. But not all GraalVM technology will be included in the effort. Polyglot technologies supporting languages such as Python, JavaScript, Ruby, and R will not be contributed, at least not at this time.

Plans to contribute GraalVM code to OpenJDK coincide roughly with the October 25 release of GraalVM 22.3, featuring JDK 19 builds, new monitoring features, and support for the jlink tool to assemble modules. GraalVM 22.3 is accessible from graalvm.org. Also introduced this week were one-line GraalVM downloads.