OpenJDK Build README

Introduction

This README file contains build instructions for the OpenJDK. Building the source code for the OpenJDK requires a certain degree of technical expertise.

Contents

Minimum Build Environments

This file often describes specific requirements for what we call the "minimum build environments" (MBE) for the JDK. Building with the MBE will generate the most compatible bits that install on, and run correctly on, the most variations of the same base OS and hardware architecture. These usually represent what is often called the least common denominator platforms. It is understood that most developers will NOT be using these specific platforms, and in fact creating these specific platforms may be difficult due to the age of some of this software.

The minimum OS and C/C++ compiler versions needed for building the OpenJDK:

Base OS and Architecture OS Compiler
Linux X86 (32bit) Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 gcc 4
Linux X64 (64bit) Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 gcc 4
Solaris SPARC (32bit) Solaris 10 + patches
See SunSolve for patch downloads. 		Sun Studio 11
Solaris SPARCV9 (64bit) Solaris 10 + patches
See SunSolve for patch downloads. 		Sun Studio 11
Solaris X86 (32bit) Solaris 10 + patches
See SunSolve for patch downloads. 		Sun Studio 11
Solaris X64 (64bit) Solaris 10 + patches
See SunSolve for patch downloads. 		Sun Studio 11
Windows X86 (32bit) Windows XP Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 Professional
Windows X64 (64bit) Windows Server 2003 - Enterprise x64 Edition Microsoft Platform SDK - April 2005

Specific Developer Build Environments

We won't be listing all the possible environments, but we will try to provide what information we have available to us.

Fedora

TBD

Debian

TBD

Ubuntu

In addition to needing the Bootstrap JDK, the Binary Plugs, and the OpenMotif header files, when building on Ubuntu you will need to make sure certain packages are installed. In particular, certain X11 packages, make, m4, gawk, gcc 4, binutils, cups, freetype and alsa.

Ubuntu 6.06

The following list of packages for Ubuntu 6.06 is a working set that does appear to work.

Note that it's quite possible that some of these packages are not required, so anyone discovering that some of the packages listed below are NOT required, please let the OpenJDK team know.

All the packages below can be installed with the Synaptic Package manager provided with the base Ubuntu 6.06 release.

Ubuntu 7.04

Using the Synaptic Package Manager, download the following packages (double indented packages are automatically aquired due to package dependencies):

Source Directory Structure

The source code for the OpenJDK is delivered in 3 sibling directories: hotspot, j2se and control. The hotspot directory contains the source code and make files for building the OpenJDK Hotspot Virtual Machine. The j2se directory contains the source code and make files for building the OpenJDK runtime libraries, tools and demos. The control directory contains make files to build the complete OpenJDK release including building the hotspot VM, staging the VM binaries, and building the OpenJDK runtime libraries, tools and demos. We recommend using the control directory to build the complete OpenJDK.

Build Information

Building the OpenJDK is done with a gmake command line and various environment or make variable settings that direct the make rules to where various components have been installed. Where possible the makefiles will attempt to located the various components in the default locations or any component specific variable settings. When the normal defaults fail or components cannot be found, the various ALT_* variables (alternates) can be used to help the makefiles locate components.

Refer to the bash/sh/ksh setup file j2se/make/jdk_generic_profile.sh if you need help in setting up your environment variables. A build could be as simple as: 


                bash
                . j2se/make/jdk_generic_profile.sh
                cd control/make && gmake sanity && gmake

Of course ksh or sh would work too. But some customization will probably be necessary. The sanity rule will make some basic checks on build dependencies and generate appropriate warning messages regarding missing, out of date, or newer than expected components found on your system.

GNU make (gmake)

The Makefiles in the OpenJDK are only valid when used with the GNU version of the utility command make (gmake). A few notes about using GNU make:

Information on GNU make, and access to ftp download sites, are available on the GNU make web site . The latest source to GNU make is available at ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/make/.

Basic Linux System Setup

i586 only: The minimum recommended hardware for building the Linux version is a Pentium class processor or better, at least 256 MB of RAM, and approximately 1.5 GB of free disk space.

X64 only: The minimum recommended hardware for building the Linux version is an AMD Opteron class processor, at least 512 MB of RAM, and approximately 4 GB of free disk space.

The build will use the tools contained in /bin and /usr/bin of a standard installation of the Linux operating environment. You should ensure that these directories are in your PATH.

Note that some Linux systems have a habit of pre-populating your environment variables for you, for example JAVA_HOME might get pre-defined for you to refer to the JDK installed on your Linux system. You will need to unset JAVA_HOME. It's a good idea to run env and verify the environment variables you are getting from the default system settings make sense for building the OpenJDK.

Basic Linux Check List

  1. Install the Bootstrap JDK, set ALT_BOOTDIR.
  2. Install the Binary Plugs, set ALT_BINARY_PLUGS_PATH..
  3. Install the Motif header files, set ALT_MOTIF_DIR..
  4. Install or upgrade the FreeType development package.

Basic Solaris System Setup

The minimum recommended hardware for building the Solaris SPARC version is an UltraSPARC with 512 MB of RAM. For building the Solaris x86 version, a Pentium class processor or better and at least 128 MB of RAM are recommended. Approximately 1.4 GB of free disk space is needed for a 32-bit build.

If you are building the 64bit version, you should run the command "isainfo -v" to verify that you have a 64-bit installation. An additional 7 GB of free disk space is needed for a 64-bit build.

The build uses the tools contained in /usr/ccs/bin and /usr/bin of a standard developer or full installation of the Solaris operating environment.

Basic Solaris Check List

  1. Install the Bootstrap JDK, set ALT_BOOTDIR.
  2. Install the Binary Plugs, set ALT_BINARY_PLUGS_PATH.
  3. Install the Sun Studio Compilers, set ALT_COMPILER_PATH.
  4. Install the CUPS Include files, set ALT_CUPS_HEADERS_PATH.

Basic Windows System Setup

i586 only: The minimum recommended hardware for building the 32bit or X86 Windows version is an Pentium class processor or better, at least 512 MB of RAM, and approximately 600 MB of free disk space. NOTE: The Windows 2000 build machines need to use the file system NTFS. Build machines formatted to FAT32 will not work because FAT32 doesn't support case-sensitivity in file names.

X64 only: The minimum recommended hardware for building the Windows X64 version is an AMD Opteron class processor, at least 1 GB of RAM, and approximately 10 GB of free disk space.

Windows Paths

Windows: Note that GNU make is a historic utility and is based very heavily on shell scripting, so it does not tolerate the Windows habit of having spaces in pathnames or the use of the \characters in pathnames. Luckily on most Windows systems, you can use /instead of \, and there is always a 'short' pathname without spaces for any path that contains spaces. Unfortunately, this short pathname can be somewhat dynamic and the formula is difficult to explain. You can use cygpath utility to map pathnames with spaces or the \character into the C:/ style of pathname (called 'mixed'), e.g. cygpath -s -m "path".

The makefiles will try to translate any pathnames supplied to it into the C:/ style automatically.

Note that use of CYGWIN creates a unique problem with regards to setting PATH. Normally on Windows the PATH variable contains directories separated with the ";" character (Solaris and Linux uses ":"). With CYGWIN, it uses ":", but that means that paths like "C:/path" cannot be placed in the CYGWIN version of PATH and instead CYGWIN uses something like /cygdrive/c/path which CYGWIN understands, but only CYGWIN understands. So be careful with paths on Windows.

Basic Windows Check List

  1. Install the CYGWIN product.
  2. Install the Bootstrap JDK, set ALT_BOOTDIR.
  3. Install the Binary Plugs, set ALT_BINARY_PLUGS_PATH..
  4. Install the Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 Professional or the Microsoft Platform SDK.
  5. Setup all environment variables for compilers (see compilers).
  6. Install Microsoft DirectX SDK.

Build Dependencies

Depending on the platform, the OpenJDK build process has some basic dependencies on components not part of the OpenJDK sources. Some of these are specific to a platform, some even specific to an architecture. Each dependency will have a set of ALT variables that can be set to tell the makefiles where to locate the component. In most cases setting these ALT variables may not be necessary and the makefiles will find defaults on the system in standard install locations or through component specific variables.

Bootstrap JDK

All OpenJDK builds require access to the previously released JDK 6, this is often called a bootstrap JDK. The JDK 6 binaries can be downloaded from Sun's JDK 6 download site. For build performance reasons is very important that this bootstrap JDK be made available on the local disk of the machine doing the build. You should always set ALT_BOOTDIR to point to the location of the bootstrap JDK installation, this is the directory pathname that contains a bin, lib, and include It's also a good idea to also place its bin directory in the PATH environment variable, although it's not required.

Solaris: Some pre-installed JDK images may be available to you in the directory /usr/jdk/instances. If you don't set ALT_BOOTDIR the makefiles will look in that location for a JDK it can use.

Binary Plugs

Not all of the source code that makes up the JDK is available under an open-source license. In order to build an OpenJDK binary from source code, you must first download and install the appropriate binary plug bundles from the OpenJDK Download area. During the OpenJDK build process these "binary plugs" for the encumbered components will be copied into your resulting OpenJDK binary build image. These binary plug files are only for the purpose of building an OpenJDK binary. Download the Binary Plugs by selecting the Downloads link at the OpenJDK site, install the bundle, and make sure you set ALT_BINARY_PLUGS_PATH to the root of this installation.

Certificate Authority File (cacert)

See www.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAcert for a better understanding of the Certificate Authority (CA). A certificates file named "cacerts" represents a system-wide keystore with CA certificates. In JDK and JRE binary bundles, the "cacerts" file contains root CA certificates from several public CAs (e.g., VeriSign, Thawte, and Baltimore). The source contain a cacerts file without CA root certificates. Formal JDK builders will need to secure permission from each public CA and include the certificates into their own custom cacerts file. Failure to provide a populated cacerts file will result in verification errors of a certificate chain during runtime. The variable ALT_CACERTS_FILE can be used to override the default location of the cacerts file that will get placed in your build. By default an empty cacerts file is provided and that should be fine for most JDK developers.

Compilers

Linux gcc/binutils

The GNU gcc compiler version should be 3.2.2 or newer. The binutils package should be 2.11.93.0.2-11 or newer. The compiler used should be the default compiler installed in /usr/bin.

Solaris: Sun Studio

At a minimum, the Sun Studio 11 Compilers (containing version 5.8 of the C and C++ compilers) is required, with patches from the SunSolve web site.

Set ALT_COMPILER_PATH to point to the location of the compiler binaries, and place this location in the PATH.

The Sun Studio Express compilers at: Sun Studio Express Download site are also an option, although these compilers have not been extensively used yet.

Windows i586: Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 Professional

The 32-bit OpenJDK Windows build requires Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 (VS2003) Professional Edition compiler. The compiler and other tools are expected to reside in the location defined by the variable VS71COMNTOOLS which is set by the Microsoft Visual Studio .NET installer.

Once the compiler is installed, it is recommended that you run VCVARS32.BAT to set the compiler environment variables MSVCDIR, INCLUDE, LIB, and PATH prior to building the OpenJDK. The above environment variables MUST be set.

The Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2005 (VS2005) compiler will not work at this time due to the new runtime dll and the manifest requirements.

Windows X64: Microsoft Platform SDK April 2005

On X64, the Microsoft Platform Software Development Kit (SDK), April 2005 Edition compiler, is required for building the OpenJDK because it contains the C/C++ compiler. You will need to minimally install the Core SDK and the MDAC SDK features of this compiler.

Once the Platform SDK is installed, it is recommended that you run SetEnv.Cmd /X64 to set the compiler environment variables MSSDK, MSTOOLS, INCLUDE, LIB, and PATH prior to building the OpenJDK. The above environment variables MUST be set.

Note that this compiler may say it's version is a Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2005 (VS2005), but be careful, it will not match the official VS2005 product. This Platform SDK compiler is only used on X64 builds.

Common UNIX Printing System (CUPS) Headers (Solaris & Linux)

Solaris: CUPS header files are required for building the OpenJDK on Solaris. The Solaris header files can be obtained by installing the package SFWcups from the Solaris Software Companion CD/DVD, these often will be installed into /opt/sfw/cups.

Linux: CUPS header files are required for building the OpenJDK on Linux. The Linux header files are usually available from a "cups" development package, it's recommended that you try and use the package provided by the particular version of Linux that you are using.

The CUPS header files can always be downloaded from www.cups.org. The variable ALT_CUPS_HEADERS_PATH can be used to override the default location of the CUPS Header files.

Motif Headers (Solaris & Linux)

Motif headers (not libraries) are required for building the OpenJDK.

Solaris: Normally these files can be found on Solaris systems at /usr/include/Xm, so on Solaris systems no further downloads should be needed.

Linux: On Linux, your particular Linux distribution may provide a "motif" development package you can install. If this package installs the files into /usr/include/Xm, no further action should be needed. An acceptable version of these Motif header files are available in the source bundle openmotif-2.1.30.5p1.tgz from www.openbsd.org. You would need to install the package and set the environment variable ALT_MOTIF_DIR to refer to the top of this installation.

FreeType 2

Version 2.3 or newer of FreeType is required for building the OpenJDK. On Unix systems required files can be available as part of your distribution (while you still may need to upgrade them). Note that you need development version of package that includes both FreeType library and header files.

You can always download latest FreeType version from the FreeType website.

Makefiles will try to pick FreeType from /usr/lib and /usr/include. In case it is installed elsewhere you will need to set environment variables ALT_FREETYPE_LIB_PATH and ALT_FREETYPE_HEADERS_PATH to refer to place where library and header files are installed.

Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA) (Linux only)

Linux only: Version 0.9.1 or newer of the ALSA files are required for building the OpenJDK on Linux. These Linux files are usually available from an "alsa" of "libasound" development package, it's recommended that you try and use the package provided by the particular version of Linux that you are using. The makefiles will check this emit a sanity error if it is missing or the wrong version. As a last resort you can go to the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Site.

Windows Specific Dependencies

Unix Command Tools (CYGWIN)

The OpenJDK requires access to a set of unix command tools on Windows which can be supplied by CYGWIN.

The OpenJDK build requires CYGWIN version 1.5.12 or newer. Information about CYGWIN can be obtained from the CYGWIN website at www.cygwin.com.

By default CYGWIN doesn't install all the tools required for building the OpenJDK. Along with the default installation, you need to install the following tools.

Binary Name Package Description
ar.exe Devel binutils: The GNU assembler, linker and binary utilities
make.exe Devel make: The GNU version of the 'make' utility
m4.exe Interpreters m4: GNU implementation of the traditional Unix macro processor
cpio.exe Utils cpio: A program to manage archives of files
file.exe Utils file: Determines file type using 'magic' numbers
Microsoft DirectX 9.0 SDK header files and libraries

Microsoft DirectX 9.0 SDK (Summer 2004) headers are required for building OpenJDK. This SDK can be downloaded from Microsoft DirectX 9.0 SDK (Summer 2004). If the link above becomes obsolete, the SDK can be found from the Microsoft Download Site (search with "DirectX 9.0 SDK Update Summer 2004"). The location of this SDK can be set with ALT_DXSDK_PATH but it's normally found via the DirectX environment variable DXSDK_DIR.

MSVCRT.DLL

i586 only: The OpenJDK 32bit build requires access to MSVCRT.DLL version 6.00.8337.0 or newer. If the MSVCRT.DLL is not installed in the system32 directory set the ALT_MSVCRT_DLL_PATH variable to the location.

X64 only: The OpenJDK 64bit build requires access to MSVCRT.DLL version 7.0.3790.0 or newer, which is usually supplied by the Platform SDK. If it is not available from the Platform SDK, set the ALT_MSVCRT_DLL_PATH variable to the location.

MSVCR71.DLL

i586 only: The OpenJDK build requires access to MSVCR71.DLL version 7.10.3052.4 or newer which should be supplied by the Visual Studio product If the MSVCR71.DLL is not available from the Visual Studio product set the ALT_MSVCR71_DLL_PATH variable to the location.

Creating the Build

Once a machine is setup to build the OpenJDK, the steps to create the build are fairly simple. The various ALT settings can either be made into variables or can be supplied on the gmake command.

  1. cd into the control/make directory.
  2. Use the sanity rule to double check all the ALT settings:
    gmake sanity [ARCH_DATA_MODEL=32 or 64] [other "ALT_" overrides]
  3. Start the build with the command:
    gmake [ARCH_DATA_MODEL=32 or 64] [ALT_OUTPUTDIR=output_directory] [other "ALT_" overrides]

Solaris: Note that ARCH_DATA_MODEL is really only needed on Solaris to indicate you want to built the 64-bit version. And before the Solaris 64-bit binaries can be used, they must be merged with the binaries from a separate 32-bit build. The merged binaries may then be used in either 32-bit or 64-bit mode, with the selection occurring at runtime with the -d32 or -d64 options.

Testing the Build

When the build is completed, you should see the generated binaries and associated files in the j2sdk-image directory in the output directory. The default output directory is control/build/platform, where platform is one of

In particular, the control/build/platform/j2sdk-image/bin directory should contain executables for the OpenJDK tools and utilities.

You can test that the build completed properly by using the build to run the various demos that you will find in the control/build/platform/j2sdk-image/demo directory.

The provided regression tests can be run with the jtreg utility from the jtreg site.

Environment/Make Variables

Some of the environment or make variables (just called variables in this document) that can impact the build are:

PATH
Typically you want to set the PATH to include:
  • The location of the GNU make binary
  • The location of the JDK 6 java (see Bootstrap JDK)
  • The location of the C/C++ compilers (see compilers)
  • The location or locations for the Unix command utilities (e.g. /usr/bin)
ARCH_DATA_MODEL
The ARCH_DATA_MODEL variable is used to specify whether the build is to generate 32-bit or 64-bit binaries. The Solaris build supports either 32-bit or 64-bit builds, but Windows and Linux will support only one, depending on the specific OS being used. Normally, setting this variable is only necessary on Solaris. Set ARCH_DATA_MODEL to 32 for generating 32-bit binaries, or to 64 for generating 64-bit binaries.
ALT_BOOTDIR
The location of the bootstrap JDK installation. See Bootstrap JDK for more information. You should always install your own local Bootstrap JDK and always set ALT_BOOTDIR explicitly.
ALT_OUTPUTDIR
An override for specifying the (absolute) path of where the build output is to go. The default output directory will be control/platform.
ALT_COMPILER_PATH
The location of the C/C++ compiler. The default varies depending on the platform.
ALT_CACERTS_FILE
The location of the cacerts file. The default will refer to j2se/src/share/lib/security/cacerts.
ALT_BINARY_PLUGS_PATH
The location of the binary plugs installation. See Binary Plugs for more information. You should always have a local copy of a recent Binary Plugs install image and set this variable to that location.
ALT_CUPS_HEADERS_PATH
The location of the CUPS header files. See CUPS information for more information. If this path does not exist the fallback path is /usr/include.
ALT_MOTIF_DIR
The location of the Motif 2.1 headers and libraries. See Motif for details.
ALT_FREETYPE_LIB_PATH
The location of the FreeType shared library. See FreeType information for details.
ALT_FREETYPE_HEADERS_PATH
The location of the FreeType header files. See FreeType information for details.
Windows specific:
ALT_MSDEVTOOLS_PATH
The location of the Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 tools 'bin' directory. The default is usually derived from ALT_COMPILER_PATH.
ALT_DXSDK_PATH
The location of the Microsoft DirectX 9 SDK. The default will be to try and use the DirectX environment variable DXSDK_DIR, failing that, look in C:/DXSDK.
ALT_MSVCRT_DLL_PATH
The location of the MSVCRT.DLL.
ALT_MSVCR71_DLL_PATH
i586 only: The location of the MSVCR71.DLL.

Troubleshooting

A build can fail for any number of reasons. Most failures are a result of trying to build in an environment in which all the pre-build requirements have not been met. The first step in troubleshooting a build failure is to recheck that you have satisfied all the pre-build requirements for your platform. Look for the check list of the platform you are building on in the Table of Contents.

You can validate your build environment by using the sanity target from the control/make directory. Any errors listed will stop the build from starting, and any warnings may result in a flawed product build. We strongly encourage you to evaluate every sanity check warning and fix it if required, before you proceed further with your build.

Some of the more common problems with builds are briefly described below, with suggestions for remedies.