October 2015 Java releases

Java 9 (next)

New Java version is under development. Preliminary JDK versions and information can be found at https://jdk9.java.net/

Java 9 general availability is planned for September 2016.

Java 8 (current)

Java 8 is the current Java version.

Java 8 JDK/JRE update 65/66 (8u65/8u66) has been released. In addition to several fixes, this release does include additional currencies (fund codes) support. Release 66 bug fixes set is bigger.

Complete release notes can be found here.

JDK 8 can be downloaded here.

Java 7 (end-of-life)

Java 7 79/80 is the last public release. Updates are available for Oracle commercial customers only.

JDK 7u80 can be downloaded from Java 7 Archive downloads.

Java 6 (end-of-life)

Java 6 45 is the last public release. Updates are available for Oracle commercial customers only.

JDK 6u45 can be downloaded from Java 6 Archive downloads.

Java: how to check jar version at runtime

Class loading issues can happen in complex execution environments. Situation gets worst when there are different versions of the same library “loaded” and we are not sure which our application is picking up.

To help debugging this issue, we could check at runtime which version of the library is loaded with the our application.

A code like the following can help:

// Example using HTMLEmail from Apache Commons Email 
Class theClass = HtmlEmail.class;
 
// Find the path of the compiled class 
String classPath = theClass.getResource(theClass.getSimpleName() + ".class").toString(); 
System.out.println("Class: " + classPath); 

// Find the path of the lib which includes the class 
String libPath = classPath.substring(0, classPath.lastIndexOf("!")); 
System.out.println("Lib:   " + libPath); 

// Find the path of the file inside the lib jar 
String filePath = libPath + "!/META-INF/MANIFEST.MF"; 
System.out.println("File:  " + filePath); 

// We look at the manifest file, getting two attributes out of it 
Manifest manifest = new Manifest(new URL(filePath).openStream()); 
Attributes attr = manifest.getMainAttributes(); 
System.out.println("Manifest-Version: " + attr.getValue("Manifest-Version")); 
System.out.println("Implementation-Version: " + attr.getValue("Implementation-Version"));

The above code shows how to find jar file path and how to read the contents of a file (it is usually the Manifest) to read some info from it.

April 2015 Java releases

Java 9

New Java version is under development. Preliminary JDK versions and information can be found at https://jdk9.java.net/

Java 8

Java 8 is the current Java version.

Java 8 JDK/JRE update 45 has been released. This is mainly a bug fix release. No new functionalities have been introduced.

Complete bug fix list can be found at http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/2col/8u45-bugfixes-2494164.html

JDK 8 can be downloaded from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jdk8-downloads-2133151.html
Java 7

Java 7 79/80 is the last public release.

As happened for the latest realese, also latest Java 7 update is splitted in two releases:

• Update 79 which includes critical security updates only
• Update 80 which includes 79 updates plus a new command line option to detect deprecated mechanisms: endorsed-standards and extensions.

Endorsed-standards is a way to update Java core to the latest version of non Java standards. Extensions allows us to extend the Java core with new libraries and functionalities. Both mechanism have been declared deprecated and they will be phase-out in the next future. The option introduced in Java 7u80 detect if these mechanisms have been used i our environments.

Update 79 release notes can be found at http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/7u79-relnotes-2494161.html

Update 80 release notes can be found at http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/7u80-relnotes-2494162.html

JDK 7 can be downloaded from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jdk7-downloads-1880260.html

Still using JAVA 6 and previous versions ? Have a look at  http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/archive-139210.html