Policy
Fedora will compile/produce artifacts that run on a publicly supported version of the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). Only after a JVM version has been end of lifed will Fedora take advantage of the next more current Java's version features.
Where:
Publicly supported
- Is defined as a Java version that has passed its "general availability" date, as specified by Oracle's support roadmap.
End of Lifed
- Is defined as a Java version that has passed its "end of public updates" date, as specified by Oracle's support roadmap.
Example 1
- Java8 was released on March, 2014.
- Java7 will be EOL'd on April, 2015.
Fedora 4 will build/run on Java7 until April, 2015. After April, 2015, Fedora 4 will require a Java8 JVM.
Example 2
In the above example, if Java9 were also (hypothetically) released on June, 2014...
- Java9 was released on June, 2014.
- Java8 was released on March, 2014.
- Java7 will be EOL'd on April, 2015.
Fedora 4 will build/run on Java8 until either Java8 is EOL'd, or Java10 is released, whichever comes first. After either of the two criterion are met, Fedora 4 would upgrade to Java9.