Some time ago, I started an effort to track API (and ABI) breakages in
OpenJDK releases:
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1094780
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1095309
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1095328
Is something like this useful?
These reports were based on a database which contains all Java
method/class/field references from Java class files contained in Fedora
RPMs. This means that once we know about a removal and have written the
required query, reports can be automated.
There is also a weird form of static linking (copying of JAR files into
other JAR files):
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1098237
I think we discussed this before, but the discussion never came to a
real conclusion.
--
Florian Weimer / Red Hat Product Security