[fedora-java] Javadoc packages

[Fernando Nasser]

positive

On 14-02-20 1:09 PM, Mikolaj Izdebski wrote:
> We'll have to move to Java 8 in Fedora sooner or later.  I did some
> testing of Maven and Ant stacks regards that and most of things seem
> to be working well, except for javadoc.
>
> Java 8 has a very strict parser for javadocs, and any error or nuisance
> causes build failure -- almost all packages fail to build with Java 8
> due to various errors in javadocs.
>
> In some cases we can probably fix javadoc problems and forward patches
> upstream, but we have many legacy packages for which we can't push any
> patches upstream.  I don't see how in reality we can fix all packages
> we have.  The only good solution I can think of is disabling javadocs.
>
> My proposal is making javadoc subpackages optional, which means that
> for some Java packages they could be disabled depending on maintainer
> decision.  Legacy packages with dead upstreams would be able to
> disable javadocs (no one should try to develop anything depending on
> such packages, so that's perfectly OK IMO).  For packages which have
> active upstreams we can fix javadocs and forward patches, or disable
> javadoc packages, report the problem upstream and wait for them to fix
> it.
>
> The main reasons for making javadoc optional are:
>
> 1. Java 8 problems, as explained above.
>
> 2. Storage.  I took a typical set of 265 Java source packages.  When
> all binary RPMs were installed they took about 1.5 GB of storage.
> Javadocs themselves take 1.3 GB, everything else is just around 250 MB.
>
> 3. Build time.  Javadoc generation usually takes more time than
> compilation.  Javadoc tool needs a lot of memory, an can be very slow,
> especially on ARM or POWER where there is no JIT.  There are cases
> where javadoc generation accounts for more than 90 % of build time.
>
> I am looking to hear your opinion on this matter (positive or negative)
> and if there is some positive feedback then I would like to submit this
> proposal as a system-wide change for Fedora 21.
>