• Share this article:

Java 9 module-info Files in the Eclipse IDE

Wednesday, September 14, 2016 - 15:31 by Wayne Beaton

Update: Note that as of October 11/2017, Java 9 is 100% supported “out of the box” by Eclipse IDE, Oxygen Edition; Java 9 can be used to run your Eclipse IDE, Oxygen Edition, and can be used to build Java 9 applications without additional configuration. Download or update today.

Note that this post is not intended to be a status update; it’s just a quick update based on some experimenting that I’ve been doing with the beta code.

It’s been a while, but I’m back to experimenting in Java 9 support in the Eclipse IDE.

For testing purposes, I downloaded the most recent Oxygen (4.7) integration build (I20160914-0800) from the Eclipse Project downloads the latest  Java 9 JRE build (135).

I configured the Eclipse IDE to run on the Java 9 JVM. This still requires a minor change in the eclipse.ini file: to launch successfully, you must add --add-modules=java.se.ee to the vmargs section (I expect this to be resolved before Java 9 support is officially released; see Bug 493761 for more information). I used and used the Install new software… dialog to pull in updates from the BETA_JAVA9 SDK builds repository (see the Java9 Eclipsepedia page for more information).

I created a very simple Java application with a module-info.java file. Content assist is available for this file.

screenshot-from-2016-09-14-14-27-24

Note that there is an error indicated on the import of java.awt.Frame. This error exists because the module info file does not provide visibility to that class (AWT is not included with java.base).

If we change that requires statement, the visibility issue is resolved and the compiler is happy. Well, mostly happy. Apparently not using declared variables gets you a stern warning (this is, of course, configurable).

screenshot-from-2016-09-14-14-27-51

The Eclipse Project is planning to ship support as part of an Eclipse Neon update release that coincides with the official release date of Java 9. I’ll be talking a bit about this during my JavaOne talk and demonstrating this (and more Java topics) at the Eclipse Foundation’s booth.

Conference: JavaOne
Session Type: Conference Session
Session ID: CON6469
Session Title: Developing Java Applications with Eclipse Neon
Room: Hilton—Continental Ballroom 6
Date and Time: 09/19/16, 11:00:00 AM – 12:00:00 PM

The call for papers for Devoxx US is open. Devoxx is a community conference from developers for developers. Submit your proposal now.