Gunnar Morling • 4/26/2021

The Anatomy of ct.sym — How javac Ensures Backwards Compatibility

This technical article delves into how the Java compiler (javac) maintains backwards compatibility using the ct.sym file. It explains the limitations of the --source and --target flags, demonstrates API mismatch errors, and details how ct.sym allows compilation against correct platform APIs without needing the target JDK installed.

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#backwards compatibility #Bytecode #API Compatibility