IcedTea

:"For other meanings, see Iced tea (disambiguation)Infobox Software
name = IcedTea6



caption = Screenshot of AWT widgets rendered in IcedTea
collapsible = yes
developer = Red Hat / GNU Classpath
latest release version = [http://mail.openjdk.java.net/pipermail/distro-pkg-dev/2008-May/002024.html 1.2]
latest release date = release date|2008|05|29
latest preview version =
latest preview date =
operating system = Cross-platform
programming language = C and Java
genre = Java Virtual Machine and Java Library
license = GPL+linking exception
website = http://icedtea.classpath.orgInfobox Software
name = IcedTea



caption = Screenshot of AWT widgets rendered in IcedTea
collapsible = yes
developer = Red Hat / GNU Classpath
latest release version = [http://blog.fuseyism.com/index.php/2008/06/02/icedtea-17-released/ 1.7]
latest release date = release date|2008|06|02
latest preview version =
latest preview date =
operating system = Cross-platform
programming language = C and Java
genre = Java Virtual Machine and Java Library
license = GPL+linking exception
website = http://icedtea.classpath.org

IcedTea is a software development and integration project launched by Red Hat in June 2007. [cite web
url=http://mail.openjdk.java.net/pipermail/distro-pkg-dev/2007-June/000032.html
title=Credits
date=2007-06-08
last=Fitzsimmons|first=Thomas
accessdate=2007-06-08] The goal is to make the OpenJDK software which Sun Microsystems released as free software in 2007 usable without requiring any other software that is not free software. For Red Hat, this would make it possible to add OpenJDK to the Fedora Linux distribution, as well as other distributions. This goal has been met, and a version of IcedTea based on OpenJDK was packaged with Fedora 8 in November 2007. April 2008 saw the first release [cite web
url=http://langel.wordpress.com/2008/04/04/icedtea6-11-released/
title = IcedTea6 1.1 Released
date = 2008-04-04
last=Angel|first=Lillian
accessdate=2008-07-12] of a new variant, IcedTea6 which is based on Sun's build drops of OpenJDK6, a fork of the OpenJDK with the goal of being compatible with the existing JDK6. This was released in Ubuntu and Fedora in May 2008. The IcedTea package in these distros has been renamed to OpenJDK using the [http://openjdk.java.net/legal/openjdk-trademark-notice.html OpenJDK trademark notice] . The Fedora build recently passed Sun's rigorous TCK testing [cite web
url=http://blog.softwhere.org/archives/196
title=Java is finally Free and Open
date=2008-06-19
last=Sharples|first=Rich
accessdate=2008-06-19] on x86 and x86 64.

History

This project was created following Sun’s release of its HotSpot Virtual Machine and Java compiler in November 2006, and most of the source code of the class library in May 2007. However, parts of the class library, such as font rendering, colour management and sound support, were only provided as proprietary binary plugs. This was because the source code for these plugs was copyrighted to 3rd parties, rather than Sun Microsystems [cite web
url=http://mail.openjdk.java.net/pipermail/announce/2007-May.txt
title=Open JDK is here!
publisher=Sun Microsystems
date=2007-05-08
accessdate=2007-05-09] [See also Java Class Library Licensing] . The released parts were published under the terms of the GNU General Public License, a free software licence.

Because of these missing components, it was not possible to build OpenJDK only with Free software components. Sun aimed to negotiate with the license holders to allow this code to be released under a Free license, or failing that, to replace these proprietary elements with alternative implementations. With the plugs replaced, the class library would then be completely Free. Sun has continued to use the proprietary code in their certified binary releases [cite web
url=http://www.sun.com/software/opensource/java/faq.jsp#b
title=Sun's OpenJDK FAQ
quote="Now Sun is open sourcing most of the remaining components of the JDK, with the exception of a few encumbered components that we hope, with the community's help, can be re-implemented so that 100% of the OpenJDK code commons is available as free software...Sun will continue to use that code in commercial releases until it's replaced by fully-functional open-source alternatives"] .

Following the announcement, the IcedTea project was started and was formally announced on June 07 2007, with a build repository provided by the GNU Classpath team. The team could not call their software product "OpenJDK" because this is a trademark owned by Sun Microsystems. They instead decided to use the temporary name "IcedTea"cite web
url=http://fitzsim.org/blog/?p=17
title=Plans for OpenJDK
last=Fitzsimmons|first=Thomas
date=2007-05-18
accessdate=2007-05-22] .

On November 05 2007, Red Hat signed both the Sun Contributor Agreement and the OpenJDK Community TCK License. The press release suggested that this would benefit the IcedTea project. [cite web
url=http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20071105005882&newsLang=en
title=Red Hat and Sun Collaborate to Advance Open Source Java Technology
publisher=Red Hat
date=2007-11-05
accessdate=2007-11-06] Simon Phipps suggested the possibility of IcedTea being hosted on openjdk.java.net, [cite web|url=http://blogs.sun.com/webmink/entry/red_hat_joins_openjdk|title=Red Hat Joins OpenJDK|date=November 5, 2007|accessdate=2007-11-14|last=Phipps|first=Simon] and Mark Reinhold noted that signing the copyright assignment could allow Red Hat to contribute parts of IcedTea to Sun for inclusion in the mainstream JDK [cite web|url=http://blogs.sun.com/mr/entry/rht_java|title=Welcome, Red Hat!|date=2007-11-05|accessdate=2007-11-14|last=Reinhold|first=Mark] [cite web|url=http://www.redhatmagazine.com/2008/05/16/open-source-project-openjdk/|title=Open source project: OpenJDK|date=May 16, 2008|last=Andrew|first=Haley] .

Since then, a number of patches from IcedTea6 have made their way into OpenJDK6 e.g. [cite web
url=http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=6523403
title=Bug ID 6523403: OSS CMM: Need to provide lcms library with PYCC and LINEAR_RGB OS ICC profiles
accessdate=2008-07-12] [cite web
url=http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=6604044
title=Bug ID 6604044 java crashes talking to second X screen
accessdate=2008-07-12] .

On June 2008, it was announced that IcedTea6 (as the packaged version of OpenJDK on Fedora 9) has passed the Technology Compatibility Kit tests and can claim to be a fully compatible Java 6 implementation [cite web
url=http://blog.softwhere.org/archives/196
title=Java is finally Free and Open
date=2008-06-19
last=Sharples|first=Rick] .

The aims

Specifically, the IcedTea project started with two aims. One is to make it possible for the GNU Compiler for Java to compile the OpenJDK code. The problem was that the only program which could compile the OpenJDK software was the existing proprietary Sun JDK . Free distributions like Fedora can't depend on proprietary tools in order to build packages, so the IcedTea project had to make it possible to compile the code using Free software. When this was done, the resulting IcedTea version of OpenJDK could be used to compile itself, thus escaping the need to use non-Free software for future compiling.cite web
url=http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.java.openjdk.distro-packaging.devel/5
title=Experimental Build Repository at icedtea.classpath.org
date=2007-06-07
last=Haley|first=Andrew
accessdate=2007-06-09] [cite web
url=http://developer.classpath.org/pipermail/classpath/2007-June/002109.html
title=Experimental Build Repository at icedtea.classpath.org
last=Wielaard|first=Mark
date=2007-06-07
accessdate=2007-06-09]

The second task was to provide Free equivalents of the binary plugs that existed in OpenJDK because Sun was unable to release all the source code. As of March 2008, this is no longer necessary for IcedTea6, as the OpenJDK6 build drops can be built with no binary plugs. With the release of b10 [cite web
url=http://mail.openjdk.java.net/pipermail/jdk6-dev/2008-June/000060.html
title=OpenJDK6 b10 source posted
date=2007-05-30
accessdate=2008-07-12] , which replaces the proprietary sound support with that from the Gervill project, a full implementation of Java 1.6 can be built without binary plugs. The only remaining binary plug is for SNMP support, which is an optional provider for the JMX architecture and not part of the specification.

ide benefits

Unlike Sun's own Java release, IcedTea provides a working browser plugin for 64-bit browsers under 64-bit Linux. This makes it suitable to enable support for Java applets in 64-bit Firefox, among others. Also, Java Web Start support by means of Netx [ [http://jnlp.sourceforge.net/netx/ Netx is a high-quality implementation of the Java Network Launching Protocol (JNLP).] ] . IcedTea also provides a more familiar build system, by providing a wrapper around the OpenJDK makefiles using the GNU autotools. This removes the need to remember a large number of environment variables for configuring the build (the current IcedTea builds set roughly 40 such variables for the underlying OpenJDK build). It has also provided a place for early work on features which will eventually appear in the main OpenJDK builds such as Gervill [ [https://gervill.dev.java.net/Gervill, a generic synthesizer for Java] ] and for work on ports to other platforms.

Ports of HotSpot (OpenJDK's Virtual Machine) are difficult because the code contains a lot of assembly in addition to the C++ core, [cite web
url=http://gbenson.livejournal.com/2007/11/16/
title=Gary's guide to porting IcedTea
first=Gary|last=Benson
date=2007-11-06
accessdate=2008-01-26] . The IcedTea project has developed a generic port of the HotSpot interpreter called "zero-assembler Hotspot" (or "zero") [cite web
url=http://openjdk.java.net/projects/zero/
title=Zero-Assembler Project
accessdate=2008-08-22] , with almost no assembly code. This port is intended to allow the interpreter part of HotSpot to be very easily adapted to any Linux processor architecture, potentially making it infinitely portable. The code of "zero-assembler Hotspot" is used for all the non-x86 ports of HotSpot (PPC, IA64, S390 and ARM) since version 1.6 [cite web
url=http://gbenson.livejournal.com/2008/02/01/
title=1st February 2008
first=Gary|last=Benson
date=2008-02-01
accessdate=2008-02-03] [cite web
url=http://mail.openjdk.java.net/pipermail/distro-pkg-dev/2008-January/001085.html
title=Making zero-assembler the default on ppc
first=Andrew|last=Haley
date=2008-01-31
accessdate=2008-02-03] [cite web
url=http://mail.openjdk.java.net/pipermail/distro-pkg-dev/2008-February/001172.html
title=IcedTea 1.6 Released with Zero-assembler and JNLP support!
first=Lillian|last=Angel
publisher=Red hat
date=2008-02-13
accessdate=2008-02-13] .

Gary Benson, an IcedTea developer, is now developing a platform-independent Just-in-time compiler called "Shark" for HotSpot, to complement "Zero" [cite web
url=http://gbenson.net/?p=67
title= 31 March 2008
first=Gary|last=Benson
publisher=Red hat
date=2008-03-31
accessdate=2008-05-30] [cite web
url=http://gbenson.net/?p=80
title= 28 May 2008
first=Gary|last=Benson
publisher=Red hat
date=2008-05-28
quote="Shark is a platform-independent JIT for HotSpot, to complement the zero-assembler interpreter we’ve been using"
accessdate=2008-05-30] . Completing this work will make the Java Virtual Machine independent of the CPU architecture.

Progress and availability

As of June 2007, IcedTea is building itself and working on Fedora, and a significant portion of Mauve, the GNU Classpath test suite, runs successfully on it. [cite web
url=http://mail.openjdk.java.net/pipermail/distro-pkg-dev/2007-June/000046.html
title=Mauve test run results
date=2007-06-12
last=Kung|first=Francis
accessdate=2007-06-12] . In May 2008, support was added to IcedTea for running the Sun JTreg regression tests [cite web
url=http://mail.openjdk.java.net/pipermail/distro-pkg-dev/2008-May/001921.html
title=jtreg testing integrated
last=Wielaard|first=Mark
accessdate=2008-07-12] .

IcedTea is the default JVM in Ark Linux. [cite web
url=http://arklinux.osuosl.org/dockyard-devel/SRPMS
title=Ark Linux packages
publisher=Ark Linux
accessdate=2008-02-23]

IcedTea is available in Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon), from the "universe" repository. [cite web
url=http://packages.ubuntu.com/gutsy/interpreters/icedtea-java7-jre
title=Ubuntu -- Details of icedtea-java7-jre in gutsy
publisher=Ubuntu Packages
accessdate=2007-10-26] and IcedTea6 in 8.04 (Hardy Heron) [cite web
url=http://packages.ubuntu.com/hardy/interpreters/openjdk-6-jre
title=Ubuntu -- Details of package openjdk-6-jre in hardy
publisher=Ubuntu Packages
accessdate=2008-07-12] .

IcedTea is available in Fedora (operating system) 8 and IcedTea6 in Fedora 9 (as java-1.6.0-openjdk), from the "yum" repository.

Packages (ebuilds) for IcedTea6 are available in an unofficial repository (the java-overlay overlay) in Gentoo

It can be built and run under Debian [cite web
url=http://icedtea.classpath.org/wiki/DebianBuildingInstructions
title=Debian Building Instructions
publisher=IcedTea Wiki
accessdate=2008-05-21] . Binary packages were submitted on 20 April 2008 but were rejected due to licensing problems with some files [cite web
url=http://ftp-master.debian.org/new/openjdk-6_6b09-1.html
title=openjdk-6 - Debian NEW package overview
publisher=Debian ftp-master
accessdate=2008-05-21] [cite web
url=http://icedtea.classpath.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=138
title=jdk6 - GPL-compatible free software licenses and documented copyrights and licenses
accessdate=2008-07-12] . A new package was uploaded in June 2008 [cite web
url=http://ftp-master.debian.org/new/openjdk-6_6b10dfsg-1.html
title=openjdk-6 - Debian NEW package overview
publisher=Debian ftp-master
accessdate=2008-07-12] and entered unstable on 12 July 2008.

Architecture

OpenJDK contained approximately (on release in May 2007) 4% [http://www.sun.com/software/opensource/java/faq.jsp#h encumbered code] , which was only packaged as binary plugs. These were required to build and use the JDK. OpenJDK6 was released with only 1% encumbered code, and sound support has also since been replaced. IcedTea6 is based on this release. IcedTea6 still provides web browser support, Web Start support and some Sound.

IcedTea replaces the binary plugs with the equivalent GNU Classpath code, compiles it all using GCJ and optionally bootstraps itself using the HotSpot Java Virtual Machine and the javac Java compiler it just built. [cite web
url=http://gnu.wildebeest.org/diary/2007/06/07/icedtea/
title=IcedTea
last=Wielaard|first=Mark
date=2007-06-07
accessdate=2007-06-09] .

See also

* Free Java implementations
* GNU Classpath
* OpenJDK
* Java Class Library

References

External links

* [http://icedtea.classpath.org/wiki//Main_Page IcedTea main page]
* [http://icedtea.classpath.org/wiki/FrequentlyAskedQuestions#Functionality_and_Testing IcedTea Status]
* [http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.java.openjdk.distro-packaging.devel/5 IcedTea announcement]
* [http://developer.classpath.org/pipermail/classpath/2007-June/002109.html Classpath mailing list announcement]
* [http://fitzsim.org/blog/?p=17 Thomas Fitzsimmons (Red Hat developer) blog entry announcing IcedTea]
* [http://gbenson.net/?p=44 Guide to porting IcedTea]
* [http://blogs.sun.com/barton808/entry/openjdk_and_icedtea_a_view OpenJDK and IcedTea, A view from the Fedora side]