Microsoft Build of OpenJDK – April 2023 Release

Bruno Borges

We are happy to announce the latest April 2023 patch & security update release for the Microsoft Build of OpenJDK. See the release notes for detailed changes present in the Microsoft Build of OpenJDK binaries. And download or install the binaries today.

Check our release notes page for details on fixes and enhancements. As a reminder, the source code of our builds are now available on GitHub for further inspection: jdk17u and jdk11u.

New Experimental Feature

We continue to experiment an improved Escape Analysis. You can read more from our October release. To enable this feature, developers must use the following JVM flags:

-XX:+UnlockExperimentalVMOptions -XX:+ReduceAllocationMerges

Join the discussion on the new Escape Analysis work by visiting our respective GitHub repositories for Escape Analysis work on OpenJDK 11, and Escape Analysis work on OpenJDK 17.

Class Data Sharing enabled in JDK 17 binaries

We have now enabled the CDS archives in the MIcrosoft Build of OpenJDK 17 binaries for Linux, Windows, and macOS for x64 architecture. For all other versions and architectures, CDS archives can be generated after the JDK installation by calling java -Xshare:dump.

Non-root user in container images

We have now included a non-root user in the container images for developers interested in enhanced security at the container level. The images now contain the user app, which can be used like in the following example:

FROM mcr.microsoft.com/openjdk/jdk:17-mariner

WORKDIR /home/app
COPY japp.jar japp.jar
USER app

CMD ["java", "-jar", "/opt/app/japp.jar"]

In the above example, the application binary is copied as root, since the images remain with root by default. The application then is executed as app. The folder /home/app is also owned by user app, giving the application a writeable filesystem.

Purge of Azul Zulu for Azure artifacts

Announced in June 30th, 2021, the Azul Zulu for Azure builds of OpenJDK are no longer supported and no longer updated. The repositories holding those binaries have been removed or will be removed at some point soon by Azul Systems. Users are urged to move to Microsoft Build of OpenJDK binaries for Java 11 and Java 17, or Eclipse Temurin for Java 8.

Important: On December 31st, 2023, the remaining artifacts and container images will be purged from public repositories. Ensure your build pipelines move to an up to date build of OpenJDK.

Bruno Borges Principal PM Manager, Java Engineering Group

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