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Thrilled to be presenting at Devnexus 2023

I'm thrilled to announce that I've been selected as a speaker at Devnexus 2023, the long-running professional developer conference held in Atlanta. If you may not be familiar with it, I'll talk about the event a bit more below, as well as offer a discount code to attend.

As for my session, it will be "Transitioning to Java 17 from 11 or 8 for Admins":

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Beware that latest Oracle JDK installers will REMOVE older JDK installs of that version

Here's something new to beware if you may run the Oracle JDK installer for the recently updated Java 11 or 17, whether on Windows, macOS, or via RPM: the new Oracle jdk installer WILL REMOVE any older previous versions of that JVM version created by previous JDK installers of the same major version. (Note that this issue does not affect those who implement java by extracting it from a compressed file, like a zip or tar.gz.)

Update: Since I posted this last night, I've heard some people assert "this is not new behavior: Java's always popped up and offered to remove old versions". Those folks are misunderstanding something: that was true of past JRE installers (like in Java 8 and earlier, which don't exist for Java 11), but it was never the case for Oracle JDK installers (even for Java 8). THAT's what's new about the JDK 11 and 17 installers, and it's DOCUMENTED in the release notes, as I discuss below. But it may surprise those who never saw a JDK installer do that, thus this post. (The rest of this post remains unchanged.)

I'm referring here to new behavior in the JDK installers from the Jan 2023 update, which I blogged about recently. This topic will apply also to subsequent JVM updates as they come out in the future. (Fortunately for some, this issue does NOT affect those running Java 8 or below, or Java 19 or above, as I will explain.)

While the technotes for the new updates (which I point to in my post above) do make mention of the issue I'm describing, I don't feel they do it in as obvious a manner as they might (it's not clear how it affects CURRENTLY installed earlier updates of JDK 11 or 17)., and I've already helped some people dealing with the ramifications of the change. And of course it's all the MORE important to make sure this is made known to those who might NOT read the release notes.

I've also found that the JDK installer doesn't ALWAYS warn that there are running processes using the older JDK version that it's about to remove. And to be clear, it won't warn about applications that are NOT running but which are configured to try to use the older JDK version that would be removed.

Read on for:

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New updates released for Java 8, 11, 17, and 19 as of Jan 17 2023

Here's a heads-up that some will want to hear about: there are new JVM updates released today (Jan 17, 2023) for the current long-term support (LTS) releases of Oracle Java, 8, 11, and 17, as well as the current interim update 19. (Note that prior to Java 9, releases of Java were known technically as 1.x, so 8 is referred to in resources below as 1.8.)

TLDR: The new updates are 1.8.0_361 (aka 8u361), 11.0.18, 17.0.6, and 19.0.2 respectively). For more on each of them, including what changed and the security fixes they each contain (including their CVE scores regarding urgency of concerns), see the Oracle resources I list below. Oracle calls them "critical patch updates" (yep, CPU), but they are in fact scheduled quarterly updates, so that "critical" nomenclature may be a bit overstated. And as is generally the case with these Java updates, most of them have the same changes and fixes as each other, though not always.

Update: After posting this, I learned of some rather surprising implications of a new feature of the new JDK installer. For more, see another post I created.

For some folks, that's all they need to hear. For others, read on for topics like:

  • Finding more info on these Jan 2023 Java updates
  • What about other JVM distributions besides Oracle?
  • News for my CF audience (getting the Java updates from Adobe or Oracle, how to update, why you should NOT for now use Java 17 with CF, etc)
  • Should you apply the update? how soon?
  • Beware a change in the Oct 22 JVM update regarding Java no longer trusting jars signed with SHA-1
  • Beware a change in the April 2021 JVM update, if you may be skipping over it
  • Wrapping up, getting more help

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New updates released for Java 8, 11, 17, and 19 as of Oct 18 2022

Here's a heads-up that some will want to hear about: there are new JVM updates released today (Oct 18, 2022) for the current long-term support (LTS) releases of Oracle Java, 8, 11, and 17, as well as the new interim update 19. (Note that prior to Java 9, releases of Java were known technically as 1.x, so 8 is referred to in resources below as 1.8.)

TLDR: The new updates are 1.8.0_351, (aka 8u351), 11.0.17, 17.0.5, and 19.0.1 respectively). And as is generally the case with these Java updates, most of them have the same changes and fixes as each other (though not always).

Update: After posting this, I learned of some rather surprising implications of a new feature of the new JDK installer. For more, see a new section on this below.

Oracle calls them "critical patch updates" (yep, CPU), but they are in fact scheduled quarterly updates, so take that "critical" nomenclature for what it is. For more on each of them, including what changed and the several security fixes they each contain (including their CVE scores regarding urgency of concerns), see the Oracle resources I list below. And if you may be skipping to this from a JVM update from before Apr 2021, I share also a bit more info as well as for users of Adobe ColdFusion (including where to find the updated Java versions from Adobe, what JVM versions Adobe CF supports, and more).

For some folks, that's all they need to hear. For others, read on for topics like:

  • Finding more info on these Oct 2022 Java updates
  • News for my CF audience (getting the Java updates from Adobe or Oracle, how to update, why you should NOT for now use Java 17 with CF, etc)
  • Should you apply the update? how soon?
  • Beware a change in the Oct 22 JVM update regarding Java no longer trusting jars signed with SHA-1
  • Beware a change in the April 2021 JVM update, if you may be skipping over it
  • Wrapping up, getting more help

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New updates released for Java 8, 11, 17, and 18 as of Jul 19 2022

Here's a heads-up that some will want to hear about: there are new JVM updates released today (Jul 19, 2022) for the current long-term support (LTS) releases of Oracle Java, 8, 11, and 17, as well as the new interim update 18. (Note that prior to Java 9, releases of Java were known technically as 1.x, so 8 is referred to in resources below as 1.8.)

TLDR: The new updates are 1.8.0_341, (aka 8u341), 11.0.16, 17.0.4, and 18.0.1 respectively). And as is generally the case with these Java updates, most of them have the same changes and fixes as each other (though not always).

Oracle calls them "critical patch updates" (yep, CPU), but they are scheduled quarterly updates, so take that "critical" nomenclature for what it is. For more on each of them, including what changed and the several security fixes they each contain (including their CVE scores regarding urgency of concerns), see the Oracle resources I list below. I also a bit more if you may be skipping to this from a JVM update from before Apr 2021, as well as info for Adobe ColdFusion users on where to find the updated Java versions, what JVM versions Adobe CF supports, and more.

For some folks, that's all they need to hear. For others, read on for topics like:

  • Finding more info on these Jul 2022 Java updates
  • News for my CF audience (getting the Java updates from Adobe or Oracle, how to update, why you should NOT for now use Java 17, etc)
  • Should you apply the update? how soon?
  • Beware a change in the April 2021 JVM update, if you may be skipping over it
  • Wrapping up, getting more help

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Java 10 added a var keyword that is quite different from that in CFML

Did you know that Java 10 (and above) has added use of a "var" keyword in variable declaration? Note that it's quite different from CFML's var keyword.

This is NOT something that CF developers NEED to know, and it WILL NOT affect anyone's CFML code.

I just thought I'd share news of it as I happened to learn of it today (though Java 10 came out nearly 5 years ago). More than anything, I thought it worth mentioning for the sake of either CF folks or Java folks who may come to work with CFML, to help each group understand how that Java var keyword is so very different from the one used in ColdFusion, for better or worse.

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New updates released for Java 8, 11, 17, and 18 as of Apr 2022

New JVM updates have been released today (Apr 19, 2022) for the current long-term support (LTS) releases of Oracle Java, 8, 11, and 17, as well as the new interim update 18. (Note that prior to Java 9, releases of Java were known technically as 1.x, to 8 is referred to in resources below as 1.8.)

The new updates are 1.8.0_331, (aka 8u331), 11.0.15, 17.0.3, and 18.0.1 respectively). And as is generally the case with these Java updates, most of them have the same changes and fixes.

For more on them, including changes as well as the security and bug fixes they each contain, see the Oracle resources I list below, as well as some additional info I offer for if you may be skipping to this from a JVM update from before Apr 2021. I also offer info for Adobe ColdFusion users on where to find the updated Java versions, what JVM versions Adobe CF supports, and more.

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New updates released for Java 8, 11, and 17, as of Jan 2022

New JVM updates have been released last week (Jan 18, 2022) for the current long-term support (LTS) releases of Oracle Java, 8, 11, and 17. (Note that prior to Java 9, releases of Java were known technically as 1.x, to 8 is referred to in resources below as 1.8.) I'd shared the news in a tweet last week, but was delayed in getting this post out.

The new updates are 1.8.0_321, (aka 8u321), 11.0.14, and 17.0.2, respectively).

For more on them, including information on the security fixes and bug fixes they each contain, see the Oracle resources I list below, as well as some additional info I offer for if you may be skipping to this from a JVM update from before Apr 2021, as well as info for Adobe ColdFusion users on where to find the updated Java versions, what JVM versions Adobe CF supports, and more.

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New updates released for Java 8 and 11 (and 17), Oct 2021

New JVM updates have been released yesterday (Oct 19, 2021) for the current long-term support (LTS) releases of Oracle Java, 8, 11, and 17. (Note that prior to Java 9, releases of Java were known technically as 1.x, to 8 is referred to in resources below as 1.8.) While the news has been announced by Oracle and shared in the IT press, I know that some of my readers don't necessarily follow those sources closely.

The new updates are 1.8.0_311, (aka 8u311), 11.0.13, and 17.0.1, respectively).

For more on them, including information on the security fixes and bug fixes they each contain, see the Oracle resources I list below, as well as some additional info I offer for if you may be skipping to this from a JVM update from before Apr 2021, as well as info for Adobe ColdFusion users on where to find the updated Java versions, what JVM versions Adobe CF supports, and more.

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Lots more to the current CF2021, 2018 prerelease than folks may realize

Have you checked out the many things coming in the updates for CF2021 and 2018 in prerelease the past few weeks? Anyone is welcome to join the prerelease, logging in with an Adobe account. It's a lot more substantial than I think most realize.

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