Native Image Committer and Community Meeting 2026-04-30

[wirthi]

List of all past and upcoming meetings: #3933

The meeting will be at our regular time of 17:00 CET: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?iso=20260430T08&p1=224

The meeting after this one is planned for May 28th, 2026. The meeting will typically be on the last Thursday of each month.

PRs listed below were closed between March 25th and April 29th (roughly).

New and Noteworthy

Native Image Builder Improvements

• Extract code from the sequential duringAnalysis phase
  • [GR-74374] Remove LocalizationFeature.duringAnalysis and replace localization rescans with cache substitutions. #13249
    (PR description) Moves localization-cache work out of sequential duringAnalysis by replacing Locale/resource-bundle caches with lazy runtime substitutions.
  • [GR-74383] Avoid LoggingFeature analysis rescans by reconstructing the PlatformLogger cache #13347
    (PR description) Removes LoggingFeature analysis rescans and reconstructs the PlatformLogger weak cache late from otherwise reachable build-time loggers, with focused reconstruction tests.
• Decouple Feature classes from ImageSingletons
  • [GR-74498] Split OpenTypeWorldFeature support singleton. #13279
  • [GR-74489] Split small hosted diagnostics and resource-reporting support singletons. #13283
  • [GR-74505] Split ImageHeapCollection support singleton. #13284
  • [GR-74456] Split enum switch support state. #13255
  • [GR-74460] Split Log4Shell warning support singleton. #13267
• [GR-74506] Decouple automatically registered image singletons from features. #13372

Native Image Layers

• [GR-73869] Don't automatically add CWD if no class path is specified in shared layer builds #13383
  • Will simplify layered build configurations with Maven/Gradle
• [GR-73852] Make @SingletonTraits mandatory for all builder singletons #13390
  • Adds a check that all builder singletons carry @SingletonTraits, making singleton traits explicit and enforceable.
  • Now we have all singletons categorized as RuntimeAccessOnly/BuildtimeAccessOnly/AllAccess
• [GR-74318] [GR-74382] Resolve base-layer methods from BaseLayerType #13368
  • Avoids incomplete metadata failures in layered Spring scenarios. Fixes layered app-layer method resolution for methods declared by BaseLayerType.
• Additional bug fixes in layers
  • [GR-74860] Preserve layered reflection dynamic access metadata #13392
  • [GR-73997] Ensure deleted types are not included in the image #13208
  • [GR-74859] Ensure devirtualized interface call target method implementor type is marked as instantiated #13353
  • [GR-74168] Handle null original invoke in context-sensitive registration #13224
  • [GR-74295] Ensure DynamicHub enum helper is visible in the initial layer #13207

Project Crema

• Open World Analysis
  • [GR-74861] Build SimpleLanguage Native Image with open world analysis #13356
  • [GR-73662] Update invoke flow saturation for open world analysis. #13139
• Runtime Improvements
  • [GR-74302] Use URLClassPath for built-in app loader resources #13240
    • Improving compatibility with JDK resource loading behavior: switch built-in application loader resource lookup to URLClassPath.
  • [GR-74354] Support module-path modules in crema runtime #13307
    • Adds module-path module support in the Crema runtime, broadening application and module compatibility.
• Interpreter
  • [GR-73965] [GR-73509] [GR-74360] Add interpreter access checks #13340
    • Adds interpreter-side type/member access checks and aligns interpreter metadata with JVM access semantics.
  • [GR-73667] Store interpreter native entry points as MethodOffsets when RelativeCodePointers is enabled #13242
    • Stores interpreter native entry points as MethodOffsets when relative code pointers are enabled, moving native entry-point metadata toward a relocatable representation.
  • [GR-69097] Crema: Implement declared exceptions and fix isTrustedFinal #13393
  • [GR-74002] Add missing Crema field access checks #13366
  • [GR-74357] [GR-75024] Fix some crema edge cases. #13400
  • [GR-74863] Improve run-time-loaded array types #13335
  • [GR-63035] Add CFI markers to interpreter stubs #13388
  • [GR-73719] Share PreparedSignature and PreparedArgumentType. #13237
• JIT (Ristreto)
  • [GR-71160] Dispatch to JIT compiled methods from crema stubs #13328
    • Enables Crema stubs to dispatch to JIT-compiled methods, a major step toward mixing interpreted runtime execution with compiled code.
  • [GR-70200] Crema: add support for DYNAMIC constants #13211
    • Wire JVMCI constant-pool support for Ristretto & implement runtime interpreter constant-pool resolution for DYNAMIC constants.
  • [GR-74495] Ristretto: Fix monitor relocking during interpreter deoptimization. #13271

Project Terminus: Towards (the analysis of) "Hello, Espresso World!" #12236

• [GR-71745] Use EspressoExternalVMAccess in Standalone Points-to Analysis #13329
  (PR description) Moves standalone points-to analysis to the shared VMAccess abstraction for resolving application classes, centralizing guest/host isolation behavior.
• [GR-73160] [GR-73874] [GR-74022] [GR-74023] Porting ImageHeapPrimitiveArray for Terminus #13188
  (PR description) Refactors ImageHeapPrimitiveArray so primitive array data is represented as guest JavaConstants instead of raw arrays.
• [GR-70728] Refactor ImageHeapScanner rescans to use guest-owned ResolvedJavaFields #13339
  (PR description) Refactors ImageHeapScanner rescans to use original guest-owned ResolvedJavaFields, tightening the API contract and reducing hosted reflection lookups.
• [GR-72093] [GR-72717] [GR-74854] Refine image heap rescan APIs #13382
• [GR-74276] Introduce VMAccess#clonePrimitiveArray #13225
• [GR-74277] Introduce VMAccess#copyArray #13226
• [GR-74278] Use bulk primitive arraycopy in class-init simulation #13350
• [GR-74882] Refactor standalone analysis tests #13363

Streamline reachability metadata

• Tripled the amount of supported libraries (370) on the metadata repo. Target for next week: 1000.
• New command in Native Build Tools to support all third-party libraries: Add listLibrariesMissingMetadata task/goal for Gradle and Maven graalvm/native-build-tools#877

./gradlew listLibrariesMissingMetadata -PcreateIssues=true -PgithubToken=<token>

• Native Image Committer and Community Meeting 2026-04-30 #13424
  (summarized change) Collect exact metadata by building an image in a loop.

Usability

• [GR-73875] Added --print-options flag and automated BuildOptions.md sync #13206
  (summarized change) Adds --print-options and automates BuildOptions.md synchronization, improving option discoverability and reducing stale documentation.
• [GR-74994] Support substituted default VM args in launchers #13399
• [GR-73118] Remove need to initialize Apple security providers at build time #13298
  (summarized change) Removes the need to initialize Apple security providers at build time, reducing platform-specific build-time initialization requirements.
• [GR-74321] Improve error messages when reporting failures regarding @Uninterruptible. #13362
  (summarized change) Improves diagnostics for @Uninterruptible failures, making hosted/runtime constraint violations easier to understand.
• [GR-74895] Ensure ArchiveSupport extracts to intended directory #13345
• [GR-63996] Use relative paths only for files in build path. #13287
• [GR-74940] Fix faulty format string for non-static entry point method error message #13360

Monitoring / Tooling / Debugging

• [GR-67169] JFR emergency dump #13243 (Robert Toyonaga, IBM)
  (PR description) Adds Native Image JFR emergency-dump support and hardens the runtime for OOM and recovered-OOM paths, including allocation-free emergency stop handling.
• [GR-74802] Guard OOME JFR rotation by installed support #13352

Garbage Collector / Memory Management

• [GR-36675] Add support for relocations-free CGlobalData access through image-heap on AMD64 #13346
  (summarized change) Adds relocations-free CGlobalData access through the image heap on AMD64, a larger runtime/code-generation change for native data access.
• [GR-73278] Access ThreadLocal offsets directly from VMThreadLocalCollector via VMThreadLocalOffsetProvider interface. #13280

Other & fixes

• [GR-60332] Intrinsify MemorySegment.get/set before analysis. #13215
  (PR description) Improves FFM MemorySegment.get/set performance by devirtualizing sealed interface calls before analysis and making the relevant methods available for method-handle intrinsification.
• [GR-73925] Support build-time initialization of downcall handles. #13309
  (PR description) Supports build-time initialization and intrinsification of unbound FFM downcall handles by transforming native entry points into relocatable runtime objects.
• [GR-49923] [GR-49920] Make bundle path maps portable. #13295
  (PR description) Makes Native Image bundle path maps portable across platforms; version 1.0 bundles rewrite path-taking arguments for cross-platform replay while preserving support for older bundles.
• [GR-73520] Move CGlobalData related classes to guest staging #13325
  (PR description) Moves guest-facing CEntryPoint and CGlobalData APIs to guest staging packages as part of the Terminus builder/guest-context boundary work.
• [GR-74900] Build-time initialize ICU4J data for character properties and case folding. #13395
• [GR-73795] Minimize requiresInit module list. #13214
• [GR-66493] Follow-up cleanup to option change #13204
• [GR-75053] Tighten AMD64 fence marking #13403
• [GR-74281] Add the target method to the GOTCall class #13342
• [GR-74161] Add declaration for pread. #13276
• [GR-73871] Apply Python 3.8-compatible pylint fixes across graal suites #13203
• [GR-74304] Fix base pointer clobbering in bytecode handlers. #13266
• [GR-74849] Use compact extracted bundle maps for localization #13331
• [GR-74846] Handle shared arena safe accessor fallbacks #13334

Truffle and language-related

• [GR-70924] Make the fallback Truffle runtime the default host runtime for polyglot isolates. #13410
  (summarized change) Makes the fallback Truffle runtime the default host runtime for polyglot isolates, including SVM integration and VM gate updates.
• [GR-74847] Adding polyglot isolate dependency on Truffle runtime. #13373

Other repository / infrastructure

• [GR-73792] Added CE polyglot isolate build and deploy. #13407
• [GR-72123] Update ASM to 9.8. #13367 (Oleksandr Porunov)

Questions

Update on releases

We are planning to provide releases of our master branch, based on JDK25, in the near future.

• planning to go to a 1-month release cycle
• with very short or no feature freeze times (think: promoted builds)
• probably last Thursday of the month, starting May.
• expected name/version is along the lines (to be confirmed) "(Oracle) GraalVM 25.1.0"

Oracle in general will likely go to a 1-month CPU cycle instead of the traditional 3-month cycle.

GraalVM Deep Dives: no topic today.