We are happy to announce the general availability of Liberica Native Image Kit (NIK) versions 21.3.2 and 22.1.0. Being part of the security update release cycle, the builds contain a number of fixes and important enhancements.
Liberica Native Image Kit is a GraalVM-based tool that helps to convert JVM-based applications into native executables. Liberica NIK can be a great addition to your project as it minimizes resource consumption, accelerates the startup time of applications, and supports a wide range of platforms and languages. Moreover, the developers using Spring Boot can create native images seamlessly through a Cloud Native Buildpack that includes support for Spring and Liberica NIK.
Summary of fixes and enhancements
- Linux-AArch64 version now works on Redhat, CentOS, OEL and other Linux distros that have 64K page size.
--allow-incomplete-classpathoption is deprecated. What it did was basically link at image run time, which is now the default. To link at image build time, use the new--link-at-build-timeoption. Arguments, when specified, are package names or fully qualified class names. Used without arguments, it requires all classes to be present at image build time.- Implemented incremental, concurrent heap scanning during points-to analysis. This makes native image build times shorter.
- Optimize for Build time (-Ob) option to native-image that performs fewer optimizations, and disables method inlining.
- Added support for the following JFR events:
GarbageCollection,GCPhasePause,SafepointBegin,SafepointEnd,ExecutionSample. - A special Feature looks for vulnerable log4j libraries in native images and produces a warning if one is found.
All Liberica NIK builds contain the latest version of Liberica JDK with fixes and eliminated security issues.
Boost your skills in native image technology
If you are only getting acquainted with native images, you can refer to our series of articles that explain how to use Liberica NIK with the most popular Java frameworks:
- Generate a native executable with Spring Native — a version of Spring framework with built-in support for native images compilation
- Create a microservice with Micronaut framework, designed especially for facilitating microservices development
- Build a native image with Quarkus framework that natively supports GraalVM and MicroProfile APIs
Conclusion
BellSoft reaffirms its commitment to the goal of providing Java developers with a full stack of secure, performant, and affordable technologies. Liberica Native Image Kit will bring the development at your company to a new level: create tiny efficient containers and enjoy the support from a major OpenJDK contributor. So go ahead and download the latest version of Liberica NIK!
