Changes in 7.2.0

Start of 7.2.0. This page is Work in Progress.

Bnd/Bndtools 7.2.0

Release date: TBD

See the Release section of the README and the Installation page for where to find Bnd/Bndtools.

• See Pull Requests (Without Github Actions PRs here, only breaking changes here)
  • TBD update the URL date range

Bnd / bndlib core

• new Warning when using -include. See -include: Show warning on counter-intuitive overwriting of properties
• new pedantic warning on duplicate properties in same .bnd file (https://github.com/bndtools/bnd/pull/6501)
• Java 24 & 25: Added support for JDK 24 and JDK 25. That means that bnd knows about packages of those newer JDKs and will consider them when calculating Import and Export versions.
• less pedantic warnings "Imports that lack version ranges" for JDK packages (https://github.com/bndtools/bnd/pull/6508)
• less pedantic "Duplicate name" warnings for Require-Capability, Provide-Capability and Export-Package (https://github.com/bndtools/bnd/pull/6502)
• P2Exporter: Major improvements on the P2Exporter for exporting P2 repositories. Support for SHA-256 checksums and P2 Signing (pgp.signatures) was added. We even use this now to create the P2 repository for bndtools itself (eating our own dogfood) (https://github.com/bndtools/bnd/pull/6808)
• new -nosubstitution instruction to disable package substitution globally (comparable to -noimport:=true) (see https://bnd.bndtools.org/instructions/nosubstitution.html) (https://github.com/bndtools/bnd/pull/6847)
• [Deprecation] Deprecate Search/Query feature in BndPomRepository: (https://github.com/bndtools/bnd/pull/6760)
• Releasing to Maven Central: Reworked the releaser to work with new Sonatype Central Publisher Portal

Bndtools Eclipse Plugin

• New Effective tab in Bnd Editors for .bnd and .bndrun files** which shows you what bnd "sees". This new editor is comparable to the "Effective POM" view known from Eclipse Maven. It shows can show actual resolved values of the current files, show merged properties and also errors you might have in macros. It also shows you where a certain value is coming from (provenance). It contains a table and source code view for easy copy pasting.

• Repo Browser: Performance improvements and fix of memory leak (https://github.com/bndtools/bnd/pull/6554)
• Repo Browser: new Refresh Cache (with re-download) action (https://github.com/bndtools/bnd/pull/6435)
• Repo Browser: Improvements for Eclipse Source Lookup for -sub Bundles. This makes the source code location available to Eclipse when working with Sub-Bundles, so that you can jump to the source code of dependencies used in this such sub-bundles (https://github.com/bndtools/bnd/pull/6463)
• Repo Browser: New "Add Sources" action for BndPomRepository (https://github.com/bndtools/bnd/pull/6581)
• Repo Browser: show the bnd-cache repo: This internal Repo was previously hidden. Making it visible helps developers to know what's going on behind the scenes e.g. because this bnd-cache contains the ProjectLauncher which is automatically added to exportable .jars. But so far it has been unclear where this launcher is magically coming from. (https://github.com/bndtools/bnd/pull/6764)
• Warning markers are now properly shown in -sub Bundles .bnd files, making it easier to know where exactly the problem is (https://github.com/bndtools/bnd/pull/6470)
• New ECF Remote Services included in bndtools (see news article) (https://github.com/bndtools/bnd/pull/6513)
• Updated development Eclipse instance to 2023-12 (this is the Eclipse version which bndtools is built against and which is launched when developing for bndtools. So this is only relevant for contributors)
• New BndRun-Analyzer: Do "Right-click / Analyze bndrun..." on one or more .bndrun files to get a small report. Currently it outputs unreferenced Bundles (Bundle Symbolic Names over all repositories, which are not in -runbundles, -buildpath, -testpath, or ${repo;...} references e.g. in -includeresources). This helps to find orphaned repository entries which could be removed. (https://github.com/bndtools/bnd/pull/6589)
• Fix duplicate search results in Open Type dialog (https://github.com/bndtools/bnd/pull/6597)
• Tooltips for instructions / headers in bnd editors (mainly source view) now contain help link to the bnd-manual. This makes it easier to get more help for an instruction. (https://github.com/bndtools/bnd/pull/6657)
  • Also improved the bnd manual which is now partly auto-generated for Header / Instructions / Commands. That way the docs are more up-to-date as some details and options are generated from meta-data in source code (https://github.com/bndtools/bnd/pull/6659)
• Bndtools Explorer: Add decorator for Undeclared package(s) on the project indicating that the project contains at least one package that is non-empty but is neither in -privatepackage or Export-Package. This is in addition to the existing decorator icons on package level, but with the advantage that you know see it afftected projects right away at the highest level (https://github.com/bndtools/bnd/pull/6781, https://github.com/bndtools/bnd/pull/6787)

Bugfixes

• Fix a bug in the Launcher when used with JDK >= 24 (related to removed Java Security Manager) (https://github.com/bndtools/bnd/pull/6371)
• Fix NPE in Resolve when running without a project (https://github.com/bndtools/bnd/pull/6382)
• Fix regression in build when META-INF/services in a jar is empty or contains no files but only subfolders (https://github.com/bndtools/bnd/pull/6388)
• [Resolver] Fix Bundle version being removed from resolution saved to .bndrun (https://github.com/bndtools/bnd/pull/6537)
• Bnd Run Editor: Various usability improvements and fixes of race-conditions e.g. when clicking too fast, or some things not refreshing after saving (https://github.com/bndtools/bnd/pull/6550, https://github.com/bndtools/bnd/pull/6551)
• fix wrong quoting of directives (https://github.com/bndtools/bnd/pull/6564)
• fix "Missing system library" error in Eclipse > 2024-12 (https://github.com/bndtools/bnd/pull/6577)
• Add dependencies in sub-bundle pom.xml when using -pom:true in combination with -sub (https://github.com/bndtools/bnd/pull/6726)
• MavenBndRepo: Fix for Already closed error (https://github.com/bndtools/bnd/pull/6763)

Bndtools m2e

• TBD

Bnd CLI / Command Line

• Change bnd build to also compile, because bnd compile alone just compiles .java files to .class files, but will fail for workspace bundles which require another bundle. (https://github.com/bndtools/bnd/pull/6675)
• add new Template Fragment functionality from bndtools Eclipse to the CLI (https://github.com/bndtools/bnd/pull/6685)
• new bnd add fragment command e.g. bnd add fragment osgi gradle which adds two templates for osgi and gradle to the current workspace. (see https://bnd.bndtools.org/commands/add.html#available-sub-commands)
• new --fragment option for bnd add workspace (e.g. bnd add workspace --fragment osgi --fragment gradle myworkspace) (see https://bnd.bndtools.org/commands/add.html#workspace)
• When installing templates from 3rd party developers a confirmation dialog is displayed for security purposes
• Experimental: new Commands: bnd dev & bnd build -watch for continuous build run workflow (see https://bnd.bndtools.org/commands/dev.html). This allows IDE-independent live coding workflow known from the javascript / npm world e.g. "vue-cli serve" (see) which starts a dev-webserver and allows for hot code reloading when changes are detected. It is an attempt to make the Eclipse experience of "Build automatically" available, but without Eclipse - so theoretically you can use any text editor VSCode, vim / neovim etc. (https://github.com/bndtools/bnd/pull/6768)

Documentation

• Better Fulltext Search for bnd manual. Try out the little magnifier icon in the top right corner of https://bnd.bndtools.org/

Bnd Maven Plugins

• TBD

Bnd Gradle Plugins

Backward compatibility

• All Bnd artifacts are built to run on Java 17 or later.
• Bndtools is built to run on Eclipse 4.25 (2022-09) or later. So Bndtools may not run on older versions of Eclipse.
• Bndtools m2e is built to run on Eclipse m2e 2.0.5 or later. So Bndtools m2e may not run on older versions of Eclipse m2e.
• The Bnd Maven plugins require a minimum of Maven 3.3.9. The bnd-generate-maven-plugin's poorly named goal bnd-generate has been renamed generate
• The Bnd Gradle plugins require a minimum of Gradle 7.3.
• The Bnd Gradle plugins and tasks underwent an update for 7.0. A number of previously deprecated conventions have been removed.

Known Issues

• Windows 10 users: Windows 10 Defender significantly slows down Eclipse, reason being Windows 10 Defender scanning the JAR files. The problem has been reported to Microsoft here. Until then, a workaround to this problem is to add Eclipse root directory to Windows 10 Defender’s exclusion list, detailed steps are shared here.

  Note: This is not just an Eclipse issue on Windows 10.

  See also Bnd Tips for Windows users.

Git log

* TBD