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Java changes in 2019

From April 2019, Oracle, the vendor of the Java programming language, changed its terms and conditions for the use of the Java runtime environment (JRE) which StrataBugs depends on. You can read about the changes here. The essence is that from this point, updates to Java for commercial use are only available from Oracle on a subscription basis. You can continue to use releases of Java that were produced up to this point, but not versions with the latest security patches.

Java is an open source product and Oracle is not the only vendor now offering a Java runtime environment, so there are alternatives available if you wish to continue to use the latest java updates and do not want to take out a support contract with Oracle.

The launcher program for StrataBugs, which is called StrataBugs.exe or StrataBugs_diagnostic.exe, on the Windows platform, has been updated (23 July 2019) to recognise a user configured java location, specified by setting the environment variable JSBUGS21_JRE. Without this setting, StrataBugs.exe will continue to look for the most appropriate version of java for your platform in "Program Files (x86)\java" (for 32-bit downloads) and "Program Files\java" (for 64-bit downloads).

Updating the StrataBugs launcher

You will need to use the updater and select the "latest" version, to ensure you have the new launcher applications. You should have a version of StrataBugs.exe in your v2.1 folder which dates from 23 July 2019.

Installing an alternative Java environment

There are several JRE builds available. One example is Amazon Coretto. You can also use Adopt Open JDK but this version only now distributes the full java development kit rather than the just runtime environment. The version of java you need to download must match your platform (i.e. Lindows, Linux etc.), the version number of java supported by StrataBugs and the 32 bit or 64-bit version of StrataBugs downloaded. If you downloaded the 64 bit version of StrataBugs then you will need to install the 64-bit JRE. If you downloaded the 32 bit version of StrataBugs then you will need to install the 32-bit JRE, even if you are running on 64-bit Windows. For StrataBugs 2.1 you can use Java 8, 11 or 12 (or Java 7, but this is now obsolete).

Setting up the environment variable

From the Windows key, search for "Edit Environment Variables for your Account". Add a variable called JSBUGS21_JRE and set the value to the root location of the java environment you installed above. This folder should contain the \bin folder with the application java.exe within. For example, using 64-bit Adopt Open JRE, the value of the JSBUGS21_JRE variable might be:

C:\Program Files\AdoptOpenJDK\jre-8.0.212.04-hotspot

You can now start StrataBugs using StrataBugs.exe.