Java Deprecation of the Solaris and SPARC Ports (JEP 372)

Java 16 introduced the deprecation of the Solaris and SPARC ports of the Java platform, which means that these ports will no longer be supported in a future release. The Solaris port is a version of the Java platform that has been optimized for the Solaris operating system, which is a version of the Unix operating system developed by Oracle. The SPARC port is a version of the Java platform that has been optimized for the SPARC architecture, which is a type of processor architecture developed by Oracle.

The deprecation of the Solaris and SPARC ports is a result of the declining usage of these platforms and the increasing popularity of other platforms, such as Linux and x86. Oracle has decided to focus its resources on supporting the platforms that are most widely used and that offer the best performance and compatibility with the Java platform.

Here is an example of how to check whether the Solaris or SPARC ports are supported in a Java application:

if (System.getProperty("os.name").contains("Solaris")) {
  System.out.println("Solaris is deprecated and will not be supported in a future release");
}

if (System.getProperty("os.arch").contains("sparc")) {
  System.out.println("SPARC is deprecated and will not be supported in a future release");
}

In this example, we are using the System.getProperty method to get the value of the os.name and os.arch properties, which represent the name and architecture of the operating system, respectively. We are then using the contains method to check whether the properties contain the strings "Solaris" or "sparc", which indicate that the Solaris or SPARC ports are being used. If either of these conditions is true, we are printing a message indicating that the corresponding port is deprecated and will not be supported in a future release.

If you are using the Solaris or SPARC ports of the Java platform, it is important to be aware of the deprecation and to plan for a migration to a supported platform. Oracle has not announced a specific date for the end of support for these ports, but it is likely to happen in the next few years.