Building GraalVM-Enabled JDK8 on CircleCI

Setting the Stage

In this blog post, we will explore the process of building a GraalVM-enabled JDK 8 on CircleCI. GraalVM is a high-performance runtime that provides significant performance improvements for Java applications. Integrating GraalVM into JDK 8 allows developers to leverage its features while continuing to work with an older version of Java.

Prerequisites

Before we begin, ensure that you have the following prerequisites in place:

• Access to a CircleCI account
• A GitHub repository containing a Java project that you want to build with a GraalVM-enabled JDK 8
• Basic knowledge of Java and CircleCI configuration

Setting Up CircleCI Configuration

To get started, create a .circleci directory at the root of your project. Inside this directory, create a configuration file named config.yml. This file will define the build steps and workflow for your project.

version: 2.1

jobs:
  build:
    docker:
      - image: circleci/openjdk:8-jdk

    steps:
      - checkout

      - run:
          name: Install native-image
          command: |
            gu install native-image

      - run:
          name: Build native image
          command: |
            native-image --version
            native-image -jar path/to/your.jar

Here, we define a build job that uses the circleci/openjdk:8-jdk Docker image as the base image. We then install the native-image utility provided by GraalVM and use it to build a native image of our Java application.

Integrating GraalVM with JDK 8

To integrate GraalVM with JDK 8, we need to download the GraalVM distribution and set it up in our build environment. We can achieve this by modifying our CircleCI configuration to download and install the GraalVM distribution.

jobs:
  build:
    docker:
      - image: circleci/openjdk:8-jdk

    steps:
      - checkout

      - run:
          name: Download and extract GraalVM
          command: |
            curl -L -o graalvm-ce-java8-linux-amd64-20.3.0.tar.gz https://github.com/graalvm/graalvm-ce-builds/releases/download/vm-20.3.0/graalvm-ce-java8-linux-amd64-20.3.0.tar.gz
            tar -xvf graalvm-ce-java8-linux-amd64-20.3.0.tar.gz
            export GRAALVM_HOME=`pwd`/graalvm-ce-java8-20.3.0

In this snippet, we download the GraalVM distribution for JDK 8 and extract it into our build environment. We then set the GRAALVM_HOME environment variable to point to the extracted GraalVM directory.

Building the GraalVM-Enabled JDK 8

With GraalVM integrated into our build environment, we can now use it to build a GraalVM-enabled JDK 8. We can achieve this by invoking the native-image utility provided by GraalVM and specifying the GraalVM JDK 8 as the target platform.

jobs:
  build:
    docker:
      - image: circleci/openjdk:8-jdk

    steps:
      - checkout

      - run:
          name: Download and extract GraalVM
          command: |
            curl -L -o graalvm-ce-java8-linux-amd64-20.3.0.tar.gz https://github.com/graalvm/graalvm-ce-builds/releases/download/vm-20.3.0/graalvm-ce-java8-linux-amd64-20.3.0.tar.gz
            tar -xvf graalvm-ce-java8-linux-amd64-20.3.0.tar.gz
            export GRAALVM_HOME=`pwd`/graalvm-ce-java8-20.3.0

      - run:
          name: Build native image with GraalVM-enabled JDK 8
          command: |
            $GRAALVM_HOME/bin/native-image --version
            $GRAALVM_HOME/bin/native-image -jar path/to/your.jar

By specifying the $GRAALVM_HOME/bin/native-image command in the CircleCI configuration, we instruct CircleCI to use the GraalVM-enabled JDK 8 to build the native image of our Java application.

Closing the Chapter

In this post, we discussed the process of building a GraalVM-enabled JDK 8 on CircleCI. By integrating GraalVM into our JDK 8 build environment, we can take advantage of its performance improvements and native image generation capabilities. This allows us to enhance the performance and efficiency of our Java applications even when working with older versions of Java.

By following the steps outlined in this post, you can leverage the benefits of GraalVM in your Java projects and optimize the performance of your applications.

Now that you have the knowledge and the configuration in place, go ahead and try building a GraalVM-enabled JDK 8 on CircleCI with your own Java project.

Remember, GraalVM brings an exciting opportunity for Java developers to enhance their applications. Happy coding!

For further reading and exploring more about GraalVM, consider checking out the official GraalVM documentation.

Happy coding!