Java: Ensure we are not using non-free parts of Java

[John-Holt-Tessella]

See http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/12/16/oracle_targets_java_users_non_compliance/

Kevin has emailed Tom letting him know.

[kjwoodsISIS]

From: Griffin, Tom (STFC,RAL,ISIS)
Sent: 19 December 2016 11:33
To: Woods, Kevin (Tessella,RAL,ISIS)
Subject: RE: Java is not free ...

... We are rolling out some asset software that should allow us to manage and report on this across PCs and servers. I’ve also passed a note to some of the development teams and will raise it the next STFC IT Committee. ...

[kjwoodsISIS]

Commercial features of Java SE are described here: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/terms/products/index.html
See especially Table 1-1.
See also Oracle Binary Code License Agreement for the JAVA SE Platform Products

[kjwoodsISIS]

The following features of Java SE:

• Java Flight Recorder
• Java Mission Control
• Java Advanced Management Console
• MSI Enterprise JRE Installer
• JRockit Flight Recorder
• JRockit Mission Control Console observability
• JRockit Mission Control Memory Leak Detector observability
• JRE Usage Tracking
• JRockit Real Time, Deterministic GC

all attract a license fee.

We should check to see which (if any) we use. By checking, I mean positively confirm and document whether we use each of the features listed above.

[DominicOram]

I was bored and did some quick research:

• Flight Recorder and Mission control require the -XX:+UnlockCommercialFeatures compiler flag to be set at the very least. We do not use this flag.
• JRockit is a separate JVM that we do not use so we cannot use any of the JRockit features.

[Tom-Willemsen]

• The Java Usage Tracker is disabled by default. To enable it, a special file has to be created in the JRE directory. Everyone would need to check that they do NOT have any of the following files in any JRE that is installed:
  <JRE directory>/conf/management/usagetracker.properties
<JRE directory>/lib/management/usagetracker.properties