GraalVM 22.1, the latest release of the Oracle-built polyglot runtime, features an early iteration of quick build mode for Native Image, the platform’s technology for ahead-of-time (AOT) compilation of Java code into a standalone executable.

GraalVM 22.1 was introduced April 26. With quick build mode, the compiler works in economy mode with fewer optimizations, resulting in much faster compilation times. Native Image AOT-compiles Java code to a standalone executable, known as a native image. Depending on the size and complexity of the application being compiled, the build process can take significant time, with GraalVM having to analyze and optimize an entire application and its dependencies. The developers of GraalVM found that quick build mode resulted in an 43% improvement in the overall build time.

Quick build mode is only recommended for development purposes because it optimizes build time at the expense of runtime performance and memory usage. For production, developers should use the default compilation mode. Plans call for more work to be done to quick build mode to improve runtime performance and speed up other build stage processes. Executable build times also are faster in GraalVM 22.1, thanks to performance improvements and memory footprint reduction of native-image.

GraalVM Community Edition can be downloaded from GitHub. GraalVM Enterprise builds can be downloaded from Oracle Technology Network.

Other new features and improvementsin GraalVM 22.1:

Paul Krill is an editor at large at InfoWorld, whose coverage focuses on application development.

Copyright © 2022 IDG Communications, Inc.

Copyright © 2022 IDG Communications, Inc.