JDK-8193662 : Release Note: Class File Version Number is 54.0
  • Type: Sub-task
  • Component: client-libs
  • Affected Version: 10
  • Priority: P4
  • Status: Closed
  • Resolution: Delivered
  • Submitted: 2017-12-15
  • Updated: 2019-04-09
  • Resolved: 2018-01-19
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JDK 10
10Resolved
Description
The class file version has been changed from 53 (or 44 + 9) to 54 (44 +10), even though JDK 10 did not introduce other changes to the class file format.  

The OpenJDK community has adopted a new [time-based](https://mreinhold.org/blog/forward-faster#Proposal) release model, in which major releases of the Java platform occur every 6 months. As a consequence, it is anticipated that class file changes will also occur more rapidly. To ensure predictability for the tooling that processes class file bytes, the class file version will be incremented every major release even if there are no other changes to the class file format. In effect, the class file version will be 44 + $FEATURE, where $FEATURE is the feature-release counter (previously referred to as the major number) of the [Java SE Platform and the JDK version string](http://openjdk.java.net/jeps/322).