Java 18 will be Java 18 was released in March 2022. It is not an LTS release and will be obsoleted at the release of Java 19 in September 2022.
Status: Initial Release CandidatePage last updated: 2022-02-16, EA 36.
Schedule:
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2021-12-09 Rampdown Phase One
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2022-01-20 Rampdown Phase Two
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2022-02-10 Initial Release Candidate
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2022-02-24 Final Release Candidate
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General Availability
Resources:
Selected Changes Targeted to Java 18
JEP 400: UTF-8 by Default
JEP 408: Simple Web Server
JEP 413: Code Snippets in Java API Documentation
JEP 418: Internet-Address Resolution SPI
JEP 420: Pattern Matching for switch (Second Preview)
JEP 421: Deprecate Finalization for Removal
JDK-8256425: Obsolete Biased Locking
JDK-8275145: file.encoding system property has an incorrect value on Windows
“The initialization of
file.encodingsystem property on non macOS platforms has been reverted to align with the behavior on/before JDK 11. This has been an issue especially on Windows where the system and user's locales are not the same.“Implication: this issue is present in Java 17.
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Other Notes
JEP 411 (Deprecate the Security Manager for Removal, implemented in Java 17) notes that:
"In Java 18, we will prevent a Java application or library from dynamically installing a Security Manager unless the end user has explicitly opted to allow it."
"In Java 18 and later, we will degrade other Security Manager APIs so that they remain in place but with limited or no functionality."