How to use Application Class-Data Sharing feature of java 10?

There are three essential steps to creating and using an archive with application class-data (for more details, read my post about application class-data sharing):

1. Creating a list of classes to include in the archive:

   java -XX:+UseAppCDS
       -XX:DumpLoadedClassList=classes.lst
       -jar app.jar
   

2. Creating an archive:

   java -XX:+UseAppCDS -Xshare:dump 
       -XX:SharedClassListFile=classes.lst
       -XX:SharedArchiveFile=app-cds.jsa
       --class-path app.jar
   

3. Using the archive:

   java -XX:+UseAppCDS -Xshare:on 
       -XX:SharedArchiveFile=app-cds.jsa
       -jar app.jar
   

Keep the following in mind:

• you can’t use wildcards or exploded JARs for the class path when creating the archive
• the class path used to launch the application must have the one used to create the archive as a prefix
• if you have any problems, use -Xlog:class+load (more on -Xlog) to get more information

The JEP for AppCDS has the example show casing how to add your application classes to shared archive. As for the restrictions, there are few:

1. Straight classes (.class) present in directory on class path cannot be added to the shared archive. See this thread.
2. Classes loaded by custom class loaders cannot be added to the shared archive. See this thread.

There are other practical considerations to be aware of when using CDS/AppCDS, such as:

1. If you update the jar files on the file system, then you will have to recreate the shared archive.
2. If you are using Java or JVMTI agent(s) that modify/re-transform/redefine the class file at run-time, then the shared archive won't be useful as the classes will be loaded from the disk since the agents need actual classfile data which I believe is not stored in the shared archive.

Another nice and detailed article on CDS and AppCDS is https://simonis.github.io/cl4cds/.

Author of the article has also written a tool that allows sharing of application classes even if they get loaded by a custom class loaders.

If you are interested in using CDS, you can also try OpenJ9 JVM which has this feature for a long time and is much more mature and complete. Read more about it here.