I am cloning this bug because we recently moved our project (Candlepin) to Java17 and we are stuck because we cannot compile our translation classes any more. Can you please include this fix in RHEL9?

+++ This bug was initially created as a clone of Bug #2062407 +++

Description of problem:
I noticed while building jmol that every invocation of msgfmt failed, e.g.:

update-application-catalog-lang:
     [echo] msgfmt Updating messages_ar.class file for Jmol ...
     [exec] msgfmt: Java compiler not found, try installing gcj or set $JAVAC
     [exec] msgfmt: compilation of Java class failed, please try --verbose or set $JAVAC
     [exec] 65 translated messages, 3 fuzzy translations, 380 untranslated messages.
     [exec] Result: 1

Setting JAVAC does *not* help.  I used strace to see how javac is invoked and found the problem: msgfmt passes -target 1.6, and sometimes -source 1.6, to javac.  Now that OpenJDK 17 is the default in Fedora, those arguments are no longer valid.  I don't remember if the minimum allowed is 1.7 or 1.8, but it is one of the two.  Since Fedora doesn't ship a JDK lower than 1.8, then 1.8 might as well be used.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
gettext-0.21-11.fc37.0.20220228

How reproducible:
Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. fedpkg clone jmol
2. cd jmol
3. fedpkg srpm
4. mock -r fedora-rawhide-x86_64 --rebuild jmol-14.32.22-1.fc37.src.rpm

Actual results:
The msgfmt invocations all fail.

Expected results:
The msgfmt invocations should succeed.

Additional info:

--- Additional comment from Mamoru TASAKA on 2022-03-20 14:16:57 UTC ---

So the simple reproducer for this is:

$ mock --verbose -r fedora-rawhide-x86_64 --uniqueext gettext-test --init
$ mock --verbose -r fedora-rawhide-x86_64 --uniqueext gettext-test --install java-devel gettext
$ mock --verbose -r fedora-rawhide-x86_64 --uniqueext gettext-test --copyin ./ar.po /builddir/build/BUILD
$ mock --verbose -r fedora-rawhide-x86_64 --uniqueext gettext-test --chroot -- msgfmt  --statistics --java2 -l ar -d /builddir/build/BUILD/TMP -r org.jmol.translation.Jmol.ar.Messages /builddir/build/BUILD/ar.po

Then:
msgfmt: Java compiler not found, try installing gcj or set $JAVAC
msgfmt: compilation of Java class failed, please try --verbose or set $JAVAC
65 translated messages, 3 fuzzy translations, 380 untranslated messages.
DEBUG: Child return code was: 1

--- Additional comment from Mamoru TASAKA on 2022-03-20 14:25:47 UTC ---

So this is actually msgfmt calls javac with "-source 1.5 -target 1.6" explicitly:
 
  see gettext-tools/src/write-java.c "compile_java_class" call in "msgdomain_write_java" and related functions in gettext-tools/gnulib-lib/javacomp.c .

The attached patch is a draft for fixing this issue. Note that get_goodcode_snippet() and get_failcode_snippet() may need more adjustment: I guess get_goodcode_snippet() needs the code which compiles with JDK17 but fails with JDK11, however I don't know such code in detail.

--- Additional comment from Mamoru TASAKA on 2022-03-30 11:50:50 UTC ---

Are there any updates here? I think all needed information is provided.

--- Additional comment from Jens Petersen on 2022-03-31 03:27:32 UTC ---

Thank you very much, Tasaka-san!

Sorry, Sundeep has been away on holiday for two weeks.

I have added your patch to the rawhide branch.

We have one more problem: currently gettext-0.21 FTBFS on F36+.
So we have a git snapshot currently in Rawhide,
but maybe we can use that for F36 now to address this.

--- Additional comment from Jens Petersen on 2022-03-31 03:28:20 UTC ---

Can you try testing gettext-0.21-13.fc37.0.20220203 to see if it works for you?

--- Additional comment from Mamoru TASAKA on 2022-03-31 07:16:05 UTC ---

Yes, gettext-0.21-13.fc37.0.20220203 looks working. Thank you.