Appendix E. Targeting multiple Java versions with multi-release JARs
It’s never easy to decide which Java version to require for your project. On the one hand, you want to give users the freedom of choice, so it would be nice to support several major versions, not just the newest one. On the other hand, you’re dying to use the newest language features and APIs. From Java 9 on, there’s a new JVM feature, multi-release JARs (MR-JARs), that helps you reconcile these opposing forces—at least, under some circumstances.
MR-JARs allow you to ship bytecode for different Java versions in the same artifact. You can then rely on the JVM to load the classes that you compiled for the most recent version it supports. Starting with a project that runs successfully ...
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