OpenJDK, the basis for Oracle’s edition of standard Java (Java SE), soon could be hosted on GitHub, a move that could aid Java developers.

Currently, repos for the OpenJDK project are on an Oracle-hosted Mercurial server. But Project Skara, which is an ongoing effort to examine new infrastructure for OpenJDK, could have the repos moving over to Git-based repos, including possibly GitHub or other host.

If development of standard Java moves to GitHub, developers would have at their disposal a lot of tools for automation. Such a move also could be useful for Java developers working on projects besides the JDK (Java Development Kit), said Georges Saab, chair of the OpenJDK governing board and vice president of software development in the Java platform group at Oracle.

By using GitHub, developers would have access to familiar resources being used to develop the JDK itself. Microsoft-owned GitHub’s management, meanwhile, is interested in becoming a tool used in the enterprise, he added.

A decision to move would be made in the OpenJDK community, Saab said. It could happen in the timeframe of JDK 12, which is due in March 2019, or possibly afterward.

By moving OpenJDK to GitHub, OpenJDK would be in company with the enterprise variant of Java. Oracle’s Java Enterprise Edition (EE) repos already had been hosted on GitHub. That project has since been succeeded by Jakarta EE at the Eclipse Foundation. But it, too, can be found on GitHub.