PMD Release Notes

30-January-2026 - 7.21.0-SNAPSHOT

The PMD team is pleased to announce PMD 7.21.0-SNAPSHOT.

This is a minor release.

🚀️ New and noteworthy

Changed Rules

The following rules have been changed to use a consistent implementation of enum based rule properties:

• The property checkAddressTypes of rule AvoidUsingHardCodedIP has changed:
  • Instead of IPv4 use ipv4
  • Instead of IPv6 use ipv6
  • Instead of IPv4 mapped IPv6 use ipv4MappedIpv6
  • The old values still work, but you’ll see a deprecation warning.
• The property nullCheckBranch of rule ConfusingTernary has changed:
  • Instead of Any use any
  • Instead of Then use then
  • Instead of Else use else
  • The old values still work, but you’ll see a deprecation warning.
• The property typeAnnotations of rule ModifierOrder has changed:
  • Instead of ontype use onType
  • Instead of ondecl use onDecl
  • The old values still work, but you’ll see a deprecation warning.
• The values of the properties of rule CommentRequired have changed:
  • Instead of Required use required
  • Instead of Ignored use ignored
  • Instead of Unwanted use unwanted
  • The old values still work, but you’ll see a deprecation warning.

🐛️ Fixed Issues

• core
  • #6184: [core] Consistent implementation of enum properties

🚨️ API Changes

Deprecations

• core
  • MetricOption#valueName: When metrics are used for (rule) properties, then the conventional enum mapping (from SCREAMING_SNAKE_CASE to camelCase) will be used for the enum values. See conventionalEnumListProperty.
  • In PropertyFactory:
    • enumProperty(String, Map). Use conventionalEnumProperty instead.
    • enumProperty(String, Class). Use conventionalEnumProperty instead.
    • enumProperty(String, Class, Function). Use conventionalEnumProperty instead.
    • enumListProperty(String, Map). Use conventionalEnumListProperty instead.
    • enumListProperty(String, Class, Function). Use conventionalEnumListProperty instead.
• java
  • AvoidBranchingStatementAsLastInLoopRule#CHECK_FOR. This constant should have never been public.
  • AvoidBranchingStatementAsLastInLoopRule#CHECK_DO. This constant should have never been public.
  • AvoidBranchingStatementAsLastInLoopRule#CHECK_WHILE. This constant should have never been public.
  • AvoidBranchingStatementAsLastInLoopRule#CHECK_BREAK_LOOP_TYPES. This property descriptor should have been private. It won’t be used anymore. Use getPropertyDescriptor on the rule to retrieve the property descriptor.
  • AvoidBranchingStatementAsLastInLoopRule#CHECK_CONTINUE_LOOP_TYPES. This property descriptor should have been private. It won’t be used anymore. Use getPropertyDescriptor on the rule to retrieve the property descriptor.
  • AvoidBranchingStatementAsLastInLoopRule#CHECK_RETURN_LOOP_TYPES. This property descriptor should have been private. It won’t be used anymore. Use getPropertyDescriptor on the rule to retrieve the property descriptor.
  • AvoidBranchingStatementAsLastInLoopRule#check. This method should have been private and will be internalized.
  • AvoidBranchingStatementAsLastInLoopRule#hasPropertyValue. This method should have been private and will be internalized.
  • AvoidBranchingStatementAsLastInLoopRule#checksNothing. This method should have been private and will be internalized.
  • ClassFanOutOption#valueName, CycloOption#valueName, NcssOption#valueName
• lang-test
  • AbstractMetricTestRule#optionMappings. No extra mapping is required anymore. The MetricOption enum values are used. See AbstractMetricTestRule(Metric, Class) to provide the enum at construction time.

✨️ Merged pull requests

📦️ Dependency updates

📈️ Stats