Pre-Java 9 -source and -target options

The -source option specifies the Java SE version and has the following acceptable values:

Value	Description
1.3	javac does not support features introduced after Java SE 1.3.
1.4	javac accepts code with language features introduced in Java SE 1.4.
1.5 or 5	javac accepts code with languages features introduced in Java SE 1.5.
1.6 or 6	javac reports encoding errors as errors instead of warnings. Of note, no new language features were intruded with Java SE 1.6.
1.7 or 7	javac accepts code with language features introduced in Java SE 1.7. This is the default value if the -source option is not used.

The -target option tells javac what version of the JVM to target. The acceptable values for the -target option are--1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5 or 5, 1.6 or 6 and 1.7 or 7. If the -target option is not used, the default JVM target is dependent on the value used with the -source option. Here is a table of -source values with their associated -target:

-source value	default -target
unspecified	1.7
1.2	1.4
1.3	1.4
1.4	1.4
1.5 or 5	1.7
1.6 or 6	1.7
1.7	1.7