java - Why is -server option there when server VM is the default option?

Question

The help menu for java command says that -server option is to select the "server" VM. It also states that 'server' is the default option. Why so redundant?

edit:

If it is of any help, "java -version" yields:

java version "1.8.0_191"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (buil 1.8.0_191-b12)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.191-b12, mixed mode)

Answer 1

-client and -server are ignored on modern JVMs, as easy as that. There are two JITcompilers C1 and C2, but there are 5 tiers, all the details in the entire glory are here in the comments.

These flags used to control how C1 and C2 would act - disable or not; this is now controlled by two other flags : XX:-TieredCompilation -XX:TieredStopAtLevel=1