Why does javac emit “error: method in class cannot be applied to given types” when an instance method is used in a static context?

Question

Consider the following (invalid) Java program:

public class Test {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        int[] ints = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5};
        print(ints);
    }

    public void print(int... ints) {
        for (int i : ints) { 
            System.out.print(i);
        }
    }
}

I would expect an error similar to this:

Cannot make a static reference to the non-static method print(int[]) from the type Test
at Test.main(Test.java:5)

but instead, javac emits:

Test.java:5: error: method print in class Test cannot be applied to given types;
    print(ints);
    ^
required: int[]
found: int[]
reason: varargs mismatch; int[] cannot be converted to int
1 error

javac -version javac 1.8.0_11 java -version

java version "1.8.0_11"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_11-b12)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.11-b03, mixed mode)

This came about in this question. Is this a bug in javac? Or am I missing something dead obvious here?

Answer 1

This is a bug and has been reported as JDK-8055514. (By you?)