Merge branch '3.3.x'

Closes gh-43074

Author: wilkinsona

spring-boot-project/spring-boot-docs/src/docs/antora/modules/reference/pages/packaging/native-image/advanced-topics.adoc

@@ -158,7 +158,7 @@ For further reading, please see {url-graal-docs-native-image}/metadata/Automatic
 [[packaging.native-image.advanced.custom-hints]]
 == Custom Hints
 
-If you need to provide your own hints for reflection, resources, serialization, proxy usage etc. you can use the `RuntimeHintsRegistrar` API.
+If you need to provide your own hints for reflection, resources, serialization, proxy usage and so on, you can use the `RuntimeHintsRegistrar` API.
 Create a class that implements the `RuntimeHintsRegistrar` interface, and then make appropriate calls to the provided `RuntimeHints` instance:
 
 include-code::MyRuntimeHints[]
@@ -183,6 +183,15 @@ include-code::MyRuntimeHintsTests[]
 
 
 
+[[packaging.native-image.advanced.custom-hints.static]]
+=== Providing Hints Statically
+If you prefer, custom hints can be provided statically in one or more GraalVM JSON hint files.
+Such files should be placed in `src/main/resources/` within a `+META-INF/native-image/*/*/+` directory.
+The xref:packaging/native-image/introducing-graalvm-native-images.adoc#packaging.native-image.introducing-graalvm-native-images.understanding-aot-processing[hints generated during AOT processing] are written to a directory named `+META-INF/native-image/{groupId}/{artifactId}/+`.
+Place your static hint files in a directory that does not clash with this location, such as `+META-INF/native-image/{groupId}/{artifactId}-additional-hints/+`.
+
+
+
 [[packaging.native-image.advanced.known-limitations]]
 == Known Limitations
 

spring-boot-project/spring-boot-docs/src/docs/antora/modules/reference/pages/packaging/native-image/introducing-graalvm-native-images.adoc

@@ -56,13 +56,15 @@ A Spring AOT processed application will typically generate:
 
 * Java source code
 * Bytecode (for dynamic proxies etc)
-* GraalVM JSON hint files:
+* GraalVM JSON hint files in `+META-INF/native-image/{groupId}/{artifactId}/+`:
  - Resource hints (`resource-config.json`)
  - Reflection hints (`reflect-config.json`)
  - Serialization hints (`serialization-config.json`)
  - Java Proxy Hints (`proxy-config.json`)
  - JNI Hints (`jni-config.json`)
 
+If the generated hints are not sufficient, you can also xref:packaging/native-image/advanced-topics.adoc#packaging.native-image.advanced.custom-hints[provide your own].
+
 
 
 [[packaging.native-image.introducing-graalvm-native-images.understanding-aot-processing.source-code-generation]]