| /* | |
| * Copyright (c) 1998, 2024, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | |
| * DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER. | |
| * | |
| * This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it | |
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| * particular file as subject to the "Classpath" exception as provided | |
| * by Oracle in the LICENSE file that accompanied this code. | |
| * | |
| * This code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT | |
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| * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License | |
| * version 2 for more details (a copy is included in the LICENSE file that | |
| * accompanied this code). | |
| * | |
| * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License version | |
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| */ | |
| /** | |
| * Provides classes and interfaces for obtaining reflective information about | |
| * classes and objects. Reflection allows programmatic access to information | |
| * about the fields, methods, and constructors of loaded classes, and the use | |
| * of reflected fields, methods, and constructors to operate on their underlying | |
| * counterparts, within encapsulation and security restrictions. | |
| * | |
| * <p>Classes in this package, along with {@code java.lang.Class} | |
| * accommodate applications such as debuggers, interpreters, object | |
| * inspectors, class browsers, and services such as Object | |
| * Serialization and JavaBeans that need access to either the public | |
| * members of a target object (based on its runtime class) or the | |
| * members declared by a given class. | |
| * | |
| * <p>{@link Array} provides static methods to dynamically create and | |
| * access arrays. | |
| * | |
| * <h2><a id="LanguageJvmModel">Java programming language and JVM modeling in core reflection</a></h2> | |
| * | |
| * The components of core reflection, which include types in this | |
| * package as well as {@link java.lang.Class Class}, {@link | |
| * java.lang.Package Package}, and {@link java.lang.Module Module}, | |
| * fundamentally present a JVM model of the entities in question | |
| * rather than a Java programming language model. A Java compiler, | |
| * such as {@code javac}, translates Java source code into executable | |
| * output that can be run on a JVM, primarily {@code class} | |
| * files. Compilers for source languages other than Java can and do | |
| * target the JVM as well. | |
| * | |
| * <p>The translation process, including from Java language sources, | |
| * to executable output for the JVM is not a one-to-one | |
| * mapping. Structures present in the source language may have no | |
| * representation in the output and structures <em>not</em> present in | |
| * the source language may be present in the output. The latter are | |
| * called <i>synthetic</i> structures. Synthetic structures can | |
| * include {@linkplain Method#isSynthetic() methods}, {@linkplain | |
| * Field#isSynthetic() fields}, {@linkplain Parameter#isSynthetic() | |
| * parameters}, {@linkplain Class#isSynthetic() classes and | |
| * interfaces}. One particular kind of synthetic method is a | |
| * {@linkplain Method#isBridge() bridge method}. It is possible a | |
| * synthetic structure may not be marked as such. In particular, not | |
| * all {@code class} file versions support marking a parameter as | |
| * synthetic. A source language compiler generally has multiple ways | |
| * to translate a source program into a {@code class} file | |
| * representation. The translation may also depend on the version of | |
| * the {@code class} file format being targeted as different {@code | |
| * class} file versions have different capabilities and features. In | |
| * some cases the modifiers present in the {@code class} file | |
| * representation may differ from the modifiers on the originating | |
| * element in the source language, including {@link Modifier#FINAL | |
| * final} on a {@linkplain Parameter#getModifiers() parameter} and | |
| * {@code protected}, {@code private}, and {@code static} on | |
| * {@linkplain java.lang.Class#getModifiers() classes and interfaces}. | |
| * | |
| * <p>Besides differences in structural representation between the | |
| * source language and the JVM representation, core reflection also | |
| * exposes runtime specific information. For example, the {@linkplain | |
| * java.lang.Class#getClassLoader() class loaders} and {@linkplain | |
| * java.lang.Class#getProtectionDomain() protection domains} of a | |
| * {@code Class} are runtime concepts without a direct analogue in | |
| * source code. | |
| * | |
| * @jls 13.1 The Form of a Binary | |
| * @jvms 1.2 The Java Virtual Machine | |
| * @jvms 4.7.8 The Synthetic Attribute | |
| * @jvms 5.3.1 Loading Using the Bootstrap Class Loader | |
| * @jvms 5.3.2 Loading Using a User-defined Class Loader | |
| * @since 1.1 | |
| */ | |
| package java.lang.reflect; |