1 /*
   2  * Copyright (c) 1998, 2013, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
   3  * DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER.
   4  *
   5  * This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
   6  * under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 only, as
   7  * published by the Free Software Foundation.  Oracle designates this
   8  * particular file as subject to the "Classpath" exception as provided
   9  * by Oracle in the LICENSE file that accompanied this code.
  10  *
  11  * This code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
  12  * ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
  13  * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License
  14  * version 2 for more details (a copy is included in the LICENSE file that
  15  * accompanied this code).
  16  *
  17  * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License version
  18  * 2 along with this work; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
  19  * Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.
  20  *
  21  * Please contact Oracle, 500 Oracle Parkway, Redwood Shores, CA 94065 USA
  22  * or visit www.oracle.com if you need additional information or have any
  23  * questions.
  24  */
  25 
  26 package com.sun.jdi;
  27 
  28 import java.util.List;
  29 
  30 /**
  31  * A class loader object from the target VM.
  32  * A ClassLoaderReference is an {@link ObjectReference} with additional
  33  * access to classloader-specific information from the target VM. Instances
  34  * ClassLoaderReference are obtained through calls to
  35  * {@link ReferenceType#classLoader}
  36  *
  37  * @see ObjectReference
  38  *
  39  * @author Gordon Hirsch
  40  * @since  1.3
  41  */
  42 public interface ClassLoaderReference extends ObjectReference {
  43 
  44     /**
  45      * Returns a list of all loaded classes that were defined by this
  46      * class loader. No ordering of this list guaranteed.
  47      * <P>
  48      * The returned list will include reference types
  49      * loaded at least to the point of preparation and
  50      * types (like array) for which preparation is
  51      * not defined.
  52      *
  53      * @return a List of {@link ReferenceType} objects mirroring types
  54      * loaded by this class loader. The list has length 0 if no types
  55      * have been defined by this classloader.
  56      */
  57     List<ReferenceType> definedClasses();
  58 
  59     /**
  60      * Returns a list of all classes for which this class loader has
  61      * been recorded as the initiating loader in the target VM.
  62      * The list contains ReferenceTypes defined directly by this loader
  63      * (as returned by {@link #definedClasses}) and any types for which
  64      * loading was delegated by this class loader to another class loader.
  65      * <p>
  66      * The visible class list has useful properties with respect to
  67      * the type namespace. A particular type name will occur at most
  68      * once in the list. Each field or variable declared with that
  69      * type name in a class defined by
  70      * this class loader must be resolved to that single type.
  71      * <p>
  72      * No ordering of the returned list is guaranteed.
  73      * <p>
  74      * See
  75      * <cite>The Java&trade; Virtual Machine Specification</cite>,
  76      * section 5.3 - Creation and Loading
  77      * for more information on the initiating classloader.
  78      * <p>
  79      * Note that unlike {@link #definedClasses()}
  80      * and {@link VirtualMachine#allClasses()},
  81      * some of the returned reference types may not be prepared.
  82      * Attempts to perform some operations on unprepared reference types
  83      * (e.g. {@link ReferenceType#fields() fields()}) will throw
  84      * a {@link ClassNotPreparedException}.
  85      * Use {@link ReferenceType#isPrepared()} to determine if
  86      * a reference type is prepared.
  87      *
  88      * @return a List of {@link ReferenceType} objects mirroring classes
  89      * initiated by this class loader. The list has length 0 if no classes
  90      * are visible to this classloader.
  91      */
  92     List<ReferenceType> visibleClasses();
  93 }