com.sun.jdi
Interface ClassLoaderReference

All Superinterfaces:

Mirror, ObjectReference, Value

public interface ClassLoaderReference
extends ObjectReference

A class loader object from the target VM. A ClassLoaderReference is an ObjectReference with additional access to classloader-specific information from the target VM. Instances ClassLoaderReference are obtained through calls to ReferenceType.classLoader()

Since:

1.3

See Also:

ObjectReference

Field Summary

Fields inherited from interface com.sun.jdi.ObjectReference

INVOKE_NONVIRTUAL, INVOKE_SINGLE_THREADED

Method Summary

List<ReferenceType>	definedClasses() Returns a list of all loaded classes that were defined by this class loader.
List<ReferenceType>	visibleClasses() Returns a list of all classes for which this class loader has been recorded as the initiating loader in the target VM.

Methods inherited from interface com.sun.jdi.ObjectReference

disableCollection, enableCollection, entryCount, equals, getValue, getValues, hashCode, invokeMethod, isCollected, owningThread, referenceType, referringObjects, setValue, uniqueID, waitingThreads

Methods inherited from interface com.sun.jdi.Value

type

Methods inherited from interface com.sun.jdi.Mirror

toString, virtualMachine

Method Detail

definedClasses

List<ReferenceType> definedClasses()

Returns a list of all loaded classes that were defined by this class loader. No ordering of this list guaranteed.

The returned list will include reference types loaded at least to the point of preparation and types (like array) for which preparation is not defined.

Returns:

a List of ReferenceType objects mirroring types loaded by this class loader. The list has length 0 if no types have been defined by this classloader.

visibleClasses

List<ReferenceType> visibleClasses()

Returns a list of all classes for which this class loader has been recorded as the initiating loader in the target VM. The list contains ReferenceTypes defined directly by this loader (as returned by definedClasses()) and any types for which loading was delegated by this class loader to another class loader.

The visible class list has useful properties with respect to the type namespace. A particular type name will occur at most once in the list. Each field or variable declared with that type name in a class defined by this class loader must be resolved to that single type.

No ordering of the returned list is guaranteed.

See the revised Java Virtual Machine Specification section 5.3 Creation and Loading for more information on the initiating classloader.

Note that unlike definedClasses() and VirtualMachine.allClasses(), some of the returned reference types may not be prepared. Attempts to perform some operations on unprepared reference types (e.g. fields()) will throw a ClassNotPreparedException. Use ReferenceType.isPrepared() to determine if a reference type is prepared.

Returns:

a List of ReferenceType objects mirroring classes initiated by this class loader. The list has length 0 if no classes are visible to this classloader.