A class loader is an object that is responsible for loading classes. The class ClassLoader is an abstract class. Given the binary name of a class, a class loader should attempt to locate or generate data that constitutes a definition for the class. A typical strategy is to transform the name into a file name and then read a "class file" of that name from a file system.
Every Class object contains a reference to the ClassLoader that defined it. Class objects for array classes are not created by class loaders, but are created automatically as required by the Java runtime. The class loader for an array class, as returned by Class.getClassLoader() is the same as the class loader for its element type; if the element type is a primitive type, then the array class has no class loader. Applications implement subclasses of ClassLoader in order to extend the manner in which the Java virtual machine dynamically loads classes.
Class loaders may typically be used by security managers to indicate security domains. Class loaders may typically be used by security managers to indicate security domains. The ClassLoader class uses a delegation model to search for classes and resources. Each instance of ClassLoader has an associated parent class loader. When requested to find a class or resource, a ClassLoader instance will delegate the search for the class or resource to its parent class loader before attempting to find the class or resource itself. The virtual machine's built-in class loader, called the "bootstrap class loader", does not itself have a parent but may serve as the parent of a ClassLoader instance.
Class loaders that support concurrent loading of classes are known as parallel capable class loaders and are required to register themselves at their class initialization time by invoking the ClassLoader.registerAsParallelCapable method. Note that the ClassLoader class is registered as parallel capable by default. However, its subclasses still need to register themselves if they are parallel capable. In environments in which the delegation model is not strictly hierarchical, class loaders need to be parallel capable, otherwise class loading can lead to deadlocks because the loader lock is held for the duration of the class loading process (see loadClass methods).
我们将支持并行的类加载器称之为parallel capable class loaders,它被要求在它们的类初始化期间通过ClassLoader.registerAsParallelCapable方法将自身注册上。注意,ClassLoader默认注册为parallel capable。然而它们的子类如果也是并行的,仍然需要注册。 在委派模式不是严格的层次化环境下,类加载器需要并行,否则类加载会导致死锁,因为加载器的锁在加载过程中是一直持有的。
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Normally, the Java virtual machine loads classes from the local file system in a platform-dependent manner. For example, on UNIX systems, the virtual machine loads classes from the directory defined by the CLASSPATH environment variable. However, some classes may not originate from a file; they may originate from other sources, such as the network, or they could be constructed by an application. The method defineClass converts an array of bytes into an instance of class Class. Instances of this newly defined class can be created using Class.newInstance.
The methods and constructors of objects created by a class loader may reference other classes. To determine the class(es) referred to, the Java virtual machine invokes the loadClass method of the class loader that originally created the class. For example, an application could create a network class loader to download class files from a server. Sample code might look like: ClassLoader loader = new NetworkClassLoader(host, port); Object main = loader.loadClass("Main", true).newInstance(); . . . The network class loader subclass must define the methods findClass and loadClassData to load a class from the network. Once it has downloaded the bytes that make up the class, it should use the method defineClass to create a class instance. A sample implementation is: class NetworkClassLoader extends ClassLoader { String host; int port; public Class findClass(String name) { byte[] b = loadClassData(name); return defineClass(name, b, 0, b.length); } private byte[] loadClassData(String name) { // load the class data from the connection . . . } } 由类加载器所创建的对象的方法或构造方法可能会引用其他的类。为了确定所引用的类,java虚拟机会调用最初创建这个类的loadClass方法去加载它所引用的其他的类。 比如说,一个应用可以创建一个网络类加载器,从服务器上加载类: ClassLoader loader = new NetworkClassLoader(host, port); Object main = loader.loadClass("Main", true).newInstance(); . . . 网络类加载器子类必须定义网络加载类的方法findClass和loadClassData 。 一旦下载构成类的字节,它应该使用方法defineClass创建一个类实例: class NetworkClassLoader extends ClassLoader { String host; int port; public Class findClass(String name) { byte[] b = loadClassData(name); return defineClass(name, b, 0, b.length); } private byte[] loadClassData(String name) { // load the class data from the connection . . . } }