/*
* Copyright 1996-2005 Sun Microsystems, Inc. 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
* under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 only, as
* published by the Free Software Foundation. Sun designates this
* particular file as subject to the "Classpath" exception as provided
* by Sun in the LICENSE file that accompanied this code.
*
* This code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
* ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
* 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
* 2 along with this work; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
* Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.
*
* Please contact Sun Microsystems, Inc., 4150 Network Circle, Santa Clara,
* CA 95054 USA or visit www.sun.com if you need additional information or
* have any questions.
*/
package java.io;
/**
* Serializability of a class is enabled by the class implementing the
* java.io.Serializable interface. Classes that do not implement this
* interface will not have any of their state serialized or
* deserialized. All subtypes of a serializable class are themselves
* serializable. The serialization interface has no methods or fields
* and serves only to identify the semantics of being serializable. <p>
*
* To allow subtypes of non-serializable classes to be serialized, the
* subtype may assume responsibility for saving and restoring the
* state of the supertype's public, protected, and (if accessible)
* package fields. The subtype may assume this responsibility only if
* the class it extends has an accessible no-arg constructor to
* initialize the class's state. It is an error to declare a class
* Serializable if this is not the case. The error will be detected at
* runtime. <p>
*
* During deserialization, the fields of non-serializable classes will
* be initialized using the public or protected no-arg constructor of
* the class. A no-arg constructor must be accessible to the subclass
* that is serializable. The fields of serializable subclasses will
* be restored from the stream. <p>
*
* When traversing a graph, an object may be encountered that does not
* support the Serializable interface. In this case the
* NotSerializableException will be thrown and will identify the class
* of the non-serializable object. <p>
*
* Classes that require special handling during the serialization and
* deserialization process must implement special methods with these exact
* signatures: <p>
*
* <PRE>
* private void writeObject(java.io.ObjectOutputStream out)
* throws IOException
* private void readObject(java.io.ObjectInputStream in)
* throws IOException, ClassNotFoundException;
* private void readObjectNoData()
* throws ObjectStreamException;
* </PRE>
*
* <p>The writeObject method is responsible for writing the state of the
* object for its particular class so that the corresponding
* readObject method can restore it. The default mechanism for saving
* the Object's fields can be invoked by calling
* out.defaultWriteObject. The method does not need to concern
* itself with the state belonging to its superclasses or subclasses.
* State is saved by writing the individual fields to the
* ObjectOutputStream using the writeObject method or by using the
* methods for primitive data types supported by DataOutput.
*
* <p>The readObject method is responsible for reading from the stream and
* restoring the classes fields. It may call in.defaultReadObject to invoke
* the default mechanism for restoring the object's non-static and
* non-transient fields. The defaultReadObject method uses information in
* the stream to assign the fields of the object saved in the stream with the
* correspondingly named fields in the current object. This handles the case
* when the class has evolved to add new fields. The method does not need to
* concern itself with the state belonging to its superclasses or subclasses.
* State is saved by writing the individual fields to the
* ObjectOutputStream using the writeObject method or by using the
* methods for primitive data types supported by DataOutput.
*
* <p>The readObjectNoData method is responsible for initializing the state of
* the object for its particular class in the event that the serialization
* stream does not list the given class as a superclass of the object being
* deserialized. This may occur in cases where the receiving party uses a
* different version of the deserialized instance's class than the sending
* party, and the receiver's version extends classes that are not extended by
* the sender's version. This may also occur if the serialization stream has
* been tampered; hence, readObjectNoData is useful for initializing
* deserialized objects properly despite a "hostile" or incomplete source
* stream.
*
* <p>Serializable classes that need to designate an alternative object to be
* used when writing an object to the stream should implement this
* special method with the exact signature: <p>
*
* <PRE>
* ANY-ACCESS-MODIFIER Object writeReplace() throws ObjectStreamException;
* </PRE><p>
*
* This writeReplace method is invoked by serialization if the method
* exists and it would be accessible from a method defined within the
* class of the object being serialized. Thus, the method can have private,
* protected and package-private access. Subclass access to this method
* follows java accessibility rules. <p>
*
* Classes that need to designate a replacement when an instance of it
* is read from the stream should implement this special method with the
* exact signature.<p>
*
* <PRE>
* ANY-ACCESS-MODIFIER Object readResolve() throws ObjectStreamException;
* </PRE><p>
*
* This readResolve method follows the same invocation rules and
* accessibility rules as writeReplace.<p>
*
* The serialization runtime associates with each serializable class a version
* number, called a serialVersionUID, which is used during deserialization to
* verify that the sender and receiver of a serialized object have loaded
* classes for that object that are compatible with respect to serialization.
* If the receiver has loaded a class for the object that has a different
* serialVersionUID than that of the corresponding sender's class, then
* deserialization will result in an {@link InvalidClassException}. A
* serializable class can declare its own serialVersionUID explicitly by
* declaring a field named <code>"serialVersionUID"</code> that must be static,
* final, and of type <code>long</code>:<p>
*
* <PRE>
* ANY-ACCESS-MODIFIER static final long serialVersionUID = 42L;
* </PRE>
*
* If a serializable class does not explicitly declare a serialVersionUID, then
* the serialization runtime will calculate a default serialVersionUID value
* for that class based on various aspects of the class, as described in the
* Java(TM) Object Serialization Specification. However, it is <em>strongly
* recommended</em> that all serializable classes explicitly declare
* serialVersionUID values, since the default serialVersionUID computation is
* highly sensitive to class details that may vary depending on compiler
* implementations, and can thus result in unexpected
* <code>InvalidClassException</code>s during deserialization. Therefore, to
* guarantee a consistent serialVersionUID value across different java compiler
* implementations, a serializable class must declare an explicit
* serialVersionUID value. It is also strongly advised that explicit
* serialVersionUID declarations use the <code>private</code> modifier where
* possible, since such declarations apply only to the immediately declaring
* class--serialVersionUID fields are not useful as inherited members. Array
* classes cannot declare an explicit serialVersionUID, so they always have
* the default computed value, but the requirement for matching
* serialVersionUID values is waived for array classes.
*
* @author unascribed
* @version 1.31, 05/05/07
* @see java.io.ObjectOutputStream
* @see java.io.ObjectInputStream
* @see java.io.ObjectOutput
* @see java.io.ObjectInput
* @see java.io.Externalizable
* @since JDK1.1
*/
public interface Serializable {
}
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