Java tutorial
/* * Copyright (c) 1996, 2013, 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 * under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 only, as * published by the Free Software Foundation. Oracle designates this * 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 * 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 Oracle, 500 Oracle Parkway, Redwood Shores, CA 94065 USA * or visit www.oracle.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. * * <p><strong>Warning: Deserialization of untrusted data is inherently dangerous * and should be avoided. Untrusted data should be carefully validated according to the * "Serialization and Deserialization" section of the * {@extLink secure_coding_guidelines_javase Secure Coding Guidelines for Java SE}. * {@extLink serialization_filter_guide Serialization Filtering} describes best * practices for defensive use of serial filters. * </strong></p> * * 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: * * <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 restored by reading data from the ObjectInputStream for * the individual fields and making assignments to the appropriate fields * of the object. Reading primitive data types is supported by DataInput. * * <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: * * <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. * * <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>: * * <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 * @see java.io.ObjectOutputStream * @see java.io.ObjectInputStream * @see java.io.ObjectOutput * @see java.io.ObjectInput * @see java.io.Externalizable * @since 1.1 */ public interface Serializable { }