Java tutorial
/* * Copyright (c) 2003, 2004, 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.lang.annotation; /** * Annotation retention policy. The constants of this enumerated type * describe the various policies for retaining annotations. They are used * in conjunction with the {@link Retention} meta-annotation type to specify * how long annotations are to be retained. * * @author Joshua Bloch * @since 1.5 */ public enum RetentionPolicy { /** * Annotations are to be discarded by the compiler. */ SOURCE, /** * Annotations are to be recorded in the class file by the compiler * but need not be retained by the VM at run time. This is the default * behavior. */ CLASS, /** * Annotations are to be recorded in the class file by the compiler and * retained by the VM at run time, so they may be read reflectively. * * @see java.lang.reflect.AnnotatedElement */ RUNTIME }