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Serializable.java
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1998-09-22
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/*
* @(#)Serializable.java 1.7 98/07/01
*
* Copyright 1995-1998 by Sun Microsystems, Inc.,
* 901 San Antonio Road, Palo Alto, California, 94303, U.S.A.
* All rights reserved.
*
* This software is the confidential and proprietary information
* of Sun Microsystems, Inc. ("Confidential Information"). You
* shall not disclose such Confidential Information and shall use
* it only in accordance with the terms of the license agreement
* you entered into with Sun.
*/
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 in this 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;
* </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>
*
* @author unascribed
* @version 1.7, 07/01/98
* @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 {
}