/*

 * Copyright 2007-2009 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,

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 */

/**

 * Define interfaces and classes for the Java virtual machine to access files,

 * file attributes, and file systems.

 *

 * <p> The java.nio.file package defines classes to access files and file

 * systems. The API to access file and file system attributes is defined in the

 * {@link java.nio.file.attribute} package. The {@link java.nio.file.spi}

 * package is used by service provider implementors wishing to extend the

 * platform default provider, or to construct other provider implementations.

 *

 * <a name="links"><h3>Symbolic Links</h3></a>

 * Many operating systems and file systems support for <em>symbolic links</em>.

 * A symbolic link is a special file that serves as a reference to another file.

 * For the most part, symbolic links are transparent to applications and

 * operations on symbolic links are automatically redirected to the <em>target</em>

 * of the link. Exceptions to this are when a symbolic link is deleted or

 * renamed/moved in which case the link is deleted or removed rather than the

 * target of the link. This package includes support for symbolic links where

 * implementations provide these semantics. File systems may support other types

 * that are semantically close but support for these other types of links is

 * not included in this package.

 *

 * <a name="interop"><h3>Interoperability</h3></a>

 * The {@link java.io.File} class defines the {@link java.io.File#toPath

 * toPath} method to construct a {@link java.nio.file.Path} by converting

 * the abstract path represented by the {@code java.io.File} object. The resulting

 * {@code Path} can be used to operate on the same file as the {@code File}

 * object. The {@code Path} specification provides further information

 * on the <a href="Path.html#interop">interoperability</a> between {@code Path}

 * and {@code java.io.File} objects.

 *

 * <h3>Visibility</h3>

 * The view of the files and file system provided by classes in this package are

 * guaranteed to be consistent with other views provided by other instances in the

 * same Java virtual machine.  The view may or may not, however, be consistent with

 * the view of the file system as seen by other concurrently running programs due

 * to caching performed by the underlying operating system and delays induced by

 * network-filesystem protocols. This is true regardless of the language in which

 * these other programs are written, and whether they are running on the same machine

 * or on some other machine.  The exact nature of any such inconsistencies are

 * system-dependent and are therefore unspecified.

 *

 * <a name="integrity"><h3>Synchronized I/O File Integrity</h3></a>

 * The {@link java.nio.file.StandardOpenOption#SYNC SYNC} and {@link

 * java.nio.file.StandardOpenOption#DSYNC DSYNC} options are used when opening a file

 * to require that updates to the file are written synchronously to the underlying

 * storage device. In the case of the default provider, and the file resides on

 * a local storage device, and the {@link java.nio.channels.SeekableByteChannel

 * seekable} channel is connected to a file that was opened with one of these

 * options, then an invocation of the {@link

 * java.nio.channels.WritableByteChannel#write(java.nio.ByteBuffer) write}

 * method is only guaranteed to return when all changes made to the file

 * by that invocation have been written to the device. These options are useful

 * for ensuring that critical information is not lost in the event of a system

 * crash. If the file does not reside on a local device then no such guarantee

 * is made. Whether this guarantee is possible with other {@link

 * java.nio.file.spi.FileSystemProvider provider} implementations is provider

 * specific.

 *

 * <h3>General Exceptions</h3>

 * Unless otherwise noted, passing a {@code null} argument to a constructor

 * or method of any class or interface in this package will cause a {@link

 * java.lang.NullPointerException NullPointerException} to be thrown. Additionally,

 * invoking a method with a collection containing a {@code null} element will

 * cause a {@code NullPointerException}, unless otherwise specified.

 *

 * <p> Unless otherwise noted, methods that attempt to access the file system

 * will throw {@link java.nio.file.ClosedFileSystemException} when invoked on

 * objects associated with a {@link java.nio.file.FileSystem} that has been

 * {@link java.nio.file.FileSystem#close closed}. Additionally, any methods

 * that attempt write access to a file system will throw {@link

 * java.nio.file.ReadOnlyFileSystemException} when invoked on an object associated

 * with a {@link java.nio.file.FileSystem} that only provides read-only access.

 *

 * <p> Unless otherwise noted, invoking a method of any class or interface in

 * this package created by one {@link java.nio.file.spi.FileSystemProvider

 * provider} with a parameter that is an object created by another provider,

 * will throw {@link java.nio.file.ProviderMismatchException}.

 *

 * <h3>Optional Specific Exceptions</h3>

 * Most of the methods defined by classes in this package that access the

 * file system specify that {@link java.io.IOException} be thrown when an I/O

 * error occurs. In some cases, these methods define specific I/O exceptions

 * for common cases. These exceptions, noted as <i>optional specific exceptions</i>,

 * are thrown by the implementation where it can detect the specific error.

 * Where the specific error cannot be detected then the more general {@code

 * IOException} is thrown.

 *

 * @since 1.7

 */

package java.nio.file;