/*

 * 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

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 */

/*

 * This file is available under and governed by the GNU General Public

 * License version 2 only, as published by the Free Software Foundation.

 * However, the following notice accompanied the original version of this

 * file:

 *

 * Written by Doug Lea with assistance from members of JCP JSR-166

 * Expert Group and released to the public domain, as explained at

 * http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain

 */

package java.util.concurrent;

import java.util.*;

/**

 * A mix-in style interface for marking objects that should be

 * acted upon after a given delay.

 *

 * <p>An implementation of this interface must define a

 * <tt>compareTo</tt> method that provides an ordering consistent with

 * its <tt>getDelay</tt> method.

 *

 * @since 1.5

 * @author Doug Lea

 */

public interface Delayed extends Comparable<Delayed> {

    /**

     * Returns the remaining delay associated with this object, in the

     * given time unit.

     *

     * @param unit the time unit

     * @return the remaining delay; zero or negative values indicate

     * that the delay has already elapsed

     */

    long getDelay(TimeUnit unit);

}