/*

 * Copyright (c) 2005, 2006, 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

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/**

 * Provides interfaces for tools which can be invoked from a program,

 * for example, compilers.

 *

 * <p>These interfaces and classes are required as part of the

 * Java™ Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE),

 * but there is no requirement to provide any tools implementing them.

 *

 * <p>Unless explicitly allowed, all methods in this package might

 * throw a {@linkplain java.lang.NullPointerException} if given a

 * {@code null} argument or if given a

 * {@linkplain java.lang.Iterable list or collection} containing

 * {@code null} elements.  Similarly, no method may return

 * {@code null} unless explicitly allowed.

 *

 * <p>This package is the home of the Java programming language compiler framework.  This

 * framework allows clients of the framework to locate and run

 * compilers from programs.  The framework also provides Service

 * Provider Interfaces (SPI) for structured access to diagnostics

 * ({@linkplain javax.tools.DiagnosticListener}) as well as a file

 * abstraction for overriding file access ({@linkplain

 * javax.tools.JavaFileManager} and {@linkplain

 * javax.tools.JavaFileObject}).  See {@linkplain

 * javax.tools.JavaCompiler} for more details on using the SPI.

 *

 * <p>There is no requirement for a compiler at runtime.  However, if

 * a default compiler is provided, it can be located using the

 * {@linkplain javax.tools.ToolProvider}, for example:

 *

 * <p>{@code JavaCompiler compiler = ToolProvider.getSystemJavaCompiler();}

 *

 * <p>It is possible to provide alternative compilers or tools

 * through the {@linkplain java.util.ServiceLoader service provider

 * mechanism}.

 *

 * <p>For example, if {@code com.vendor.VendorJavaCompiler} is a

 * provider of the {@code JavaCompiler} tool then its jar file

 * would contain the file {@code

 * META-INF/services/javax.tools.JavaCompiler}.  This file would

 * contain the single line:

 *

 * <p>{@code com.vendor.VendorJavaCompiler}

 *

 * <p>If the jar file is on the class path, VendorJavaCompiler can be

 * located using code like this:

 *

 * <p>{@code JavaCompiler compiler = ServiceLoader.load(JavaCompiler.class).iterator().next();}

 *

 * @author Peter von der Ahé

 * @author Jonathan Gibbons

 * @since 1.6

 */

package javax.tools;