/*

 * Copyright (c) 1997, 2007, 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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 */

package javax.crypto;

/**

 * A secret (symmetric) key.

 *

 * <p>This interface contains no methods or constants.

 * Its only purpose is to group (and provide type safety for) secret keys.

 *

 * <p>Provider implementations of this interface must overwrite the

 * <code>equals</code> and <code>hashCode</code> methods inherited from

 * <code>java.lang.Object</code>, so that secret keys are compared based on

 * their underlying key material and not based on reference.

 *

 * <p>Keys that implement this interface return the string <code>RAW</code>

 * as their encoding format (see <code>getFormat</code>), and return the

 * raw key bytes as the result of a <code>getEncoded</code> method call. (The

 * <code>getFormat</code> and <code>getEncoded</code> methods are inherited

 * from the <code>java.security.Key</code> parent interface.)

 *

 * @author Jan Luehe

 *

 * @see SecretKeyFactory

 * @see Cipher

 * @since 1.4

 */

public interface SecretKey extends java.security.Key {

    /**

     * The class fingerprint that is set to indicate serialization

     * compatibility since J2SE 1.4.

     */

    static final long serialVersionUID = -4795878709595146952L;

}