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Class Loader

Java class loaders load class files into the Java Virtual Machine. There are three main class loaders in Java: the bootstrap class loader loads core Java classes, the extensions class loader loads classes from JAR files in JAVA_HOME/jre/lib/ext, and the system class loader loads classes from the classpath. Class loaders have a hierarchical relationship where a child class loader can only load classes from its parent or above. When loading a class, a class loader first delegates to its parent before attempting to load the class itself.

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Venkat Ratnakaram
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72 views2 pages

Class Loader

Java class loaders load class files into the Java Virtual Machine. There are three main class loaders in Java: the bootstrap class loader loads core Java classes, the extensions class loader loads classes from JAR files in JAVA_HOME/jre/lib/ext, and the system class loader loads classes from the classpath. Class loaders have a hierarchical relationship where a child class loader can only load classes from its parent or above. When loading a class, a class loader first delegates to its parent before attempting to load the class itself.

Uploaded by

Venkat Ratnakaram
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as TXT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Java Class Loader :---------------------Java ClassLoader loads a java class file into java virtual machine.

It is as sim ple as that. It is not a huge complicated concept to learn and every java develo per must know about the java class loaders and how it works. Like NullPointerException, one exception that is very popular is ClassNotFoundEx ception. At least in your beginner stage you might have got umpteen number of Cl assNotFoundException. Java class loader is the culprit that is causing this exce ption. Types (Hierarchy) of Java Class Loaders Java class loaders can be broadly classified into below categories: Bootstrap Class Loader:---------------------------Bootstrap class loader loads java s core classes like java.lang, java.util etc. Th ese are classes that are part of java runtime environment. Bootstrap class loade r is native implementation and so they may differ across different JVMs. Extensions Class Loader:-----------------------------JAVA_HOME/jre/lib/ext contains jar packages that are extensions of standard core java classes. Extensions class loader loads classes from this ext folder. Using the system environment propery java.ext.dirs you can add ext folders and jar file s to be loaded using extensions class loader. System Class Loader:------------------------Java classes that are available in the java classpath are loaded using System cl ass loader. You can see more class loaders like java.net.URLClassLoader, java.security.Secur eClassLoader etc. Those are all extended from java.lang.ClassLoader These class loaders have a hierarchical relationship among them. Class loader ca n load classes from one level above its hierarchy. First level is bootstrap clas s loader, second level is extensions class loader and third level is system clas s loader. Class Self Reference When a java source file is compiled to a binary class, compiler inserts a field into java class file. It is a public static final field named class of type java.l ang.Class So for all java classes you can access it as java.lang.Class classObj = ClassNam e.class; Significance of this Class object is it contains a method getClassLoader() which returns the class loader for the class. It will return null it it was loaded by bootstrap class loader. How a Java Class Loader Works? When a class name is given, class loader first locates the class and then reads a class file of that name from the native file system. Therefore this loading pr ocess is platform dependent. By default java.lang.ClassLoader is registered as a class loader that is capable

of loading classes in parallel. But the subclasses needs to register as paralle l or not at the time of instantiation. Classes can also be loaded from network, constructed on runtime and loaded. Clas sLoader class has a method name defineClass which takes input as byte array and loads a class. Class Loader Parent All class loaders except bootstrap class loader has a parent class loader. This parent is not as in parent-child relationship of inheritance. Every class loader instance is associated with a parent class loader. When a class loader is entrusted with the responsibility of loading a class, as a first step it delegates this work to the associated parent class loader. Then this parent class loader gets the instruction and sequentially it delegates the call to its parent class loader. In this chain of hierarchy the bootstrap class loader is at the top. When a class loader instance is created, using its constructor the parent classl oader can be associated with it. Class Loader Rule 1 A class is loaded only once into the JVM. In this rule, what is a class ? Uniqueness of a class is identified along with the ClassLoader instance that loaded this class into the JVM. A class is always iden tified using its fully qualified name (package.classname). So when a class is lo aded into JVM, you have an entry as (package, classname, classloader). Therefore the same class can be loaded twice by two different ClassLoader instances.

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