Package javax.tools

Provides interfaces for tools which can be invoked from a program, for example, compilers.

See: Description

Interface Summary  Interface 	Description
Diagnostic<S> 	
Interface for diagnostics from tools.
DiagnosticListener<S> 	
Interface for receiving diagnostics from tools.
FileObject 	
File abstraction for tools.
JavaCompiler 	
Interface to invoke Java™ programming language compilers from programs.
JavaCompiler.CompilationTask 	
Interface representing a future for a compilation task.
JavaFileManager 	
File manager for tools operating on Java™ programming language source and class files.
JavaFileManager.Location 	
Interface for locations of file objects.
JavaFileObject 	
File abstraction for tools operating on Java™ programming language source and class files.
OptionChecker 	
Interface for recognizing options.
StandardJavaFileManager 	
File manager based on java.io.File.
Tool 	
Common interface for tools that can be invoked from a program.
Class Summary  Class 	Description
DiagnosticCollector<S> 	
Provides an easy way to collect diagnostics in a list.
ForwardingFileObject<F extends FileObject> 	
Forwards calls to a given file object.
ForwardingJavaFileManager<M extends JavaFileManager> 	
Forwards calls to a given file manager.
ForwardingJavaFileObject<F extends JavaFileObject> 	
Forwards calls to a given file object.
SimpleJavaFileObject 	
Provides simple implementations for most methods in JavaFileObject.
ToolProvider 	
Provides methods for locating tool providers, for example, providers of compilers.
Enum Summary  Enum 	Description
Diagnostic.Kind 	
Kinds of diagnostics, for example, error or warning.
JavaFileObject.Kind 	
Kinds of JavaFileObjects.
StandardLocation 	
Standard locations of file objects.

Package javax.tools Description
Provides interfaces for tools which can be invoked from a program, for example, compilers.

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.

Unless explicitly allowed, all methods in this package might throw a NullPointerException if given a null argument or if given a list or collection containing null elements. Similarly, no method may return null unless explicitly allowed.

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 (DiagnosticListener) as well as a file abstraction for overriding file access (JavaFileManager and JavaFileObject). See JavaCompiler for more details on using the SPI.

There is no requirement for a compiler at runtime. However, if a default compiler is provided, it can be located using the ToolProvider, for example:

JavaCompiler compiler = ToolProvider.getSystemJavaCompiler();

It is possible to provide alternative compilers or tools through the service provider mechanism.

For example, if com.vendor.VendorJavaCompiler is a provider of the JavaCompiler tool then its jar file would contain the file META-INF/services/javax.tools.JavaCompiler. This file would contain the single line:

com.vendor.VendorJavaCompiler

If the jar file is on the class path, VendorJavaCompiler can be located using code like this:

JavaCompiler compiler = ServiceLoader.load(JavaCompiler.class).iterator().next();

Since:
1.6