（八）Tomcat源码解析 - Tomcat类加载器原理



在JVM系列中说到JVM的类加载过程，tomcat类加载器是依赖于JVM类加载器的。

首先了解一下双亲委派模型原理：

类加载器是树形结构，那加载类时就需要定义类到底由当前加载器还是父加载器去搜索加载。

JVM加载模型的工作过程是：

     如果一个类加载器收到了类加载的请求，它不会自己去尝试加载这个类，而是把这个请求委派给父类加载器去完成。

     每一个层次的类加载器都是如此，因此所有的加载请求最终都应该传送到顶层的引导类加载器中。

     只有父类加载无法完成这个请求时，子类加载器才会尝试自己去加载。

     为什么要让父类加载器优先去加载呢？试想如果子类加载器先加载，那么我们可以写一些与java.lang包中基础类同名的类，然后再定义一个子类加载器，这样整个应用使用的基础类就都变成我们自己定义的类了。这样就有很大的安全隐患！所以自己编写类加载器时，如果没有特殊原因，一定要遵守类加载的双亲委派模型。

一、Tomcat类加载器

Tomcat基本遵守了JVM的委派模型，但也在自定义的类加载器中做了细微的调整，以适应Tomcat自身的要求。

下面是Tomcat类加载器WebappClassLoader的核心方法loadClass()的源码。它覆盖了父类URLClassLoader中的方法，改变了默认的类加载顺序。

/**
     * Load the class with the specified name, searching using the following
     * algorithm until it finds and returns the class.  If the class cannot
     * be found, returns <code>ClassNotFoundException</code>.
     * <ul>
     * <li>Call <code>findLoadedClass(String)</code> to check if the
     *     class has already been loaded.  If it has, the same
     *     <code>Class</code> object is returned.</li>
     * <li>If the <code>delegate</code> property is set to <code>true</code>,
     *     call the <code>loadClass()</code> method of the parent class
     *     loader, if any.</li>
     * <li>Call <code>findClass()</code> to find this class in our locally
     *     defined repositories.</li>
     * <li>Call the <code>loadClass()</code> method of our parent
     *     class loader, if any.</li>
     * </ul>
     * If the class was found using the above steps, and the
     * <code>resolve</code> flag is <code>true</code>, this method will then
     * call <code>resolveClass(Class)</code> on the resulting Class object.
     *
     * @param name Name of the class to be loaded
     * @param resolve If <code>true</code> then resolve the class
     *
     * @exception ClassNotFoundException if the class was not found
     */
    public Class loadClass(String name, boolean resolve)
        throws ClassNotFoundException {

        if (log.isDebugEnabled())
            log.debug("loadClass(" + name + ", " + resolve + ")");
        Class clazz = null;

        // Log access to stopped classloader
        if (!started) {
            try {
                throw new IllegalStateException();
            } catch (IllegalStateException e) {
                log.info(sm.getString("webappClassLoader.stopped", name), e);
            }
        }

        // (0) Check our previously loaded local class cache
        clazz = findLoadedClass0(name);
        if (clazz != null) {
            if (log.isDebugEnabled())
                log.debug("  Returning class from cache");
            if (resolve)
                resolveClass(clazz);
            return (clazz);
        }

        // (0.1) Check our previously loaded class cache
        clazz = findLoadedClass(name);
        if (clazz != null) {
            if (log.isDebugEnabled())
                log.debug("  Returning class from cache");
            if (resolve)
                resolveClass(clazz);
            return (clazz);
        }

        // (0.2) Try loading the class with the system class loader, to prevent
        //       the webapp from overriding J2SE classes
        try {
            clazz = system.loadClass(name);
            if (clazz != null) {
                if (resolve)
                    resolveClass(clazz);
                return (clazz);
            }
        } catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
            // Ignore
        }

        // (0.5) Permission to access this class when using a SecurityManager
        if (securityManager != null) {
            int i = name.lastIndexOf('.');
            if (i >= 0) {
                try {
                    securityManager.checkPackageAccess(name.substring(0,i));
                } catch (SecurityException se) {
                    String error = "Security Violation, attempt to use " +
                        "Restricted Class: " + name;
                    log.info(error, se);
                    throw new ClassNotFoundException(error, se);
                }
            }
        }

        boolean delegateLoad = delegate || filter(name);

        // (1) Delegate to our parent if requested
        if (delegateLoad) {
            if (log.isDebugEnabled())
                log.debug("  Delegating to parent classloader1 " + parent);
            ClassLoader loader = parent;
            if (loader == null)
                loader = system;
            try {
                clazz = loader.loadClass(name);
                if (clazz != null) {
                    if (log.isDebugEnabled())
                        log.debug("  Loading class from parent");
                    if (resolve)
                        resolveClass(clazz);
                    return (clazz);
                }
            } catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
                ;
            }
        }

        // (2) Search local repositories
        if (log.isDebugEnabled())
            log.debug("  Searching local repositories");
        try {
            clazz = findClass(name);
            if (clazz != null) {
                if (log.isDebugEnabled())
                    log.debug("  Loading class from local repository");
                if (resolve)
                    resolveClass(clazz);
                return (clazz);
            }
        } catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
            ;
        }

        // (3) Delegate to parent unconditionally
        if (!delegateLoad) {
            if (log.isDebugEnabled())
                log.debug("  Delegating to parent classloader at end: " + parent);
            ClassLoader loader = parent;
            if (loader == null)
                loader = system;
            try {
                clazz = loader.loadClass(name);
                if (clazz != null) {
                    if (log.isDebugEnabled())
                        log.debug("  Loading class from parent");
                    if (resolve)
                        resolveClass(clazz);
                    return (clazz);
                }
            } catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
                ;
            }
        }

        throw new ClassNotFoundException(name);
    }

首先findLoadedClass0()和findLoadedClass()分别从本地和父类加载器的缓存中查找当前要加载的类是否已经加载过了。之后为了避免上面提到的安全问题，Tomcat类加载器会将加载请求委派给系统类加载器。接下来根据delegate变量的设置，决定是先由自己加载，还是先由父类加载器去加载。

上面的WebappClassLoader是对应一个Web应用的类加载器，其父亲是Tomcat的lib的加载器。所以delegate变量的值，决定了Tomcat的类加载顺序。