【annotation】directly present, indirectly present, present, and associated

一、directly present, indirectly present, present, and associated

question

在API文档中，获取Java注解的方法的返回值注释directly present, indirectly present, present, and associated是什么含义？

引子

API documentation：AnnotatedElement (Java SE 15 & JDK 15) (oracle.com)

The terms directly present, indirectly present, present, and associated are used throughout this interface to describe precisely which annotations are returned by methods:

• An annotation A is directly present on an element E if E has a RuntimeVisibleAnnotations or RuntimeVisibleParameterAnnotations or RuntimeVisibleTypeAnnotations attribute, and the attribute contains A.
• An annotation A is indirectly present on an element E if E has a RuntimeVisibleAnnotations or RuntimeVisibleParameterAnnotations or RuntimeVisibleTypeAnnotations attribute, and A 's type is repeatable, and the attribute contains exactly one annotation whose value element contains A and whose type is the containing annotation type of A 's type.
• An annotation A is present on an element E if either:
  • A is directly present on E; or
  • No annotation of A 's type is directly present on E, and E is a class, and A 's type is inheritable, and A is present on the superclass of E.
• An annotation A is associated with an element E if either:
  • A is directly or indirectly present on E; or
  • No annotation of A 's type is directly or indirectly present on E, and E is a class, and A's type is inheritable, and A is associated with the superclass of E.

The table below summarizes which kind of annotation presence different methods in this interface examine.

Overview of kind of presence detected by different AnnotatedElement methods

Method		Kind of Presence
Return Type	Signature	Directly Present	Indirectly Present	Present	Associated
T	getAnnotation(Class<T>)			X
Annotation[]	getAnnotations()			X
T[]