/*

 * Copyright (c) 2003, 2004, 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 java.lang.annotation;

/**

 * Annotation retention policy.  The constants of this enumerated type

 * describe the various policies for retaining annotations.  They are used

 * in conjunction with the {@link Retention} meta-annotation type to specify

 * how long annotations are to be retained.

 *

 * @author  Joshua Bloch

 * @since 1.5

 */

public enum RetentionPolicy {

    /**

     * Annotations are to be discarded by the compiler.

     */

    SOURCE,

    /**

     * Annotations are to be recorded in the class file by the compiler

     * but need not be retained by the VM at run time.  This is the default

     * behavior.

     */

    CLASS,

    /**

     * Annotations are to be recorded in the class file by the compiler and

     * retained by the VM at run time, so they may be read reflectively.

     *

     * @see java.lang.reflect.AnnotatedElement

     */

    RUNTIME

}