Home | History | Annotate | Download | only in annotation
      1 /*
      2  * Copyright (c) 2003, 2013, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
      3  * DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER.
      4  *
      5  * This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
      6  * under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 only, as
      7  * published by the Free Software Foundation.  Oracle designates this
      8  * particular file as subject to the "Classpath" exception as provided
      9  * by Oracle in the LICENSE file that accompanied this code.
     10  *
     11  * This code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
     12  * ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
     13  * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License
     14  * version 2 for more details (a copy is included in the LICENSE file that
     15  * accompanied this code).
     16  *
     17  * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License version
     18  * 2 along with this work; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
     19  * Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.
     20  *
     21  * Please contact Oracle, 500 Oracle Parkway, Redwood Shores, CA 94065 USA
     22  * or visit www.oracle.com if you need additional information or have any
     23  * questions.
     24  */
     25 
     26 package java.lang.annotation;
     27 
     28 /**
     29  * Indicates how long annotations with the annotated type are to
     30  * be retained.  If no Retention annotation is present on
     31  * an annotation type declaration, the retention policy defaults to
     32  * {@code RetentionPolicy.CLASS}.
     33  *
     34  * <p>A Retention meta-annotation has effect only if the
     35  * meta-annotated type is used directly for annotation.  It has no
     36  * effect if the meta-annotated type is used as a member type in
     37  * another annotation type.
     38  *
     39  * @author  Joshua Bloch
     40  * @since 1.5
     41  * @jls 9.6.3.2 @Retention
     42  */
     43 @Documented
     44 @Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
     45 @Target(ElementType.ANNOTATION_TYPE)
     46 public @interface Retention {
     47     /**
     48      * Returns the retention policy.
     49      * @return the retention policy
     50      */
     51     RetentionPolicy value();
     52 }
     53