source: trunk/gcc/libjava/java/lang/Cloneable.java

/* Cloneable.java -- Interface for marking objects cloneable by Object.clone()
   Copyright (C) 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

This file is part of GNU Classpath.

GNU Classpath is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
any later version.

GNU Classpath 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 for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with GNU Classpath; see the file COPYING.  If not, write to the
Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA
02111-1307 USA.

Linking this library statically or dynamically with other modules is
making a combined work based on this library.  Thus, the terms and
conditions of the GNU General Public License cover the whole
combination.

As a special exception, the copyright holders of this library give you
permission to link this library with independent modules to produce an
executable, regardless of the license terms of these independent
modules, and to copy and distribute the resulting executable under
terms of your choice, provided that you also meet, for each linked
independent module, the terms and conditions of the license of that
module.  An independent module is a module which is not derived from
or based on this library.  If you modify this library, you may extend
this exception to your version of the library, but you are not
obligated to do so.  If you do not wish to do so, delete this
exception statement from your version. */


package java.lang;

/**
 * This interface should be implemented by classes wishing to
 * support of override <code>Object.clone()</code>.  The default
 * behaviour of <code>clone()</code> performs a shallow copy, but
 * subclasses often change this to perform a deep copy.  Therefore,
 * it is a good idea to document how deep your clone will go.
 * If <code>clone()</code> is called on an object which does not
 * implement this interface, a <code>CloneNotSupportedException</code>
 * will be thrown.
 *
 * <p>This interface is simply a tagging interface; it carries no
 * requirements on methods to implement.  However, it is typical for
 * a Cloneable class to implement at least <code>equals</code>,
 * <code>hashCode</code>, and <code>clone</code>, sometimes
 * increasing the accessibility of clone to be public. The typical
 * implementation of <code>clone</code> invokes <code>super.clone()</code>
 * rather than a constructor, but this is not a requirement.
 *
 * <p>If an object that implement Cloneable should not be cloned,
 * simply override the <code>clone</code> method to throw a
 * <code>CloneNotSupportedException</code>.
 *
 * <p>All array types implement Cloneable, and have a public
 * <code>clone</code> method that will never fail with a
 * <code>CloneNotSupportedException</code>.
 *
 * @author Paul Fisher
 * @author Eric Blake <ebb9@email.byu.edu>
 * @author Warren Levy <warrenl@cygnus.com>
 * @see Object#clone()
 * @see CloneNotSupportedException
 * @since 1.0
 * @status updated to 1.4
 */
public interface Cloneable
{
  // Tagging interface only.
}