/*
* 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
* or visit www.oracle.com if you need additional information or have any
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*/
package java.lang.annotation;
/** {@collect.stats}
* {@description.open}
* Indicates that an annotation type is automatically inherited. If
* an Inherited meta-annotation is present on an annotation type
* declaration, and the user queries the annotation type on a class
* declaration, and the class declaration has no annotation for this type,
* then the class's superclass will automatically be queried for the
* annotation type. This process will be repeated until an annotation for this
* type is found, or the top of the class hierarchy (Object)
* is reached. If no superclass has an annotation for this type, then
* the query will indicate that the class in question has no such annotation.
*
* <p>Note that this meta-annotation type has no effect if the annotated
* type is used to annotate anything other than a class. Note also
* that this meta-annotation only causes annotations to be inherited
* from superclasses; annotations on implemented interfaces have no
* effect.
* {@description.close}
*
* @author Joshua Bloch
* @since 1.5
*/
@Documented
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
@Target(ElementType.ANNOTATION_TYPE)
public @interface Inherited {
}