/*
* Hibernate, Relational Persistence for Idiomatic Java
*
* License: GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL), version 2.1 or later.
* See the lgpl.txt file in the root directory or <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl-2.1.html>.
*/
package org.hibernate.annotations;
import java.lang.annotation.ElementType;
import java.lang.annotation.Retention;
import java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy;
/**
* Mark an Entity, a Collection, or an Attribute type as immutable. No annotation means the element is mutable.
* <p>
* An immutable entity may not be updated by the application. Updates to an immutable
* entity will be ignored, but no exception is thrown. @Immutable must be used on root entities only.
* </p>
* <p>
* @Immutable placed on a collection makes the collection immutable, meaning additions and
* deletions to and from the collection are not allowed. A <i>HibernateException</i> is thrown in this case.
* </p>
* <p>
* An immutable attribute type will not be copied in the currently running Persistence Context in order to detect if the underlying value is dirty. As a result loading the entity will require less memory
* and checking changes will be much faster.
* </p>
*
* @author Emmanuel Bernard
*/
@java.lang.annotation.Target({ElementType.TYPE, ElementType.METHOD, ElementType.FIELD})
@Retention( RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME )
public @interface Immutable {
}