IRequiredCapability.java

/******************************************************************************* 
* Copyright (c) 2008, 2010 EclipseSource and others. All rights reserved. This
* program and the accompanying materials are made available under the terms of
* the Eclipse Public License v1.0 which accompanies this distribution, and is
* available at http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html
*
* Contributors:
*   EclipseSource - initial API and implementation
******************************************************************************/
package org.eclipse.equinox.internal.p2.metadata;

import org.eclipse.equinox.p2.metadata.*;

/**
 * A required capability represents some external constraint on an {@link IInstallableUnit}.
 * Each capability represents something an {@link IInstallableUnit} needs that
 * it expects to be provided by another {@link IInstallableUnit}. Capabilities are
 * entirely generic, and are intended to be capable of representing anything that
 * an {@link IInstallableUnit} may need either at install time, or at runtime.
 * <p>
 * Capabilities are segmented into namespaces.  Anyone can introduce new 
 * capability namespaces. Some well-known namespaces are introduced directly
 * by the provisioning framework.
 * 
 * @see IInstallableUnit#NAMESPACE_IU_ID
 * 
 * @noimplement This interface is not intended to be implemented by clients.
 * @noextend This interface is not intended to be extended by clients.
 */
public interface IRequiredCapability extends IRequirement {

	//	public String getFilter();

	public String getName();

	public String getNamespace();

	/**
	 * Returns the range of versions that satisfy this required capability. Returns
	 * an empty version range ({@link VersionRange#emptyRange} if any version
	 * will satisfy the capability.
	 * @return the range of versions that satisfy this required capability.
	 */
	public VersionRange getRange();
}