/*
* @(#)PhantomReference.java 1.19 06/10/10
*
* Copyright 1990-2008 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
* DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER
*
* This program 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.
*
* This program 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 at /legal/license.txt).
*
* 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 Sun Microsystems, Inc., 4150 Network Circle, Santa
* Clara, CA 95054 or visit www.sun.com if you need additional
* information or have any questions.
*
*/
package java.lang.ref;
/**
* Phantom reference objects, which are enqueued after the collector
* determines that their referents may otherwise be reclaimed. Phantom
* references are most often used for scheduling pre-mortem cleanup actions in
* a more flexible way than is possible with the Java finalization mechanism.
*
* <p> If the garbage collector determines at a certain point in time that the
* referent of a phantom reference is <a
* href="package-summary.html#reachability">phantom reachable</a>, then at that
* time or at some later time it will enqueue the reference.
*
* <p> In order to ensure that a reclaimable object remains so, the referent of
* a phantom reference may not be retrieved: The <code>get</code> method of a
* phantom reference always returns <code>null</code>.
*
* <p> Unlike soft and weak references, phantom references are not
* automatically cleared by the garbage collector as they are enqueued. An
* object that is reachable via phantom references will remain so until all
* such references are cleared or themselves become unreachable.
*
* @version 1.12, 02/02/00
* @author Mark Reinhold
* @since 1.2
*/
public class PhantomReference extends Reference {
/**
* Returns this reference object's referent. Because the referent of a
* phantom reference is always inaccessible, this method always returns
* <code>null</code>.
*
* @return <code>null</code>
*/
public Object get() {
return null;
}
/**
* Creates a new phantom reference that refers to the given object and
* is registered with the given queue.
*
* @param referent the object the new phantom reference will refer to
* @param q queue the phantom reference is registered with
* @throws NullPointerException If the <code>queue</code> argument
* is <code>null</code>
*/
public PhantomReference(Object referent, ReferenceQueue q) {
super(referent, q);
}
}