apt is a command-line utility for annotation processing. It includes a set of reflective APIs and supporting infrastructure to process program annotations (JSR 175). These reflective APIs provide a build-time, source-based, read-only view of program structure. They are designed to cleanly model the Java^TM programming language's type system after the addition of generics (JSR 14).

apt first runs annotation processors that can produce new source code and other files. Next, apt can cause compilation of both original and generated source files, thus easing the development cycle.

JSR 269, also known as the Language Model API, has two basic pieces: an API that models the Java programming language, and an API for writing annotation processors. This functionality is accessed through new options to the javac command; by including JSR 269 support, javac now acts analogously to the apt command in JDK 5.

API Specification

• Mirror API
• javax.annotation.processing
• javax.lang.model
• javax.lang.model.element
• javax.lang.model.type
• javax.lang.model.util

Java Technology

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