/*
 * Copyright (c) 2007, 2011, 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.
 *
 * 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
 * questions.
 */
package com.sun.max.annotate;

import java.lang.annotation.*;

/**
 * Marks a field, method or constructor that is reflected upon by the Inspector.
 *
 * The Inspector uses this annotation to auto-generate objects for accessing the
 * annotated entity in the remote VM process. See the {@code VmFields}
 * and {@code VmMethods} classes in the inspector projects.
 */
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
@Target({ ElementType.METHOD, ElementType.CONSTRUCTOR, ElementType.FIELD })
public @interface INSPECTED {
    /**
     * Determines if the value of this field is deep copied in a deep copy operation.
     * If false, then the value of the field will be {@code null} in a deep copy.
     * This value is ignored for non-object fields (i.e. the value of these fields
     * are always copied).
     */
    boolean deepCopied() default true;

}