Fast class reloading

[Igor Adam Klimer]

By "modify the VM", I meant "modify some sytem classes of the VM". Doesn't an agent's premain method get invoked before defining each class - including the system ones?

Regards,
Igor Klimer

----- oryginalna wiadomość -----
od: David Holmes <David.Holmes at oracle.com>
data: czwartek, czerwiec 3, 2010 3:44
temat: Re: Fast class reloading
do: Igor Adam Klimer <150043 at student.pwr.wroc.pl>
kopia do: hotspot-runtime-dev at openjdk.java.net

> Igor,
> 
> An agent can't "modify the VM". The agent can only do what the 
> VM lets it - via the JVM TI API defined for agents.
> 
> David
> 
> Igor Adam Klimer said the following on 06/03/10 11:40:
> >Yes, I understand the limitations of an agent. However, it 
> should be possible to modify the VM (within the limitations 
> imposed on the agents) *using* the agent. So in summary: I want 
> to use a "vanilla" agent to modify the VM (that's the part where 
> I'm afraid if an agent is not too limited - because, like you 
> said, we can basically only change method bodies) so that the 
> limitations no longer apply. This would mean that users could 
> use a standard VM that would get "augmented" by the (then still 
> unmodified) agent, so that reloading of classes would be possible.
> >If my idea still doesn't make sense to you, then it's either 
> really stupid or really unorthodox ;)
> >
> >Regards,
> >Igor Klimer
> >
> >----- oryginalna wiadomość -----
> >od: David Holmes <David.Holmes at oracle.com>
> >data: czwartek, czerwiec 3, 2010 3:22
> >temat: Re: Fast class reloading
> >do: Igor Adam Klimer <150043 at student.pwr.wroc.pl>
> >kopia do: hotspot-runtime-dev at openjdk.java.net
> >
> >>Igor Adam Klimer said the following on 06/02/10 23:16:
> >>>>An agent can only use functionality exposed by the VM and 
> >>there is
> >>>>no VM functionality in existence to do what you want. This 
> has to
> >>>>be supported by the VM (after which it could be exposed to 
> agents).>>>>
> >>>Yes, but from what I understood an agent can also modify the VM's
> >>>classes - so the idea was to exploit that (eh, "exploit" has 
> a bad
> >>>sound to it ;)) and modify the VM so that it does include the
> >>>functionality we need. Does this idea seem reasonable to you? Of
> >>>course, it would be hard to maintain such "patches", but it would
> >>>take the burden of installing a custom VM from the users.
> >>That's exactly what I said above. First you have to add the 
> functionality you want to the JVM, then you need to make that 
> functionality available to the agent. Your users will still need 
> your customized VM.
> >>
> >>At present class JVMTI class redefinition is limited in ways 
> that don't meet your list of requirements:
> >>
> >>"The redefinition may change method bodies, the constant pool 
> and attributes. The redefinition must not add, remove or rename 
> fields or methods, change the signatures of methods, change 
> modifiers, or change inheritance."
> >>
> >>David