/*
 * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more contributor license
 * agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with this work for additional information regarding
 * copyright ownership. The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
 * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a
 * copy of the License at
 *
 * http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License
 * is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express
 * or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under
 * the License.
 */
package org.apache.geode.internal.offheap.annotations;

import static org.apache.geode.internal.offheap.annotations.OffHeapIdentifier.*;

import java.lang.annotation.Documented;
import java.lang.annotation.ElementType;
import java.lang.annotation.Retention;
import java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy;
import java.lang.annotation.Target;

/**
 * This annotation is used to mark off-heap values that have not have their reference counts altered
 * (retained or released):
 * <ul>
 * <li>This annotation is used on a method to indicate the return value is an off-heap reference
 * that has not had retain called on it. The caller should call retain to ensure that the reference
 * remains viable.</li>
 * <li>Use this annotation on a parameter to indicate that the parameter may be an off-heap value
 * but it is neither retained nor released by the callee (or further sub-callees).</li>
 * <li>Use this annotation on a local variable to indicate that it references an off-heap value but
 * it is neither retained nor released.</li>
 * <li>Use this annotation on a field member to indicate that the field is an off-heap reference
 * that is neither retained or released by containing object.</li>
 * <li>Use this annotation on a constructor that does not retain off-heap field members.</li>
 * </ul>
 * 
 * One or more OffHeapIdentifiers may be supplied if the developer wishes to link this annotation
 * with other off-heap annotations.
 * 
 */
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.SOURCE)
@Target({ElementType.METHOD, ElementType.PARAMETER, ElementType.LOCAL_VARIABLE, ElementType.FIELD,
    ElementType.CONSTRUCTOR})
@Documented
public @interface Unretained {
  OffHeapIdentifier[] value() default DEFAULT;
}
