001/*
002 * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
003 * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
004 * distributed with this work for additional information
005 * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
006 * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
007 * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
008 * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
009 *
010 *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
011 *
012 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
013 * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
014 * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
015 * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
016 * specific language governing permissions and limitations
017 * under the License.
018 */
019package org.apache.shiro.env;
020
021import org.apache.shiro.mgt.SecurityManager;
022
023/**
024 * An {@code Environment} instance encapsulates all of the objects that Shiro requires to function.  It is essentially
025 * a 'meta' object from which all Shiro components can be obtained for an application.
026 * <p/>
027 * An {@code Environment} instance is usually created as a result of parsing a Shiro configuration file.  The
028 * environment instance can be stored in any place the application deems necessary, and from it, can retrieve any
029 * of Shiro's components that might be necessary in implementing security behavior.
030 * <p/>
031 * For example, the most obvious component accessible via an {@code Environment} instance is the application's
032 * {@link #getSecurityManager() securityManager}.
033 *
034 * @since 1.2
035 */
036public interface Environment {
037
038    /**
039     * Returns the application's {@code SecurityManager} instance.
040     *
041     * @return the application's {@code SecurityManager} instance.
042     */
043    SecurityManager getSecurityManager();
044}