/*

  * Licensed 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.commons.classscan;

 import org.apache.commons.classscan.builtin.DefaultMetaRegistry;

 /**

  * The entry point from which to find information about the ClassPath and the classes 

  * available from the ClassPath.

  */

 public interface MetaRegistry {

         public static final MetaRegistry DEFAULT_REGISTRY = new DefaultMetaRegistry();

         /**

          * Get the MetaClassLoader for a ClassLoader. If possible, an existing

          * MetaClassLoader is returned. Otherwise, the MetaClassLoader is created.

          * 

          * @param classLoader

          *            The ClassLoader for which metadata is desired (may be be null,

          *            for the bootstrap ClassLoader)

          * @return The metadata about a ClassLoader

          */

         MetaClassLoader getMetaClassLoader(ClassLoader classLoader);

         /**

          * Get the ClassPath for a ClassLoader

          * 

          * @param classLoader

          *            The ClassLoader for which metadata is desired (may be be null,

          *            for the bootstrap ClassLoader)

          * @return The ClassPath for the ClassLoader

          */

         ClassPath getClassPath(ClassLoader classLoader);

 }