I have found many references explaining how to programmatically compile a Java class using the JavaCompiler
class:
JavaCompiler compiler = ToolProvider.getSystemJavaCompiler();
int result = compiler.run(null, null, null, "a_file_name");
However, I would like to know if there is an open source library that let me compile source code generated programmatically (therefore without a src file being involved) and generate some byte code in an output stream (without generating a class file in the file system).
For example, I am looking for being able to write something like this:
InputStream input = generateSourceCode();
OutputStream output = getByteCode(input);
doCoolStuffWithByteCode(output);
Thanks for any help.
To start, look at the JavaCompiler API. Basically:
- Create the Java class in a string.
- Put the string into class that extends SimpleJavaFileObject.
- Compile using a
JavaCompiler
instance.
Finally, call the methods the new class.
Here is an example that works with JDK6+:
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.PrintWriter;
import java.io.StringWriter;
import java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException;
import java.net.URI;
import java.util.Arrays;
import javax.tools.Diagnostic;
import javax.tools.DiagnosticCollector;
import javax.tools.JavaCompiler;
import javax.tools.JavaFileObject;
import javax.tools.SimpleJavaFileObject;
import javax.tools.ToolProvider;
import javax.tools.JavaCompiler.CompilationTask;
import javax.tools.JavaFileObject.Kind;
public class CompileSourceInMemory {
public static void main(String args[]) throws IOException {
JavaCompiler compiler = ToolProvider.getSystemJavaCompiler();
DiagnosticCollector<JavaFileObject> diagnostics = new DiagnosticCollector<JavaFileObject>();
StringWriter writer = new StringWriter();
PrintWriter out = new PrintWriter(writer);
out.println("public class HelloWorld {");
out.println(" public static void main(String args[]) {");
out.println(" System.out.println(\"This is in another java file\");");
out.println(" }");
out.println("}");
out.close();
JavaFileObject file = new JavaSourceFromString("HelloWorld", writer.toString());
Iterable<? extends JavaFileObject> compilationUnits = Arrays.asList(file);
CompilationTask task = compiler.getTask(null, null, diagnostics, null, null, compilationUnits);
boolean success = task.call();
for (Diagnostic diagnostic : diagnostics.getDiagnostics()) {
System.out.println(diagnostic.getCode());
System.out.println(diagnostic.getKind());
System.out.println(diagnostic.getPosition());
System.out.println(diagnostic.getStartPosition());
System.out.println(diagnostic.getEndPosition());
System.out.println(diagnostic.getSource());
System.out.println(diagnostic.getMessage(null));
}
System.out.println("Success: " + success);
if (success) {
try {
Class.forName("HelloWorld").getDeclaredMethod("main", new Class[] { String[].class })
.invoke(null, new Object[] { null });
} catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
System.err.println("Class not found: " + e);
} catch (NoSuchMethodException e) {
System.err.println("No such method: " + e);
} catch (IllegalAccessException e) {
System.err.println("Illegal access: " + e);
} catch (InvocationTargetException e) {
System.err.println("Invocation target: " + e);
}
}
}
}
class JavaSourceFromString extends SimpleJavaFileObject {
final String code;
JavaSourceFromString(String name, String code) {
super(URI.create("string:///" + name.replace('.','/') + Kind.SOURCE.extension),Kind.SOURCE);
this.code = code;
}
@Override
public CharSequence getCharContent(boolean ignoreEncodingErrors) {
return code;
}
}
JavaDocs are your friend:
http://download.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/javax/tools/JavaCompiler.html
Look at the last section that refers to the SimpleJavaFileObject
; it shows you how to use it in conjunction with code that is stored in a String
We gave a talk about this use case in JavaOne 2016 (the question is kind of old, but there seems to be some interest still).
There is a repository with examples of practical code generation using javac in-memory.
Specifically look at SimpleJavaCompiler for an example on how to do this in memory that deals with thread safety (we use it in the context of a server) for a single class. It could easily be adapted for a multi-class scenario.
There are also classes to deal with class loading and code generation (scoping of variables, generating unique names, name shadowing, etc.).