src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/packages/AspectClass.java

// Copyright 2015 The Bazel Authors. All rights reserved.
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//    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
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package com.google.devtools.build.lib.packages;

/**
 *  A class of aspects.
 *
 *  <p>An aspect allows a rule to create actions in its dependencies, without their knowledge.
 *  It can be viewed as the ability to attach shadow targets to transitive dependencies or a way
 *  to run visitations of certain parts of the transitive closure of a rule in such a way that can
 *  be cached (even partially) and reused between different configured targets requiring the same
 *  aspect. Some examples where aspects are useful:
 *
 *  <ul>
 *    <li>Converting the .jar files in the transitive closure of an Android binary to dexes</li>
 *    <li>Emitting Java sources for a <code>proto_library</code> and the messages it depends
 *        on</li>
 *    <li>Collecting all the dependencies of a rule to make sure that it does not contain a
 *        forbidden one</li>
 *  </ul>
 *
 *  <p>When a configured target requests that an aspect be attached to one of its dependencies,
 *  the {@link com.google.devtools.build.lib.analysis.TransitiveInfoProvider}s generated by that
 *  aspects are merged with those of the actual dependency, that is,
 *  {@link com.google.devtools.build.lib.analysis.RuleContext#getPrerequisite(
 *  String, com.google.devtools.build.lib.analysis.RuleConfiguredTarget.Mode)} will
 *  contain the transitive info providers produced both by the dependency and the aspects that are
 *  attached to it.
 *
 *  <p>Configured targets can specify which aspects should be attached to some of their dependencies
 *  by specifying this in their {@link com.google.devtools.build.lib.analysis.RuleDefinition}: each
 *  attribute can have a list of aspects to be applied to the rules in that attribute and each
 *  aspect can specify which {@link com.google.devtools.build.lib.analysis.TransitiveInfoProvider}s
 *  it needs on a rule so that it can do meaningful work (for example, dexing only makes sense for
 *  configured targets that produce Java code).
 *
 *  <p>Aspects can be defined natively, in Java ({@link NativeAspectClass})
 *  or in Skylark ({@link SkylarkAspectClass}).
 *
 *  Bazel propagates aspects through a multistage process. The general pipeline is as follows:
 *
 *  <pre>
 *  {@link AspectClass}
 *   |
 *   V
 *  {@code AspectDescriptor} <- {@link AspectParameters}
 *   \
 *   V
 *  {@link Aspect} <- {@link AspectDefinition} (might require loading Skylark files)
 *   |
 *   V
 *  {@code ConfiguredAspect}  <- {@code ConfiguredTarget}
 *  </pre>
 *
 *  <ul>
 *    <li>{@link AspectClass} is a moniker for "user" definition of the aspect, be it
 *    a native aspect or a Skylark aspect.  It contains either a reference to
 *    the native class implementing the aspect or the location of the Skylark definition
 *    of the aspect in the source tree, i.e. label of .bzl file + symbol name.
 *    </li>
 *    <li>{@link AspectParameters} is a (key,value) pair list that can be used to
 *    parameterize aspect classes</li>
 *    <li>{@link com.google.devtools.build.lib.analysis.AspectDescriptor} is a pair
 *    of {@code AspectClass} and {@link AspectParameters}. It uniquely identifies
 *    the aspect and can be used in SkyKeys.
 *    </li>
 *    <li>{@link AspectDefinition} is a class encapsulating the aspect definition (what
 *    attributes aspoect has, and along which dependencies does it propagate.
 *    </li>
 *    <li>{@link Aspect} is a fully instantiated instance of an Aspect after it is loaded.
 *    Getting an {@code Aspect} from {@code AspectDescriptor} for Skylark aspects
 *    requires adding a Skyframe dependency.
 *    </li>
 *    <li>{@link com.google.devtools.build.lib.analysis.ConfiguredAspect} represents a result
 *    of application of an {@link Aspect} to a given
 *    {@link com.google.devtools.build.lib.analysis.ConfiguredTarget}.
 *    </li>
 *  </ul>
 *
 *  {@link com.google.devtools.build.lib.analysis.AspectDescriptor}, or in general, a tuple
 *  of ({@link AspectClass}, {@link AspectParameters}) is an identifier that should be
 *  used in SkyKeys or in other contexts that need equality for aspects.
 *  See also {@link com.google.devtools.build.lib.skyframe.AspectFunction} for details
 *  on Skyframe treatment of Aspects.
 *
 *  @see com.google.devtools.build.lib.rules.RuleConfiguredTargetFactory
 *  @see com.google.devtools.build.lib.skyframe.AspectFunction
 */
public interface AspectClass {

  /**
   * Returns an aspect name.
   */
  String getName();
}