org.simpleframework.util.buffer
Interface Allocator

All Superinterfaces:

Closeable

All Known Implementing Classes:

ArrayAllocator, BufferAllocator, FileAllocator, FilterAllocator

public interface Allocator
extends Closeable

The Allocator interface is used to describe a resource that can allocate a buffer. This is used so that memory allocation can be implemented as a strategy allowing many different sources of memory. Typically memory will be allocated as an array of bytes but can be a mapped region of shared memory or a file.

Author:

Niall Gallagher

Method Summary

Buffer	allocate() This method is used to allocate a default buffer.
Buffer	allocate(long size) This method is used to allocate a default buffer.
void	close() This method is used to close the allocator so that resources that are occupied by the allocator can be freed.

Method Detail

allocate

Buffer allocate()
                throws IOException

This method is used to allocate a default buffer. Typically this will allocate a buffer of predetermined size, allowing it to grow to an upper limit to accommodate extra data. If the buffer can not be allocated for some reason this throws an exception.

Returns:

this returns an allocated buffer with a default size

Throws:

IOException

allocate

Buffer allocate(long size)
                throws IOException

This method is used to allocate a default buffer. This is used to allocate a buffer of the specified size, allowing it to grow to an upper limit to accommodate extra data. If the buffer can not be allocated for some reason this throws an exception.

Parameters:

size - this is the initial capacity the buffer should have

Returns:

this returns an allocated buffer with a specified size

Throws:

IOException

close

void close()
           throws IOException

This method is used to close the allocator so that resources that are occupied by the allocator can be freed. This will allow the allocator to be created and closed repeatedly in a single process without holding on to resources such as mapped file buffers or threads.

Specified by:

close in interface Closeable

Throws:

IOException