Component Development for the Java™ Platform

2.5. Hot Deployment

Class loaders can be used to load multiple versions of a class from different locations in space, but they can also be used to load different versions of a class from the same location at different times. This ability, often called hot deployment , is useful for redeploying incremental changes to a class without having to shut down the virtual machine. In the example that follows, client code^[7] will use multiple versions of a class, without writing any explicit class loading code. The server code will instantiate new class loaders as necessary to load new versions of the class.

^[7] Throughout the book, I will use the terms “client” and “server” in their most generic sense. Client code is code that utilizes some service provided ...