| J. Duke | 319a3b9 | 2007-12-01 00:00:00 +0000 | [diff] [blame^] | 1 | /* |
| 2 | * Copyright 1996-2004 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All Rights Reserved. |
| 3 | * DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER. |
| 4 | * |
| 5 | * This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it |
| 6 | * under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 only, as |
| 7 | * published by the Free Software Foundation. Sun designates this |
| 8 | * particular file as subject to the "Classpath" exception as provided |
| 9 | * by Sun in the LICENSE file that accompanied this code. |
| 10 | * |
| 11 | * This code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT |
| 12 | * ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or |
| 13 | * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License |
| 14 | * version 2 for more details (a copy is included in the LICENSE file that |
| 15 | * accompanied this code). |
| 16 | * |
| 17 | * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License version |
| 18 | * 2 along with this work; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, |
| 19 | * Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA. |
| 20 | * |
| 21 | * Please contact Sun Microsystems, Inc., 4150 Network Circle, Santa Clara, |
| 22 | * CA 95054 USA or visit www.sun.com if you need additional information or |
| 23 | * have any questions. |
| 24 | */ |
| 25 | |
| 26 | package java.security.acl; |
| 27 | |
| 28 | import java.util.Enumeration; |
| 29 | import java.security.Principal; |
| 30 | |
| 31 | /** |
| 32 | * This interface is used to represent a group of principals. (A principal |
| 33 | * represents an entity such as an individual user or a company). <p> |
| 34 | * |
| 35 | * Note that Group extends Principal. Thus, either a Principal or a Group can |
| 36 | * be passed as an argument to methods containing a Principal parameter. For |
| 37 | * example, you can add either a Principal or a Group to a Group object by |
| 38 | * calling the object's <code>addMember</code> method, passing it the |
| 39 | * Principal or Group. |
| 40 | * |
| 41 | * @author Satish Dharmaraj |
| 42 | */ |
| 43 | public interface Group extends Principal { |
| 44 | |
| 45 | /** |
| 46 | * Adds the specified member to the group. |
| 47 | * |
| 48 | * @param user the principal to add to this group. |
| 49 | * |
| 50 | * @return true if the member was successfully added, |
| 51 | * false if the principal was already a member. |
| 52 | */ |
| 53 | public boolean addMember(Principal user); |
| 54 | |
| 55 | /** |
| 56 | * Removes the specified member from the group. |
| 57 | * |
| 58 | * @param user the principal to remove from this group. |
| 59 | * |
| 60 | * @return true if the principal was removed, or |
| 61 | * false if the principal was not a member. |
| 62 | */ |
| 63 | public boolean removeMember(Principal user); |
| 64 | |
| 65 | /** |
| 66 | * Returns true if the passed principal is a member of the group. |
| 67 | * This method does a recursive search, so if a principal belongs to a |
| 68 | * group which is a member of this group, true is returned. |
| 69 | * |
| 70 | * @param member the principal whose membership is to be checked. |
| 71 | * |
| 72 | * @return true if the principal is a member of this group, |
| 73 | * false otherwise. |
| 74 | */ |
| 75 | public boolean isMember(Principal member); |
| 76 | |
| 77 | |
| 78 | /** |
| 79 | * Returns an enumeration of the members in the group. |
| 80 | * The returned objects can be instances of either Principal |
| 81 | * or Group (which is a subclass of Principal). |
| 82 | * |
| 83 | * @return an enumeration of the group members. |
| 84 | */ |
| 85 | public Enumeration<? extends Principal> members(); |
| 86 | |
| 87 | } |