/*
 * Hibernate, Relational Persistence for Idiomatic Java
 *
 * License: GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL), version 2.1 or later.
 * See the lgpl.txt file in the root directory or <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl-2.1.html>.
 */
package org.hibernate.annotations;
import java.lang.annotation.ElementType;
import java.lang.annotation.Retention;
import java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy;

Mark an Entity, a Collection, or an Attribute type as immutable. No annotation means the element is mutable.

An immutable entity may not be updated by the application. Updates to an immutable
entity will be ignored, but no exception is thrown. @Immutable  must be used on root entities only. 


@Immutable placed on a collection makes the collection immutable, meaning additions and 
deletions to and from the collection are not allowed. A HibernateException is thrown in this case. 


An immutable attribute type will not be copied in the currently running Persistence Context in order to detect if the underlying value is dirty. As a result loading the entity will require less memory
and checking changes will be much faster.

Author:
Emmanuel Bernard/**
 * Mark an Entity, a Collection, or an Attribute type as immutable. No annotation means the element is mutable.
 * <p>
 * An immutable entity may not be updated by the application. Updates to an immutable
 * entity will be ignored, but no exception is thrown. &#064;Immutable  must be used on root entities only. 
 * </p>
 * <p>
 * &#064;Immutable placed on a collection makes the collection immutable, meaning additions and 
 * deletions to and from the collection are not allowed. A <i>HibernateException</i> is thrown in this case. 
 * </p>
 * <p>
 * An immutable attribute type will not be copied in the currently running Persistence Context in order to detect if the underlying value is dirty. As a result loading the entity will require less memory
 * and checking changes will be much faster.
 * </p>
 *
 * @author Emmanuel Bernard
 */
@java.lang.annotation.Target({ElementType.TYPE, ElementType.METHOD, ElementType.FIELD})
@Retention( RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME )
public @interface Immutable {
}