https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-framework: Spring Core (Spring IO)
  • Juergen Hoeller 
/*
 * Copyright 2002-2017 the original author or authors.
 *
 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
 */

package org.springframework.core.env;


Interface indicating a component that contains and exposes an Environment reference. 
All Spring application contexts are EnvironmentCapable, and the interface is used primarily for performing instanceof checks in framework methods that accept BeanFactory instances that may or may not actually be ApplicationContext instances in order to interact with the environment if indeed it is available. 
As mentioned, ApplicationContext extends EnvironmentCapable, and thus exposes a getEnvironment() method; however, ConfigurableApplicationContext redefines 
getEnvironment() and narrows the signature to return a ConfigurableEnvironment. The effect is that an Environment object is 'read-only' until it is being accessed from a ConfigurableApplicationContext, at which point it too may be configured. 
Author:Chris Beams
See Also:
Since:3.1
/**
 * Interface indicating a component that contains and exposes an {@link Environment} reference.
 *
 * <p>All Spring application contexts are EnvironmentCapable, and the interface is used primarily
 * for performing {@code instanceof} checks in framework methods that accept BeanFactory
 * instances that may or may not actually be ApplicationContext instances in order to interact
 * with the environment if indeed it is available.
 *
 * <p>As mentioned, {@link org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext ApplicationContext}
 * extends EnvironmentCapable, and thus exposes a {@link #getEnvironment()} method; however,
 * {@link org.springframework.context.ConfigurableApplicationContext ConfigurableApplicationContext}
 * redefines {@link org.springframework.context.ConfigurableApplicationContext#getEnvironment
 * getEnvironment()} and narrows the signature to return a {@link ConfigurableEnvironment}.
 * The effect is that an Environment object is 'read-only' until it is being accessed from
 * a ConfigurableApplicationContext, at which point it too may be configured.
 *
 * @author Chris Beams
 * @since 3.1
 * @see Environment
 * @see ConfigurableEnvironment
 * @see org.springframework.context.ConfigurableApplicationContext#getEnvironment()
 */
public interface EnvironmentCapable {

	
Return the Environment associated with this component. 
/**
	 * Return the {@link Environment} associated with this component.
	 */
	Environment getEnvironment();

}