post-compilation removal of annotations from byte code

Question

we are using a library that contains beans that are annotated with JAXB annotations. nothing in the way we use these classes depends on JAXB. in other words, we don\'t need JAXB

Answer 1

I recommend BCEL 6. You can also use ASM, but I hear BCEL is easier to use. Here is a quick test method for making a field final:

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
    System.out.println(F.class.getField("a").getModifiers());
    JavaClass aClass = Repository.lookupClass(F.class);
    ClassGen aGen = new ClassGen(aClass);
    for (Field field : aGen.getFields()) {
        if (field.getName().equals("a")) {
            int mods = field.getModifiers();
            field.setModifiers(mods | Modifier.FINAL);
        }
    }
    final byte[] classBytes = aGen.getJavaClass().getBytes();
    ClassLoader cl = new ClassLoader(null) {
        @Override
        protected synchronized Class findClass(String name) throws ClassNotFoundException {
            return defineClass("F", classBytes, 0, classBytes.length);
        }
    };
    Class fWithoutDeprecated = cl.loadClass("F");
    System.out.println(fWithoutDeprecated.getField("a").getModifiers());
}

Of course, you would actually write your classes out to disk as files and then jar them up but this is easier for trying things out. I don't have BCEL 6 handy, so I can't modify this example to remove annotations, but I imagine the code would be something like:

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
    ...
    ClassGen aGen = new ClassGen(aClass);
    aGen.setAttributes(cleanupAttributes(aGen.getAttributes()));
    aGen.getFields();
    for (Field field : aGen.getFields()) {
        field.setAttributes(cleanupAttributes(field.getAttributes()));
    }
    for (Method method : aGen.getMethods()) {
        method.setAttributes(cleanupAttributes(method.getAttributes()));
    }
    ...
}

private Attribute[] cleanupAttributes(Attribute[] attributes) {
    for (Attribute attribute : attributes) {
        if (attribute instanceof Annotations) {
            Annotations annotations = (Annotations) attribute;
            if (annotations.isRuntimeVisible()) {
                AnnotationEntry[] entries = annotations.getAnnotationEntries();
                List newEntries = new ArrayList();
                for (AnnotationEntry entry : entries) {
                    if (!entry.getAnnotationType().startsWith("javax")) {
                        newEntries.add(entry);
                    }
                }
                annotations.setAnnotationTable(newEntries);
            }
        }
    }
    return attributes;
}