Java agents are pluggable self contained components that run embedded in a JVM and intercept the classloading process. They were introduced in Java 5 along with the powerful java.lang.instrument package. Java agents can be loaded statically at startup or dynamically (programmatically) at runtime to attach to a running process in a fail-safe fashion.

Java agents were an awesome addition to the JVM as it opened a lot of opportunities for tool designers and changed Java tooling landscape quite drastically. In conjunction with Java bytecode manipulation libraries it is now possible to do amazing things to Java classes: we can experiment with programming models, redefine classes in runtime, record execution flow, etc. In this session Oleg will give an overview of Java agents' functionality along with the usage examples and real world experiences. We will learn, how to implement an agent and apply Instrumentation API in combination with bytecode manipulation libraries to solve interesting tasks.

Oleg Šelajev is an engineer, author, speaker, lecturer and advocate at ZeroTurnaround. He spends his time testing, coding, writing, giving conference talks, crafting blogposts and reports. He is also pursuing a PhD on dynamic software updates and code evolution. Oleg enjoys speaking and participating in Java/JVM development conferences such as JavaOne, Devoxxes and others. In his free time, Oleg plays chess at a quater-grandmaster level, loves puzzles and solving all kinds of problems.

Més informacio: Seminari Java Agents