| A nexus for I/O operations.
A channel represents an open connection to an entity such as a hardware
device, a file, a network socket, or a program component that is capable of
performing one or more distinct I/O operations, for example reading or
writing.
A channel is either open or closed. A channel is open upon creation,
and once closed it remains closed. Once a channel is closed, any attempt to
invoke an I/O operation upon it will cause a
ClosedChannelException to be thrown. Whether or not a channel is open may be tested by invoking
its
Channel.isOpen isOpen method.
Channels are, in general, intended to be safe for multithreaded access
as described in the specifications of the interfaces and classes that extend
and implement this interface.
author:
Mark Reinhold
author:
JSR-51 Expert Group
version:
1.25, 07/05/05
since:
1.4 |