What is the value of out field in System class?

Question

i understand that out is a field in System class and it reference some object of PrintStream as print(System.out.getClass()); returns class java.io.PrintStream.

also i presume declaration of out in System class should be something like public static PrintStream out;

My query here is what actually is the value of 'out' field in System Class.
it can not be like
public static PrintStream out = new PrintStream(System.out);

Just Curious

Answer 1

When you check the source code of System class, you can see it is set via native method calls:

 private static native void setOut0(PrintStream out);

Answer 2

The declaration of out is like this (taken from System src)

public final static PrintStream out = null;

and it is initialized in this method

private static void initializeSystemClass() {
    ...
    setOut0(new PrintStream(new BufferedOutputStream(fdOut, 128), true));

...

which is called by JVM

Answer 3

out is a static member in the System class and is an instance of PrintStream. From System class

public static final PrintStream out;