A java Agent to inspect all JVM running classes?

Question

I am trying do an academic project on BCI and JavaAssist. I would be glad if anyone could help me with these:

1. Is it possible to build a java agent which can inspect/control all classes running currently in the JVM?

2. Is it possible to build a java object as a composite of objects(sub objects), so that these sub-objects can evolve dynamically updating their behavior on the fly while the main java object is still running?

Answer 1

The short answer is yes.

As a starting point you could use asm library. This is a usefull presentation http://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/presentations2012/30_presentation.pdf

This library can be used for instrumentation, inspection and dynamic code generation which can then be loaded using a classloader.