Apache Commons BCEL™

FAQ

Q: How can I ... with BCEL?
A: Take a look at org.apache.bcel.util.BCELifier, it takes a given class and converts it to a BCEL program (in Java, of course). It will show you how certain code is generated using BCEL.

Q: Is the BCEL thread-safe?
A: BCEL was (deliberately) not designed for thread safety. See "Concurrent Programming in Java", by Doug Lea, for an excellent reference on how to build thread-safe wrappers and more.

Q: Can I use BCEL in a commercial product?
A: Yes, this is covered by the Apache License, if you add a note about the original author and where to find the sources, i.e., https://commons.apache.org/bcel/

Q: (Typically for users of Xalan (XSLTC)) I'm getting

      ClassGenException: Branch target offset too large for short

when compiling large files.
A: The answer lies in internal limitations of the JVM, branch instruction like goto can not address offsets larger than a short integer, i.e. offsets >= 32767.
The solution is to split the branch into in intermediate hops, which the XSLTC obviously doesn't take care off. (In fact you could replace gotos with the goto_w instruction, but this wouldn't help in the other cases).

Q: Can I create or modify classes dynamically with BCEL?
A: BCEL contains useful classes in the util package, namely ClassLoader and JavaWrapper. Take a look at the ProxyCreator example.

Q: I get a verification error, what can I do?
A: Use the JustIce verifier that comes together with BCEL to get more detailed information:

       java org.apache.bcel.verifier.Verifier <your class>