Dynamic instrumentation of distributed Java applications using bytecode modifications

Abstract

Java's features such as system platform independence, dynamic and network oriented architecture, robustness as well as growing number of common standards make it a language of choice for many projects. However an increasing complexity of created software and requirement for high stability and high quality of applications make it desirable for a developer to inspect, monitor, debug or in any way alter Java programs behaviour on-the-fly. The main goal of this paper is to present the design of a system for instrumenting Java classes at runtime. This system is to aid developer in modifying program by adding fragments of code at specific locations that implement some new functionality. This allows programmer to enhance classes with logging, monitoring, caching or any other capabilities that are required at run-time. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.