Unloading a class dynamically

[Gopal Shah]

Hi Friends,
How can I unload a class, during the course of execution of a program ?
Thanks,
Gopal.

[Cindy Glass]

If it is loaded by the bootstrap classloader, you can not.
For other classes remember

A class or interface may be unloaded if and only if its class loader is unreachable. Classes loaded by the bootstrap loader may not be unloaded.

from Clarifications and Amendments to The Java Language Specification.

[Gopal Shah]

Hi Cindy,
I went thru the link and there it is mentioned

it follows that one must not unload a class while its loader is still reachable.

.
1. So can a user unload a class himself (r there any methods to unload a class) ?

However, if a class is unloaded while its loader is reachable, it may be reloaded

2. Does it mean classes are loaded and reloaded by JVM at its own whim for optimization. Basically I wanted to cater to the problem of
Static variables losing its state when classes r reloaded. When should I provide explicit code to ensure that state is not lost ?

[Ernest Friedman-Hill]

What gave you the idea that this was a problem? The ClassLoader architecture changed quite a bit for Java 2, and problems of this type described early in Java's history are simply no longer a problem. Are you worrying about a problem you've never seen?