001    /****************************************************************
002     * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one   *
003     * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file *
004     * distributed with this work for additional information        *
005     * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file   *
006     * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the            *
007     * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance   *
008     * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at   *
009     *                                                              *
010     *   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0                 *
011     *                                                              *
012     * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,   *
013     * software distributed under the License is distributed on an  *
014     * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY       *
015     * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the    *
016     * specific language governing permissions and limitations      *
017     * under the License.                                           *
018     ****************************************************************/
019    
020    package org.apache.james.mime4j.message;
021    
022    /**
023     * A <tt>Disposable</tt> is an object that should be disposed of explicitly
024     * when it is no longer needed.
025     * 
026     * The dispose method is invoked to release resources that the object is
027     * holding (such as open files). 
028     */
029    public interface Disposable {
030        /**
031         * Free any resources this object is holding and prepares this object
032         * for garbage collection. Once an object has been disposed of it can no
033         * longer be used.
034         */
035        void dispose();
036    }