"Charlie McDowell" <###@###.###> writes:
 
I believe that the way you do class unloading is incorrect. The
attached example demonstrates how a program gets different behavior
when GC is called which causes a class with a static field to be
unloaded. Try it with and then without the System.gc line.

class Example
{
    public static void main(String[] args)
    throws java.io.IOException, ClassNotFoundException,
    IllegalAccessException, InstantiationException
    {
        int count = 0;
        SomeInterface class_one_object;

        /* load the class ClassOne and instantiate an instance of it */
        /* ClassOne uses ClassTwo which will thus get loaded also */
        Class theClass = Class.forName("ClassOne");
        class_one_object = (SomeInterface)theClass.newInstance();

        /* remove all references to the class and the instance */
        class_one_object = null;
        theClass = null;

System.gc(); /* force garbage collection which also unloads classes */
        
        /*loads and instantiates ClassOne again. ClassTwo also gets reloaded*/
        class_one_object = (SomeInterface)new ClassOne();
    }
}
// File ClassOne.java:
// public class ClassOne implements SomeInterface{
// public ClassOne(){
// new ClassTwo();
// }
// }

// File SomeInterface.java:
// public interface SomeInterface {
// }

// File ClassTwo.java:
// public class ClassTwo {
// static int counter=0;
// public ClassTwo(){
// counter++;
// System.out.println("ClassTwo has counter = " + counter);
// }
// }