/* * Copyright (c) 1996, 1998, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. * DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER. * * This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it * under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 only, as * published by the Free Software Foundation.  Oracle designates this * particular file as subject to the "Classpath" exception as provided * by Oracle in the LICENSE file that accompanied this code. * * This code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT * ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License * version 2 for more details (a copy is included in the LICENSE file that * accompanied this code). * * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License version * 2 along with this work; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, * Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA. * * Please contact Oracle, 500 Oracle Parkway, Redwood Shores, CA 94065 USA * or visit www.oracle.com if you need additional information or have any * questions. */ package java.security; /** * This interface represents the abstract notion of a principal, which * can be used to represent any entity, such as an individual, a * corporation, and a login id. * * @see java.security.cert.X509Certificate * * @author Li Gong */public interface Principal {     /**     * Compares this principal to the specified object.  Returns true     * if the object passed in matches the principal represented by     * the implementation of this interface.     *     * @param another principal to compare with.     *     * @return true if the principal passed in is the same as that     * encapsulated by this principal, and false otherwise.      */    public boolean equals(Object another);     /**     * Returns a string representation of this principal.     *     * @return a string representation of this principal.     */    public String toString();     /**     * Returns a hashcode for this principal.     *     * @return a hashcode for this principal.     */    public int hashCode();     /**     * Returns the name of this principal.     *     * @return the name of this principal.     */    public String getName();}