Editing Non-blocking I/O (Java) (section)

==JDK 7 and NIO.2==
{{Anchor|NIO.2}}
{{Expand section|date=December 2009}}
JDK 7 includes a {{Javadoc:SE|package=java.nio.file|java/nio/file}} package which, with the {{Javadoc:SE|java/nio/file|Path}} class (also new to JDK 7), among other features, provides extended capabilities for filesystem tasks, e.g. can work with [[Symbolic link|symbolic]]/[[Hard link|hard]] links and dump big directory listings into buffers more quickly than the old File class does.
The {{Javadoc:SE|package=java.nio.file|java/nio/file}} package and its related package, {{Javadoc:SE|package=java.nio.file.attribute|java/nio/file/attribute}}, provide comprehensive support for file I/O and for accessing the file system. A zip file system provider is also available in JDK 7.

The <code>java.nio.file.LinkOption</code> is an example of emulating extensible enums with interfaces.{{sfn|Bloch|2018|loc=Chapter §6 Item 38 Emulate extensible enums with interfaces|pp=176-179}} In Java, it is not possible to have one <code>Enum</code> extend another <code>Enum</code>. However, it is possible to emulate an extensible <code>Enum</code> type by having an <code>Enum</code> implement one or more interfaces. <code>LinkOption</code> is an enum type that implements both the <code>OpenOption</code> and <code>CopyOption</code> interfaces, which emulates the effects of an extensible <code>Enum</code> type. A small down-side to this approach is that implementations cannot be inherited between various <code>Enum</code> types.

{{sfn|Bloch|2018|loc=Chapter §6 Item 38 Emulate extensible enums with interfaces|pp=176-179}}