AspectJ based load time weaving using an LTW aware classloader without Java agent on "java -jar app.jar"

[alex-konkov]

AspectJ based load time weaving (LTW) can be set up with Spring Boot, however when running as a dead simple "java -jar app.jar" the classes are not woven until Java agent is specified. (AspectJ + LTW + self contained JAR) is a potentially cool combination for many Spring Boot powered projects that need to leverage AOP without needing to play any additional tricks (or worrying about not forgetting to).

This feature request is about adding an AspectJ LTW bootstrapping code straight into the Spring Boot launcher where a specific class-loader is initialised. Then, the client projects that would like to stick with the simplest "java -jar app.jar" startup way would be able to leverage power of AspectJ LTW weaving feature out of the box.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/23219772/spring-boot-and-aspectj-based-ltw-without-java-agent/23248830?noredirect=1#comment35709788_23248830

[alex-konkov]

Would be interesting what do people think on that and if there is a chance to get it done in spring-boot some day. Any thoughts? thx

[MuzuMatt]

I would certainly welcome this as an enhancement. This is the one limitation that prevents some of my apps from being contained in a single jar file.

[mahe-work]

This would be very much appreciated. So far we've been stuck with Spring dynamic proxy based AOP and its limitations which has lead to all kinds of ugliness such as static support classes duplicating the aspect's behaviour etc.

The reason for this has been that we have been running our applications with Maven Jetty plugin and don't want to ship the aspectj agent jar separately with the application. Ideally it should come from repository just like any other dependency without the need to specify it's exact location on command line.

We're at the moment changing over to spring boot, gradle and other cool stuff and this would be a huge plus.

[kmandeville]

Any progress on this? Looks like it keeps slipping milestones...

[benneq]

Would be cool if this makes it in 1.2.0.