This commit introduces the following changes.
1) It adds a new Spring @NonNull annotation which allows to apply
@NonNullApi semantic on a specific element, like @Nullable does.
Combined with @Nullable, it allows partial null-safety support when
package granularity is too broad.
2) @Nullable and @NonNull can apply to ElementType.TYPE_USE in order
to be used on generic type arguments (SPR-15942).
3) Annotations does not apply to ElementType.TYPE_PARAMETER anymore
since it is not supported yet (applicability for such use case is
controversial and need to be discussed).
4) @NonNullApi does not apply to ElementType.FIELD anymore since in a
lot of use cases (private, protected) it is not part for the public API
+ its usage should remain opt-in. A dedicated @NonNullFields annotation
has been added in order to set fields default to non-nullable.
5) Updated Javadoc and reference documentation.
Issue: SPR-15756
The main `build.gradle` file contains now only the common build
infrastructure; all module-specific build configurations have
been moved to their own build file.
Issue: SPR-15885
This commits extends nullability declarations to the field level, formalizing the interaction between methods and their underlying fields and therefore avoiding any nullability mismatch.
Issue: SPR-15720
Beyond just formally declaring the current behavior, this revision actually enforces non-null behavior in selected signatures now, not tolerating null values anymore when not explicitly documented. It also changes some utility methods with historic null-in/null-out tolerance towards enforced non-null return values, making them a proper citizen in non-null assignments.
Some issues are left as to-do: in particular a thorough revision of spring-test, and a few tests with unclear failures (ignored as "TODO: NULLABLE") to be sorted out in a follow-up commit.
Issue: SPR-15540
Juergen Hoeller
igor-suhorukov
Sebastien Deleuze
Brian Clozel
Stephane Nicoll
diguage