Java In A Nutshell, 5th Edition

This interface defines a communication channel for input and output. The Channel interface is a high-level generic interface which is extended by more specific interfaces, such as ReadableByteChannel and WritableByteChannel . Channel defines only two methods : isOpen( ) determines whether a channel is open , and close( ) closes a channel. Channels are open when they are first created. Once closed, a channel remains closed forever, and no further I/O operations may take place through it.

Many channel implementations are interruptible and asynchonously closeable, and implement the InterruptibleChannel interface to advertise this fact. See InterruptibleChannel for details.

public interface Channel extends java.io.Closeable { // Public Instance Methods void close ( ) throws java.io.IOException; boolean isOpen ( ); }

Implementations

InterruptibleChannel , ReadableByteChannel , SelectableChannel , WritableByteChannel , java.nio.channels.spi.AbstractInterruptibleChannel

Returned By

System.inheritedChannel( ) , java.nio.channels.spi.SelectorProvider.inheritedChannel( )