xref: /aosp_15_r20/external/protobuf/csharp/src/Google.Protobuf/IDeepCloneable.cs (revision 1b3f573f81763fcece89efc2b6a5209149e44ab8)

#region Copyright notice and license
// Protocol Buffers - Google's data interchange format
// Copyright 2015 Google Inc.  All rights reserved.
// https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/
//
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// met:
//
//     * Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
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// in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the
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#endregion

namespace Google.Protobuf
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Generic interface for a deeply cloneable type.
    /// </summary>
    /// <remarks>
    /// <para>
    /// All generated messages implement this interface, but so do some non-message types.
    /// Additionally, due to the type constraint on <c>T</c> in <see cref="IMessage{T}"/>,
    /// it is simpler to keep this as a separate interface.
    /// </para>
    /// </remarks>
    /// <typeparam name="T">The type itself, returned by the <see cref="Clone"/> method.</typeparam>
    public interface IDeepCloneable<T>
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Creates a deep clone of this object.
        /// </summary>
        /// <returns>A deep clone of this object.</returns>
        T Clone();
    }
}