Systems and methods for loading modified classes into a running application

Abstract

Disclosed herein are systems and method for dynamically updating classes in a running application. In one aspect, a method may include identifying an application running within a virtual machine (VM); generating, within the application, a patcher thread for processing patches; instantiating, within the application, a patcher class using a singleton pattern; installing a shutdown hook in the VM to signal the patcher thread to stop operation and release resources during termination of the application; generating a notification that a live patching facility is set up using a system property in the VM; detecting and executing, via the patcher thread, a task to replace an existing version of a class with an updated version of the class at runtime by scanning, using a polling technique, a tasks directory for new class files and finding the updated version of the class.