Possible heap pollution via varargs parameter

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Heap pollution is a technical term. It refers to references which have a type that is not a supertype of the object they point to.

List<A> listOfAs = new ArrayList<>();
List<B> listOfBs = (List<B>)(Object)listOfAs; // points to a list of As

This can lead to “unexplainable” ClassCastExceptions.

// if the heap never gets polluted, this should never throw a CCE
B b = listOfBs.get(0);

@SafeVarargs does not prevent this at all. However, there are methods which provably will not pollute the heap, the compiler just can’t prove it. Previously, callers of such APIs would get annoying warnings that were completely pointless but had to be suppressed at every call site. Now the API author can suppress it once at the declaration site.

However, if the method actually is not safe, users will no longer be warned.

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