Mechanism for class data sharing using extension and application class-loaders

A non-transitory computer readable medium encoded with instructions for reducing load time of an application, the instructions, executable by a processor, comprising:

• prior to execution of an application:
• storing metadata in an archive, the metadata corresponding to a class loading operation used to load a class required by the application, wherein the metadata identifies a type of the class loading operation and wherein different types of class loading operations perform different security checks as a part of loading classes;
• and during execution of the application:
• based at least in part on a request for the class loading operation to load the class, determining, based on the metadata, whether the class is stored in the archive;
• and
• when the class is stored in the archive:
• loading, by a particular class loading operation of a particular type, the class from the archive;
• and
• checking that the particular type of the class loading operation matches the type of the class loading operation in the metadata.