Finding a variable name using BCEL

Question

Let's say I have a simple class with the main method.
The first line in the main method looks like this:
boolean x = false;
How would I find the NAME of that boolean ("x") using BCEL?
Thank you very much in advance. I tried searching the internet, but there is very little documentation on BCEL.

Answer 1

Well, first you need to read the VM spec to learn that local variables are stored as an attribute of a method: http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jvms/second_edition/html/ClassFile.doc.html#5956
Then look at the BCEL class diagram, and note that JavaClass contains Methods, which contain Attributes, which may be a LocalVariableTable: http://jakarta.apache.org/bcel/images/javaclass.gif
Then, it's time to go to the BCEL JavaDoc (which I agree, is difficult to find -- I didn't see a link to it, but I do know the structure of Apache projects): http://jakarta.apache.org/bcel/apidocs/
At which point you'll see that the Method object has a method to retrieve the local variable table: http://jakarta.apache.org/bcel/apidocs/org/apache/bcel/classfile/Method.html#getLocalVariableTable()
And, if you work your way through that, you'll see that (like everything else in the .class file), each local variable is a reference into the constant pool.
Of course, to see local variables at all, you'll have to compile your original class with -g