Why Java methods with varargs identified as transient?

Question

I was playing with Java Reflection API and observed that methods with variadic argument list become transient. Why is that and what does transient keyword mean in t

Answer 1

The flag for a transient field has been overloaded in the context of a method to mean that the method is a vararg method.

Likewise, the flag for a volatile field has been overloaded in the context of a method to mean that the method is a bridge method.

See: http://java.sun.com/docs/books/vmspec/2nd-edition/ClassFileFormat-Java5.pdf

pages 118-122 (or 26-30 in the PDF file)

Update

Reading the source code for Modifier.java confirms the first sentence of this answer ("The flag for a transient field has been overloaded"). Here's the relevant source code:

// Bits not (yet) exposed in the public API either because they
// have different meanings for fields and methods and there is no
// way to distinguish between the two in this class, or because
// they are not Java programming language keywords
static final int BRIDGE    = 0x00000040;
static final int VARARGS   = 0x00000080;
static final int SYNTHETIC = 0x00001000;
static final int ANNOTATION  = 0x00002000;
static final int ENUM      = 0x00004000;
static final int MANDATED  = 0x00008000;