在上一篇文章中我们见到了非懒加载类的加载，那么现在我们来探究一下懒加载类的加载。那么首先我们需要明确的是什么是懒加载类。

什么是懒加载类？

懒加载，顾名思义，是平时不会被加载，只有在用到的时候才会被加载。非懒加载类和懒加载类的区别就是，我们是否实现了+(void)load方法。从objc的源码中我们得知，+(void)load方法是在main函数之前被调用的。那么这个时候为了能后保证+(void)load方法能后被调用，就必须提前把这个类加载好。这也就是非懒加载类。

如果一个类的子类实现了+(void)load方法，那么他也会在子类被加载的时候，一起被加载。原因是子类在加载的时候会对父类和元类进行处理。

    supercls = realizeClassWithoutSwift(remapClass(cls->superclass));
    metacls = realizeClassWithoutSwift(remapClass(cls->ISA()));

懒加载类的加载

那么我们的懒加载类又是什么时候被加载的呢？ 在我们第一次使用这个类的时候，也就是给这个类发送第一条消息的时候，懒加载的类才会被真正加载。在之前的篇章中我们也讲到过消息发送，消息发送中有一个很重要的方法lookUpImpOrForward。

我们在这个方法中发现了这么一句代码。

    if (!cls->isRealized()) {
        cls = realizeClassMaybeSwiftAndLeaveLocked(cls, runtimeLock);
        // runtimeLock may have been dropped but is now locked again
    }

通过断点得知，当一个类是懒加载类的时候，它第一次接收到消息时，就会走到这里来，接下来我们看看这里面到底做了什么。

static Class
realizeClassMaybeSwiftAndLeaveLocked(Class cls, mutex_t& lock)
{
    return realizeClassMaybeSwiftMaybeRelock(cls, lock, true);
}

我们继续往下探究

static Class
realizeClassMaybeSwiftMaybeRelock(Class cls, mutex_t& lock, bool leaveLocked)
{
    lock.assertLocked();

    if (!cls->isSwiftStable_ButAllowLegacyForNow()) {
        // Non-Swift class. Realize it now with the lock still held.
        // fixme wrong in the future for objc subclasses of swift classes
        realizeClassWithoutSwift(cls);
        if (!leaveLocked) lock.unlock();
    } else {
        // Swift class. We need to drop locks and call the Swift
        // runtime to initialize it.
        lock.unlock();
        cls = realizeSwiftClass(cls);
        assert(cls->isRealized());    // callback must have provoked realization
        if (leaveLocked) lock.lock();
    }

    return cls;
}

我们发现这里对OC和swift做了不同情况的处理，现在我们只针对OC的环境进行探究。我们在这里又看到这一个熟悉的方法，realizeClassWithoutSwift这又和我们在加载非懒加载类时做了同样的处理。

static Class realizeClassWithoutSwift(Class cls)
{
    runtimeLock.assertLocked();

    const class_ro_t *ro;
    class_rw_t *rw;
    Class supercls;
    Class metacls;
    bool isMeta;

    if (!cls) return nil;
    if (cls->isRealized()) return cls;
    assert(cls == remapClass(cls));

    // fixme verify class is not in an un-dlopened part of the shared cache?

    ro = (const class_ro_t *)cls->data();
    if (ro->flags & RO_FUTURE) {
        // This was a future class. rw data is already allocated.
        rw = cls->data();
        ro = cls->data()->ro;
        cls->changeInfo(RW_REALIZED|RW_REALIZING, RW_FUTURE);
    } else {
        // Normal class. Allocate writeable class data.
        rw = (class_rw_t *)calloc(sizeof(class_rw_t), 1);
        rw->ro = ro;
        rw->flags = RW_REALIZED|RW_REALIZING;
        cls->setData(rw);
    }

    isMeta = ro->flags & RO_META;

    rw->version = isMeta ? 7 : 0;  // old runtime went up to 6


    // Choose an index for this class.
    // Sets cls->instancesRequireRawIsa if indexes no more indexes are available
    cls->chooseClassArrayIndex();

    if (PrintConnecting) {
        _objc_inform("CLASS: realizing class '%s'%s %p %p #%u %s%s",
                     cls->nameForLogging(), isMeta ? " (meta)" : "", 
                     (void*)cls, ro, cls->classArrayIndex(),
                     cls->isSwiftStable() ? "(swift)" : "",
                     cls->isSwiftLegacy() ? "(pre-stable swift)" : "");
    }

    // Realize superclass and metaclass, if they aren't already.
    // This needs to be done after RW_REALIZED is set above, for root classes.
    // This needs to be done after class index is chosen, for root metaclasses.
    // This assumes that none of those classes have Swift contents,
    //   or that Swift's initializers have already been called.
    //   fixme that assumption will be wrong if we add support
    //   for ObjC subclasses of Swift classes.
    supercls = realizeClassWithoutSwift(remapClass(cls->superclass));
    metacls = realizeClassWithoutSwift(remapClass(cls->ISA()));

#if SUPPORT_NONPOINTER_ISA
    // Disable non-pointer isa for some classes and/or platforms.
    // Set instancesRequireRawIsa.
    bool instancesRequireRawIsa = cls->instancesRequireRawIsa();
    bool rawIsaIsInherited = false;
    static bool hackedDispatch = false;

    if (DisableNonpointerIsa) {
        // Non-pointer isa disabled by environment or app SDK version
        instancesRequireRawIsa = true;
    }
    else if (!hackedDispatch  &&  !(ro->flags & RO_META)  &&  
             0 == strcmp(ro->name, "OS_object")) 
    {
        // hack for libdispatch et al - isa also acts as vtable pointer
        hackedDispatch = true;
        instancesRequireRawIsa = true;
    }
    else if (supercls  &&  supercls->superclass  &&  
             supercls->instancesRequireRawIsa()) 
    {
        // This is also propagated by addSubclass() 
        // but nonpointer isa setup needs it earlier.
        // Special case: instancesRequireRawIsa does not propagate 
        // from root class to root metaclass
        instancesRequireRawIsa = true;
        rawIsaIsInherited = true;
    }
    
    if (instancesRequireRawIsa) {
        cls->setInstancesRequireRawIsa(rawIsaIsInherited);
    }
// SUPPORT_NONPOINTER_ISA
#endif

    // Update superclass and metaclass in case of remapping
    cls->superclass = supercls;
    cls->initClassIsa(metacls);

    // Reconcile instance variable offsets / layout.
    // This may reallocate class_ro_t, updating our ro variable.
    if (supercls  &&  !isMeta) reconcileInstanceVariables(cls, supercls, ro);

    // Set fastInstanceSize if it wasn t set already.
    cls->setInstanceSize(ro->instanceSize);

    // Copy some flags from ro to rw
    if (ro->flags & RO_HAS_CXX_STRUCTORS) {
        cls->setHasCxxDtor();
        if (! (ro->flags & RO_HAS_CXX_DTOR_ONLY)) {
            cls->setHasCxxCtor();
        }
    }
    
    // Propagate the associated objects forbidden flag from ro or from
    // the superclass.
    if ((ro->flags & RO_FORBIDS_ASSOCIATED_OBJECTS) ||
        (supercls && supercls->forbidsAssociatedObjects()))
    {
        rw->flags |= RW_FORBIDS_ASSOCIATED_OBJECTS;
    }

    // Connect this class to its superclass s subclass lists
    if (supercls) {
        addSubclass(supercls, cls);
    } else {
        addRootClass(cls);
    }

    // Attach categories
    methodizeClass(cls);

    return cls;
}

总结

懒加载类会在第一次收到消息的时候进行加载，加载的时机是在消息查找流程中的lookUpImpOrForward方法中。