--- /dev/null
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+ * contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+ * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+ * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+ * the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ * http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.apache.arrow.memory;
+
+/**
+ * Manages a list of {@link ArrowBuf}s that can be reallocated as needed. Upon
+ * re-allocation the old buffer will be freed. Managing a list of these buffers
+ * prevents some parts of the system from needing to define a correct location
+ * to place the final call to free them.
+ */
+public interface BufferManager extends AutoCloseable {
+
+ /**
+ * Replace an old buffer with a new version at least of the provided size. Does not copy data.
+ *
+ * @param old Old Buffer that the user is no longer going to use.
+ * @param newSize Size of new replacement buffer.
+ * @return A new version of the buffer.
+ */
+ ArrowBuf replace(ArrowBuf old, long newSize);
+
+ /**
+ * Get a managed buffer of indeterminate size.
+ *
+ * @return A buffer.
+ */
+ ArrowBuf getManagedBuffer();
+
+ /**
+ * Get a managed buffer of at least a certain size.
+ *
+ * @param size The desired size
+ * @return A buffer
+ */
+ ArrowBuf getManagedBuffer(long size);
+
+ void close();
+}