Java - Register all classes annotated with @MyAnnotation

I have an annotation @MyAnnotation and I can annotate any type (class) with it. Then I have a class called AnnotatedClassRegister and I would like it to register all classes annotated with @MyAnnotation so I can access them later. And I'd like to register these classes automatically upon creation of the AnnotatedClassRegister if possible, and most importantly before the annotated classes are instantiated.

I have AspectJ and Guice at my disposal. The only solution I came up with so far is to use Guice to inject a singleton instance of the AnnotatedClassRegister to an aspect, which searches for all classes annotated with @MyAnnotation and it adds the code needed to register such class in its constructor. The downside of this solution is that I need to instantiate every annotated class in order for the code added by AOP to be actually run, therefore I cannot utilize lazy instantiation of these classes.

Simplified pseudo-code example of my solution:

// This is the class where annotated types are registered
public class AnnotatedClassRegister {
    public void registerClass(Class<?> clz) {
        ...
    }
}

// This is the aspect which adds registration code to constructors of annotated
// classes
public aspect AutomaticRegistrationAspect {

    @Inject
    AnnotatedClassRegister register;

    pointcutWhichPicksConstructorsOfAnnotatedClasses(Object annotatedType) : 
            execution(/* Pointcut definition */) && args(this)

    after(Object annotatedType) :
            pointcutWhichPicksConstructorsOfAnnotatedClasses(annotatedType) {

        // registering the class of object whose constructor was picked 
        // by the pointcut
        register.registerClass(annotatedType.getClass())
    }
}

What approach should I use to address this problem? Is there any simple way to get all such annotated classes in classpath via reflection so I wouldn't need to use AOP at all? Or any other solution?

Any ideas are much appreciated, thanks!

It's possible:

1. Get all paths in a classpath. Parse System.getProperties().getProperty("java.class.path", null) to get all paths.

2. Use ClassLoader.getResources(path) to get all resources and check for classes. See the following code, originally found at DZone, archived at Archive.org:

/**
 * Scans all classes accessible from the context class loader which belong to the given package and subpackages.
 *
 * @param packageName The base package
 * @return The classes
 * @throws ClassNotFoundException
 * @throws IOException
 */
private static Class[] getClasses(String packageName)
        throws ClassNotFoundException, IOException {
    ClassLoader classLoader = Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader();
    assert classLoader != null;
    String path = packageName.replace('.', '/');
    Enumeration<URL> resources = classLoader.getResources(path);
    List<File> dirs = new ArrayList<File>();
    while (resources.hasMoreElements()) {
        URL resource = resources.nextElement();
        dirs.add(new File(resource.getFile()));
    }
    ArrayList<Class> classes = new ArrayList<Class>();
    for (File directory : dirs) {
        classes.addAll(findClasses(directory, packageName));
    }
    return classes.toArray(new Class[classes.size()]);
}

/**
 * Recursive method used to find all classes in a given directory and subdirs.
 *
 * @param directory   The base directory
 * @param packageName The package name for classes found inside the base directory
 * @return The classes
 * @throws ClassNotFoundException
 */
private static List<Class> findClasses(File directory, String packageName) throws ClassNotFoundException {
    List<Class> classes = new ArrayList<Class>();
    if (!directory.exists()) {
        return classes;
    }
    File[] files = directory.listFiles();
    for (File file : files) {
        if (file.isDirectory()) {
            assert !file.getName().contains(".");
            classes.addAll(findClasses(file, packageName + "." + file.getName()));
        } else if (file.getName().endsWith(".class")) {
            classes.add(Class.forName(packageName + '.' + file.getName().substring(0, file.getName().length() - 6)));
        }
    }
    return classes;
}