Scans the classpath for annotated components that will be auto-registered as Spring beans. By default, the Spring-provided @Component, @Repository, @Service, and @Controller stereotypes will be detected. Note: This tag implies the effects of the 'annotation-config' tag, activating @Required, @Autowired, @PostConstruct, @PreDestroy, @Resource, @PersistenceContext and @PersistenceUnit annotations in the component classes, which is usually desired for autodetected components (without external configuration). Turn off the 'annotation-config' attribute to deactivate this default behavior, for example in order to use custom BeanPostProcessor definitions for handling those annotations. Note: You may use placeholders in package paths, but only resolved against system properties (analogous to resource paths). A component scan results in new bean definition being registered; Spring's PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer will apply to those bean definitions just like to regular bean definitions, but it won't apply to the component scan settings themselves. See Javadoc for org.springframework.context.annotation.ComponentScan for information on code-based alternatives to bootstrapping component-scanning.