title: get bean definitions without starting context
body: <p>I am writing a <code>ContextLoader</code> that takes additional context files to replace into the existing context. What I am doing is taking the locations and passing them into a <code>ClassPathXmlApplicationContext</code>. Then I am getting the <code>BeanFactory</code> from the context from which I am getting the <code>BeanDefinitions</code>. I am then registering these <code>BeanDefinitions</code> in another (the main) context.</p>
  
  <p>Then issue is that I would like to get the <code>BeanDefinitions</code> from the context without actually staring the context / constructing the beans. Is this possible?</p>
  
  <p>Again, I have a main context A and a temp context B. I am taking all the <code>BeanDefinitions</code> from B and registering them in A. Then I close and dispose of B. The beans are then create / destroyed as context A is started / restarted. However, I noticed that the beans are also created / destroyed once during the process of creating B and getting the definitions. Is there a way to avoid this?</p>