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JNIEnv::NewObject() throwing java.lang.InstantiantionException

I am attempting to call JNIEnv::NewObject() in some JNI code when a C function returns a non-zero error code.
The order of events looks like:
Call C function.
If return code is non-zero, call a helper function which throws a custom excpetion.
The class I am trying to construct so that I can throw it is:
public final class HseException extends Exception {
private static final long serialVersionUID = 8995408998818557762L;
private final int errno;
private final Context ctx;
/* Only called from C */
HseException(final String message, final int errno, final Context ctx) {
super(message);
this.errno = errno;
this.ctx = ctx;
}
public Context getContext() {
return this.ctx;
}
public int getErrno() {
return this.errno;
}
public static enum Context {
NONE
}
}
In my code I am caching the jclass and jmethodID for the class and the constructor in a global struct, but the code looks like:
globals.com.micron.hse.HseException.class =
(*env)->FindClass(env, "com/micron/hse/HseException");
globals.com.micron.hse.HseException.init = (*env)->GetMethodID(
env,
globals.com.micron.hse.HseException.class,
"<init>",
"(Ljava/lang/String;ILcom/micron/hse/HseException$Context;)V");
globals.com.micron.hse.HseException.Context.class =
(*env)->FindClass(env, "com/micron/hse/HseException$Context");
globals.com.micron.hse.HseException.Context.NONE = (*env)->GetStaticFieldID(
env,
globals.com.micron.hse.HseException.Context.class,
"NONE",
"Lcom/micron/hse/HseException$Context;");
Note that the above code is located in the JNI_OnLoad() function of my library. This function completes without error, so this tells me that at least my classes and methods are being loaded correctly.
Lastly here is my helper function where I throw my custom exception type:
/* hse_err_t is a scalar type.
* hse_strerror() creates a string out of that scalar.
* hse_err_to_ctx() gets the enum context value embedded within the scalar.
* hse_err_to_errno() gets the errno value embedded within the scalar.
*/
jint
throw_new_hse_exception(JNIEnv *env, hse_err_t err)
{
assert(env);
assert(err);
const size_t needed_sz = hse_strerror(err, NULL, 0);
char *buf = malloc(needed_sz + 1);
if (!buf)
return (*env)->ThrowNew(
env,
globals.java.lang.OutOfMemoryError.class,
"Failed to allocate memory for error buffer");
hse_strerror(err, buf, needed_sz + 1);
const jstring message = (*env)->NewStringUTF(env, buf);
free(buf);
if ((*env)->ExceptionCheck(env))
return JNI_ERR;
const int rc = hse_err_to_errno(err);
const enum hse_err_ctx ctx = hse_err_to_ctx(err);
jfieldID err_ctx_field = NULL;
switch (ctx) {
case HSE_ERR_CTX_NONE:
err_ctx_field = globals.com.micron.hse.HseException.Context.NONE;
break;
}
assert(err_ctx_field);
const jobject err_ctx_obj = (*env)->GetStaticObjectField(
env, globals.com.micron.hse.HseException.Context.class, err_ctx_field);
if ((*env)->ExceptionCheck(env))
return JNI_ERR;
const jobject hse_exception_obj = (*env)->NewObject(
env,
globals.com.micron.hse.HseException.class,
globals.com.micron.hse.HseException.init,
message,
rc,
err_ctx_obj);
if ((*env)->ExceptionCheck(env))
return JNI_ERR;
return (*env)->Throw(env, (jthrowable)hse_exception_obj);
}
I know for a fact that the (*env)->NewObject() call is what is raising the exception because an exception check before and after will tell me so. The (*env)->NewStringUTF() call is successful and contains the string it should contain. The context field is also retrieved successfully.
What I am not understanding is why I am getting an InstantiationException. The Throws section of the JNIEnv::NewObject() is marked as the following:
THROWS:
InstantiationException: if the class is an interface or an abstract class.
OutOfMemoryError: if the system runs out of memory.
Any exceptions thrown by the constructor.
My class is not an interface nor is it an abstract class, so where could this exception be generated from? The weird thing is that I swear this worked before, but since I am writing these Java bindings from scratch, I have just been overwriting commits and force pushing to my branch.
Any help is appreciated. Unfortunately getMessage() on the exception returns null which just isn't helpful at all. There is no message from the JVM telling me potentially what I have done wrong either.
One detail that could be helpful is that when I try to call JNIEnv::ThrowNew() (after putting a (Ljava/lang/String;)V constructor in the same HseException class, jni_ThrowNew() segfaults, and I cannot understand why. The class is valid when I stash the jclass, and I know for a fact that the memory it is stashed in isn't overwritten in any way, since I have checked the pointer.
The repo where all this code lives is: https://github.com/hse-project/hse-java. Unfinished product, but at least it is buildable and tests can be ran. In the event that someone decides to clone the repo and build it, I will repeat the directions here:
meson build
ninja -C build
meson test -C build -t 0 KvsTest # I am using this test to exercise the code path
My goal tomorrow will be to try to reproduce the issue in a smaller manner. I may also try to peer into the OpenJDK code assuming that is where the JNI interfaces live. Figure if I look hard enough, I might find the line of code which generates the exception.
Edit: I did a test where in my current code, I added a main function and a native function whose only purpose is to throw an exception from C. The code looks something like:
private static native void throwException();
public static void main(String[] args) {
System.load("/path/to/.so");
throwException();
}
The implementation of the native function is:
void Java_com_micron_hse_Hse_throwException
(JNIEnv *env, jclass hse_cls)
{
(void)hse_cls;
/* Generate error */
hse_err_t err = hse_kvdb_txn_begin(NULL, NULL);
throw_new_hse_exception(env, err);
}
This printed the following after executing java -jar path/to/jar:
Exception in thread "main" com.micron.hse.HseException: lib/binding/kvdb_interface.c:1046: Invalid argument (22)
at com.micron.hse.Hse.throwException(Native Method)
at com.micron.hse.Hse.main(Hse.java:28)
That is exactly what I expect to be printed, so now I would say I am even more lost than when I started. For some reason in the context of my tests, the InstantiationException is raised. Not sure if an application using the JAR would hit the same issue or if it is just a test context thing.
Edit 2:
Changed the main method from the previous edit to the following which is pretty much exactly what my test does:
public static void main(String[] args) throws HseException {
try {
loadLibrary(Paths.get("/home/tpartin/Projects/hse-java/build/src/main/c/libhsejni-2.so"));
init();
final Kvdb kvdb = Kvdb.open(Paths.get("/media/hse-tests"));
final Kvs kvs = kvdb.kvsOpen("kvs");
kvs.delete((byte[])null);
kvs.close();
kvdb.close();
} finally {
// fini();
}
}
And was able throw the exception from C appropriately. This must mean that something is wrong with my test environment somehow.
Edit 3: Another clue. On one test, this issue generates the InstantiationException. On another test, this issue segfaults in jni_NewObject.

My issue was that I was holding onto jclass et al. references for too long.
Prior question: Why I should not reuse a jclass and/or jmethodID in JNI?
Java docs: https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/technotes/guides/jni/spec/design.html#global_and_local_references
All Java objects returned by JNI functions are local references.
Thanks to Andrew Henle for pointing this out in the comments of the question. I have highlighted his comment in this answer, and will mark it is as the answer.

fprintf() in C makes garbage filename when called via Java Native Interface

I'm doing a Java program that calls some C functions via the JNI. I have a situation where I gather a bunch of computer energy readings in C and want to write them to a file. Ideally, I want to use fprintf(), instead of formatting all the data as a string, passing it up to Java through the JNI interface, and then writing it to file the Java way, but that seems a lot less efficient.
The only problem is that when I do fprintf() in C, the output file I get has a garbage name. Definitely not the file name I provided it.
alejandro#alejandro-ThinkPad-E15:~/throwawayfiles$ ls
''$'\360\210\025\032\a'
The contents of the file are what I expect it to be, though. I've also called this function in C and it worked just fine, the only problem is when I facilitate calling it from a Java program. Is there a way that I can make sure that the output file has the name I actually want? Or is this just one of the problems of JNI stuff that I have to deal with. Like I said, plan B is to put all the data in a String, send it to java, and filewrite from there, but that's slow, and also code I'd rather not write :)
Thank you!
The code used to write to file. I'm handling a data structure AsyncEnergyMonitor that gathers energy readings. All of the reading and data storage is done in C, but it's all faciliated in the larger context of a Java program.
private native static void writeToFileFromC(String filePath);
public void writeToFile(String filePath)
{
writeToFileFromC(filePath);
}
JNIEXPORT void JNICALL
Java_jrapl_AsyncEnergyMonitorCSide_writeToFileFromC(JNIEnv* env,
jclass jcls, const char* filepath)
{
writeToFile(monitor, filepath);
}
Here is where the file is initially opened and I write in the header line.
void writeToFile(AsyncEnergyMonitor *monitor, const char* filepath){
FILE * outfile = (filepath) ? fopen(filepath,"w") : stdout;
fprintf(outfile,"samplingRate: %d milliseconds\n",monitor->samplingRate);
fprintf(outfile,"socket,dram,gpu,core,pkg,timestamp(usec since epoch)\n");
if (USING_DYNAMIC_ARRAY)
writeToFile_DynamicArray(outfile, monitor->samples_dynarr);
if (USING_LINKED_LIST)
writeToFile_LinkedList(outfile, monitor->samples_linklist);
if (filepath) fclose(outfile);
}
And here are the two functions I use to write the rest of the data, depending on whether the data is stored in a linked list or a dynamic array.
void
writeToFile_DynamicArray(FILE* outfile, DynamicArray* a) {
for (int i = 0; i < a->nItems; i++) {
EnergyStats current = a->items[i];
char csv_string[512];
energy_stats_csv_string(current, csv_string);
fprintf(outfile,"%s\n",csv_string);
}
}
void
writeToFile_LinkedList(FILE* outfile, LinkedList* l) {
LinkNode* current = l->head;
while(current != NULL) {
int upperbound = (current == l->tail) ?
(l->nItemsAtTail) : (NODE_CAPACITY);
for (int i = 0; i < upperbound; i++) {
char ener_string[512];
energy_stats_csv_string(current->items[i], ener_string);
fprintf(outfile,"%s\n",ener_string);
}
current = current->next;
}
}

I forgot to explicitly convert the filepath name from a Java string to a C string. Had nothing to do with file writing from C. Just made a garbage string name because I didn't convert
JNIEXPORT void JNICALL
Java_jrapl_AsyncEnergyMonitorCSide_writeToFileFromC(JNIEnv* env,
jclass jcls, const char* filepath)
{
writeToFile(monitor, filepath);
}
Fixed it to
JNIEXPORT void JNICALL
Java_jrapl_AsyncEnergyMonitorCSide_writeToFileFromC(JNIEnv* env, jclass jcls,
jstring jstringFilepath)
{
const char* filepath = (*env)->GetStringUTFChars(env, jstringFilepath, NULL);
writeToFile(monitor, filepath);
(*env)->ReleaseStringUTFChars(env, jstringFilepath, filepath);
}
All good now.

Java Invocation API: Call the C function back from the java code

I have a C (navive) program and a jar file with the main() method. From my native program I am initializing the JVM, and calling the main() method. I have no problems with this, everything is completely fine. But then I wanted to call back a C function from my java code.
The C function is defined in the native code in the same module as the one, that have created the JVM. The header is auto-generated, and the body is as simple as this:
JNIEXPORT void JNICALL Java_eu_raman_chakhouski_NativeUpdaterBus_connect0(JNIEnv* env, jclass clazz)
{
return;
}
So, from the java code I'm calling NativeUpdaterBus.connect0(), continuosly getting an UnsatisfiedLinkError. I have no System.loadLibrary() calls in my java code, because I thought, that there will be no problems calling the native code back from the java code if the target module is (possibly?) already loaded.
Well, maybe my approach is completely incorrect, but I can't see any obvious defects, maybe you could help?
What possibly could help (but I didn't tried any of these approaches, because I'm still not quite sure)
Use a kind of a "trampoline" dynamic library with these JNI methods, load it from the java code, then marshal native calls through it.
Define a java.lang.Runnable's anonymous inheritor, created with jni_env->DefineClass() but this involves some bytecode trickery.
Use an another, less invasive approach, like sockets, named pipes, etc. But in my case I'm using only one native process, so this might be an overkill.
I'm using OpenJDK 11.0.3 and Windows 10. My C program is compiled with the Microsoft cl.exe 19.16.27031.1 for x64 (Visual Studio 2017).

One possibility, as others have already mentioned, is to create a shared library (.dll) and call it from the native code and from Java to exchange data.
However, if you want to callback to a C function defined in the native code in the same module as the one the JVM originally created, you can use RegisterNatives.
Simple Example
C program creates JVM
it calls a Main of a class
the Java Main calls back a C function named connect0 in the calling C code
to have a test case the native C function constructs a Java string and returns it
the Java side prints the result
Java
package com.software7.test;
public class Main {
private native String connect0() ;
public static void main(String[] args) {
Main m = new Main();
m.makeTest(args);
}
private void makeTest(String[] args) {
System.out.println("Java: main called");
for (String arg : args) {
System.out.println(" -> Java: argument: '" + arg + "'");
}
String res = connect0(); //callback into native code
System.out.println("Java: result of connect0() is '" + res + "'"); //process returned String
}
}
C Program
One can create the Java VM in C as shown here
(works not only with cygwin but still with VS 2019) and then register with RegisterNatives native C callbacks. So using the function invoke_class from the link above it could look like this:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <windows.h>
#include <jni.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdbool.h>
...
void invoke_class(JNIEnv* env) {
jclass helloWorldClass;
jmethodID mainMethod;
jobjectArray applicationArgs;
jstring applicationArg0;
helloWorldClass = (*env)->FindClass(env, "com/software7/test/Main");
mainMethod = (*env)->GetStaticMethodID(env, helloWorldClass, "main", "([Ljava/lang/String;)V");
applicationArgs = (*env)->NewObjectArray(env, 1, (*env)->FindClass(env, "java/lang/String"), NULL);
applicationArg0 = (*env)->NewStringUTF(env, "one argument");
(*env)->SetObjectArrayElement(env, applicationArgs, 0, applicationArg0);
(*env)->CallStaticVoidMethod(env, helloWorldClass, mainMethod, applicationArgs);
}
jstring connect0(JNIEnv* env, jobject thiz);
static JNINativeMethod native_methods[] = {
{ "connect0", "()Ljava/lang/String;", (void*)connect0 },
};
jstring connect0(JNIEnv* env, jobject thiz) {
printf("C: connect0 called\n");
return (*env)->NewStringUTF(env, "Some Result!!");
}
static bool register_native_methods(JNIEnv* env) {
jclass clazz = (*env)->FindClass(env, "com/software7/test/Main");
if (clazz == NULL) {
return false;
}
int num_methods = sizeof(native_methods) / sizeof(native_methods[0]);
if ((*env)->RegisterNatives(env, clazz, native_methods, num_methods) < 0) {
return false;
}
return true;
}
int main() {
printf("C: Program starts, creating VM...\n");
JNIEnv* env = create_vm();
if (env == NULL) {
printf("C: creating JVM failed\n");
return 1;
}
if (!register_native_methods(env)) {
printf("C: registering native methods failed\n");
return 1;
}
invoke_class(env);
destroy_vm();
getchar();
return 0;
}
Result
Links
Creating a JVM from a C Program: http://www.inonit.com/cygwin/jni/invocationApi/c.html
Registering Native Methods: https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/11/docs/specs/jni/functions.html#registering-native-methods

System.loadLibrary() is essential for the jni lookup to work. You also have a more flexible System.load() alternative.
Make sure that the native method implementation is declared with extern "C" and is not hidden by linker.

Android NDK crash in CallObjectMethod calling static method with ART

In an Android app I have some JNI code that calls a java static method.
jbyteArray response = (jbyteArray)pEnv->CallObjectMethod(handlerClass, mid, jstrServiceUrl, jstrRequest);
Executing it in Android 5 in an ART environment, I get a check jni error:
JNI DETECTED ERROR IN APPLICATION: calling static method byte[] x.y.z(java.lang.String, java.lang.String) with CallObjectMethodV in call to CallObjectMethodV...
I don't get this error in Android 4 with a Dalvik environment.
The java method is this one:
public static byte[] z(String serviceURL, String request)
and is previously binded like this:
jclass handlerClass = pEnv->FindClass("x/y/z");
if (handlerClass == NULL) {
return -1;
}
mid = pEnv->GetStaticMethodID(handlerClass, "z", "(Ljava/lang/String;Ljava/lang/String;)[B");
if (mid == NULL) {
return -2;
}
// Construct Strings
jstring jstrServiceUrl = pEnv->NewStringUTF(szServiceURL);
jstring jstrRequest = pEnv->NewStringUTF(szRequest);

I don't know why your code worked with Dalvik, but the method id given to Call<type>Method must be obtained with GetMethodID. If you have a method id obtained with GetStaticMethodID you should use CallStatic<type>Method.
See the descriptions of Call<type>Method and CallStatic<type>Method in the JNI functions documentation.

SWIG java: releasing memory allocated in c++

I'm using SWIG 2.0.10 in Ubuntu to call C++ code in Java.
My C++ code is:
//ImgPro.h:
#include <vector>
typedef struct _bin
{
char* name;
float value;
} Bin;
typedef struct imgprops
{
std::vector<Bin> color;
int width;
int height;
char *print;
} ImageProperties;
class ImgPro
{
public:
ImgPro();
ImageProperties *processImage(char* imagePath);
};
The processImage function definition is:
ImageProperties* ImgPro::processImage(char *imagePath)
{
ImageProperties* imgProp = new ImageProperties();
imgProp->width = 200;
imgProp->height = 200;
char* fp = new char(5);
strcpy(fp, "abc!");
imgProp->print = fp;
Bin outputBin1;
char *name1 = new char(strlen("red")+1);
strcpy(name1, "red");
outputBin1.name = name1;
outputBin1.value = 0.125;
Bin outputBin2;
char *name2 = new char(strlen("blue")+1);
strcpy(name2, "blue");
outputBin2.name = name1;
outputBin2.value = 0.27;
vector<Bin> tempVec;
tempVec.push_back(outputBin1);
tempVec.push_back(outputBin2);
imgProp->color = tempVec;
return imgProp;
}
So, to generate the jni code using swig, i've used the following swig file (note: the vector.i file was created using this example ) :
%module CBIR
// to handle char** has String_Array in Java
%include <various.i>
%include "vector.i"
%{
#include "ImgPro.h"
%}
// to handle char** has String_Array in Java
%apply char **STRING_ARRAY { char ** };
// memory release
%extend imgprops {
~imgprops(){
if($self != NULL)
{
// releasing print element
if($self->print != NULL)
delete[] $self->print;
// releasing vector elements
for(uint x = 0; x < $self->color.size(); x++)
{
Bin currentBin = $self->color[x];
if(currentBin.name != NULL)
delete[] currentBin.name;
}
// releasing stuct Pointer
delete $self;
}
}
}
%include "ImgPro.h"
%template(BinVec) std::vector<Bin>;
And this generates in the swig_wrap file the next function:
SWIGINTERN void delete_imgprops(imgprops *self){
if(self != NULL)
{
// releasing print element
if(self->print != NULL)
delete[] self->print;
// releasing vector elements
for(uint x = 0; x < self->color.size(); x++)
{
Bin currentBin = self->color[x];
if(currentBin.name != NULL)
delete[] currentBin.name;
}
// releasing stuct Pointer
delete self;
}
}
which is called in the delete ImageProperties c++ function.
However, running the following code in Java never releases the memory (calling the function delete_imgprops) allocated in C++:
ImgPro imgObject = new ImgPro();
ImageProperties propObject = imgObject.processImage("imagem123-jpg");
int width = propObject.getWidth();
int height = propObject.getHeight();
String fingerPrint = propObject.getPrint();
propObject.delete();
imgObject.delete();
So, after analyzing the code flow, i found the reason why the memory isn't released. The ImageProperties.Java file generated by SWIG contains, among others, the delete function:
public synchronized void delete() {
if (swigCPtr != 0) {
if (swigCMemOwn) {
swigCMemOwn = false;
CBIRJNI.delete_ImageProperties(swigCPtr);
}
swigCPtr = 0;
}
}
The line "CBIRJNI.delete_ImageProperties(swigCPtr);" is never called because the var swigCMemOwn is always false.
I understand that because the Java side doesn't alloc memory so it also doesn't release it, so what can i do to ensure that java releases memory without any modification on java files generated by swig?
The solution that i found to release the memory is to comment the if(swigCMemOwn) test on delete() function, but i don't think that it's the best way of do it!
Thanks, Sérgio

You could check out the
%newobject
directive (in swig 2.0) with a factory method. It tells swig that a particular function will return a new object and that the java proxy class should be responsible for cleaning up the c++ memory as well. The generated code will set swigCMemOwn to true resulting in the c++ destructor being called.
If you do call the delete method yourself, that's fine - you just have to change your style of programming to think of the swig'ed object as something like a file handle or a db connection. You call close() on those objects when you're done because you don't want to wait for java's GC to kick in at some unknown later point and collect this expensive resource- you want to manage it manually.
But you also obviously must remember to exercise good code discipline to make sure you don't use the java object anywhere after calling delete()

You should never call delete() manually. If you correctly implemented C++ destructor (or wherever you memory is freed) the memory will be released as soon as the Java wrapper object is released, SWIG wrapper code then will call appropriate method automatically. Read more at SWIG doc for Java.