I have made a program in Java that calls to some functions in native language C. Made a shared library of that C function file and made a shared library, and all worked perfectly.
My problem is when I try to call other functions for example in PBC (Pairing Based Cryptography) library. The C files that are in the shared library include the required .h files for knowing the functions in PBC but I can't use them, I don't know why. What should I do? How can I call functions that are in another libraries?
Java code for loading the libraries.
static {
System.loadLibrary("myLibrary");
System.loadLibrary("pbc");
}
Error when executing my own Java program:
undefined symbol: pairing_init_set_buf
Make sure to link your JNI code with shared library you want to use.
You can take a look at sample code here:
https://github.com/mkowsiak/jnicookbook/tree/master/recipes/recipeNo023
In this sample you have JNI function:
JNIEXPORT void JNICALL Java_recipeNo023_HelloWorld_displayMessage
(JNIEnv *env, jclass obj) {
printf("Hello world!\n");
/* We are calling function from another source */
anotherFunction();
}
that calls function from some external shared library
void anotherFunction() {
// we are printing message from another C file
printf("Hello from another function!\n");
}
You have to make sure that your JNI library is linked with the library you want to use:
cc -g -shared -fpic -I${JAVA_HOME}/include -I${JAVA_HOME}/include/$(ARCH) c/recipeNo023_HelloWorld.c -L./lib -lAnotherFunction -o lib/libHelloWorld.$(EXT)
In this sample
-L./lib -lAnotherFunction
tells compiler to use this "other" library that contains symbols not available inside library that contains JNI code.
I have seen quite a few similar questions, but have not found a solution to my particular problem. I am attempting to SWIGify some C++11 code that uses std::function, so I can use it in my Java application.
I have encountered shared pointers like this:
virtual std::shared_ptr<some::ns::TheThing> getTheThing(unsigned short thingID);
and successfully handled them with the shared_ptr directive like so:
%shared_ptr(some::ns::TheThing);
I have encountered vectors of shared pointers like this:
virtual std::vector<std::shared_ptr<some::ns::TheThing>> getAllTheThings() const = 0;
and successfully handled them with a template like so:
%template(ThingVector) std::vector<std::shared_ptr<some::ns::TheThing>>;
Now I have a method like this:
void registerThingCallback(std::function<void(std::shared_ptr<some::ns::TheThing>) > func);
and I cannot get SWIG to wrap it properly. I have tried using %callback, directors, %template, and %inline functional code, as I have seen examples with all of these things, but have not been able to get anything that seems close to working. Here is a little more context around the function call if that helps (sanitized and reduced):
thing_callback.h
#include <functional>
namespace some {
namespace ns {
/**
* Hold some callbacks.
*/
class ThingCallbacks {
public:
/**
* Registers a callback
* #param func The callback function
*/
void registerThingCallback(std::function<void(std::shared_ptr<some::ns::TheThing>) > func);
};
}
}
Update
Based on Flexo's great answer below, I am much closer to a solution. I was able to get the examples below working exactly as advertised. I tried incorporating it into my actual code, but ran into issues. To expand on my earlier simplified example, here is my definition of TheThing:
test_thing.h
#ifndef THE_THING_H
#define THE_THING_H
#include <string>
namespace some {
namespace ns {
class TheThing {
public:
virtual ~TheThing() {};
virtual unsigned long longThing() const = 0;
virtual std::string stringThing() const = 0;
};
}
}
#endif /* THE_THING_H */
And here is my .i file. To have as few moving parts as possible, I've basically just taken the int and double from the code provided in the answer below, and replaced them with a shared pointer to my object.
func_thing_test.i
%module(directors="1") Thing
%include "stl.i"
%include "std_function.i"
%include "std_shared_ptr.i"
%shared_ptr(some::ns::TheThing);
%typemap(javadirectorin) std::shared_ptr<some::ns::TheThing> "new $typemap(jstype, some::ns::TheThing)($1,false)";
%typemap(directorin,descriptor="Lsome.ns.typemap(jstype, some::ns::TheThing);") std::shared_ptr<some::ns::TheThing> %{
*($&1_type*)&j$1 = &$1;
%}
%include "test_thing.h"
%include "thing_callback.h"
%{
#include <memory>
#include "test_thing.h"
#include "thing_callback.h"
%}
%std_function(Functor, void, std::shared_ptr<some::ns::TheThing>);
%{
#include <iostream>
void add_and_print(std::shared_ptr<some::ns::TheThing> thing) {
std::cout << "here\n";
}
%}
%callback("%s_cb");
void add_and_print(std::shared_ptr<some::ns::TheThing>);
%nocallback;
%inline %{
std::function<void(std::shared_ptr<some::ns::TheThing>)> make_functor() {
return [](std::shared_ptr<some::ns::TheThing>){
std::cout << "make functor\n";
};
}
void do_things(std::function<void(std::shared_ptr<some::ns::TheThing>)> in) {
std::cout << "inside do things\n";
}
%}
test_thing.h is what I just posted above, and thing_callback.h is the code I posted in my original question. This all compiles through the swig, c++, and Java chain without error, but it looks like swig is having a little trouble connecting the dots between the c++ and Java. It creates these three classes:
SWIGTYPE_p_f_std__function__f_std__shared_ptr__some__ns__TheThing____void____void
SWIGTYPE_p_f_std__shared_ptr__some__ns__TheThing____void
SWIGTYPE_p_std__functionT_void_fstd__shared_ptrT_some__ns__TheThing_tF_t
And unfortunately, most of the methods from the simple Java main code now take or return these objects, which make them fairly unusable. Any idea how to fix this? Thank you!
A little more detail for completeness: I am using the following three scripts to compile and run the code. The parameters are slightly different, but I don't think it matters. On my end it is set up as an Eclipse maven project. These scripts reside in the root of my project, headers and swig files reside in src/main/resources, java source files reside in src/main/java, and java compiled classes reside in target/classes. Eclipse performs the java compilation.
swigthing.sh
MODULE_NAME=Thing
PACKAGE=some.ns
OUTDIR=./src/main/java/some/ns
I_FILE=./src/main/resources/func_thing_test.i
mvn clean
rm $OUTDIR/*.*
mkdir -p $OUTDIR
swig -java -c++ -module $MODULE_NAME -package $PACKAGE -outdir $OUTDIR $I_FILE
./compileThingSwigTest.sh
compileThingSwigTest.sh
#!/bin/bash
pushd src/main/resources
g++ -c -std=gnu++11 -fpic \
func_thing_test_wrap.cxx \
-I/usr/lib/jvm/java/include \
-I/usr/lib/jvm/java/include/linux
g++ -shared func_thing_test_wrap.o -o libFunc.so
popd
runThingTest.sh
pushd target/classes
java -Xmx512M -Xms512M -Djava.library.path=. some.ns.test.RunThingTest
popd
Last Update
Fixed the code above to pass the right parameters to std_function. Now between the question and answer there is a complete working example of what I was after.
Although SWIG doesn't provide a std_function.i natively we can build one ourselves this with a bit of work. My answer here is a more generalised version of my a previous of mine answer, looking at this problem for a specific instance and targeting Python. I'll go through several iterations of it, which define a %std_function macro for generic std::function wrapping.
I'm assuming there are four things you want to achieve from a wrapping of std::function, which become our main requirements:
We want to be able to call std::function objects from within Java code.
The wrapped std::function objects need to get passed around like any other object, including crossing the language boundaries in either direction.
It should be possible to write std::function objects inside of Java, which can be passed back to C++ without having to modify existing C++ code that works on std::function objects (i.e. maintaining type erasure of std::function cross language)
We should be able to construct std::function objects in Java using C++ pointer to function types.
I'm going to work through these and show how we can achieve this. Where possible I'll keep the solution language agnostic too.
For the purposes of discussion I'm glossing over the shared_ptr part of your question, it doesn't actually change things because as you've got shared_ptr working that's actually sufficient to use it in this scenario too, it would just make my examples more verbose needlessly.
The solution I'm working towards is actually modelled after the existing shared_ptr support in SWIG. I've put together a test interface to illustrate how it will be used:
%module test
%include "std_function.i"
%std_function(Functor, void, int, double);
%{
#include <iostream>
%}
%inline %{
std::function<void(int,double)> make_functor() {
return [](int x, double y){
std::cout << x << ", " << y << "\n";
};
}
%}
Basically to use this all you need do is include the file "std_function.i" and then use the macro %std_function which takes arguments as:
%std_function(Name, Ret, ...)
You call this once per instantiation of the std::function template you want to wrap, where Name is what you want to call the type in Java, Ret is the return type and then the remaining (variadic) arguments are the inputs to your function. So in my test interface above I'm basically looking to wrap std::function<void(int,double)>.
Writing a first version of "std_function.i" isn't actually too tricky. All you need to get basic working requirements #1 and #2 is:
%{
#include <functional>
%}
%define %std_function(Name, Ret, ...)
%rename(Name) std::function<Ret(__VA_ARGS__)>;
%rename(call) std::function<Ret(__VA_ARGS__)>::operator();
namespace std {
struct function<Ret(__VA_ARGS__)> {
// Copy constructor
function<Ret(__VA_ARGS__)>(const std::function<Ret(__VA_ARGS__)>&);
// Call operator
Ret operator()(__VA_ARGS__) const;
};
}
%enddef
This includes the C++ header file in the generated wrapper code once and then sets up the macro for usage in interfaces. SWIG's support for C++11 variadic templates isn't actually very helpful for us in this usage scenario, so the macro I wrote basically re-implements the default template expansion functionality using C99 variadic macro arguments (which are much better supported). Coincidentally this means the SWIG code we're writing will work with 2.x or even some 1.3.x releases. (I tested with 2.x). Even if/when your version of SWIG does have %template support that works with std::function retaining this macro is still useful for the rest of the glue that makes it actually callable.
The manual expansion of the std:function template is limited to just the bits we care about for our usage: the actual operator() and a copy constructor that might come in handy.
The only other thing to be done is renaming operator() to something that matches the target language, e.g. for Java renaming it to be just a regular function called "call", or if you were targeting Python to __call__ or using tp_slots if required.
This is now sufficient to let our interface work, to demonstrate it I wrote a little bit of Java:
public class run {
public static void main(String[] argv) {
System.loadLibrary("test");
test.make_functor().call(1,2.5);
}
}
Which I compiled with:
swig2.0 -Wall -c++ -java test.i
g++ -Wall -Wextra -std=c++11 test_wrap.cxx -o libtest.so -I/usr/lib/jvm/default-java/include/ -I/usr/lib/jvm/default-java/include/linux -shared -fPIC
javac run.java
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=. java run
and it worked.
Requirement #4 is pretty easy to cross off the list now at this point. All we need to do is tell SWIG there's another constructor in std::function which accepts compatible function pointers:
// Conversion constructor from function pointer
function<Ret(__VA_ARGS__)>(Ret(*const)(__VA_ARGS__));
And then we can use this with the %callback mechanism in SWIG, our test interface file becomes:
%module test
%include "std_function.i"
%std_function(Functor, void, int, double);
%{
#include <iostream>
void add_and_print(int a, double b) {
std::cout << a+b << "\n";
}
%}
%callback("%s_cb");
void add_and_print(int a, double b);
%nocallback;
%inline %{
std::function<void(int,double)> make_functor() {
return [](int x, double y){
std::cout << x << ", " << y << "\n";
};
}
%}
and the Java we use to call this is then:
public class run {
public static void main(String[] argv) {
System.loadLibrary("test");
test.make_functor().call(1,2.5);
new Functor(test.add_and_print_cb).call(3,4.5);
}
}
Which we compile and run identically successfully at this point.
(Note that it's normal and desirable to see some Java classes created at this point that start with the name "SWIGTYPE_p_f_..." - these wrap the "pointer to function" types that are used by the pointer to function constructor and callback constants)
Requirement #3 is where things start to get trickier. Essentially we've hit the same problem as I answered on making SWIG generate an interface in Java previously, except now we're looking to do it within a macro more generically.
It turns out that in this instance because the interface we want to generate is fairly simple we can use some tricks inside our macro to make SWIG generate it for us.
The main thing that we need to do in order to make this work is to setup SWIG directors to provide cross-language polymorphism and allow something written in Java to implement a C++ interface. This is the class generated with the suffix "Impl" in my code.
To make things "feel right" to Java developers we want to still use the same type for both C++ and Java implemented std::function objects. Even if std::function::operator() were virtual we still don't want to have SWIG directors use that type directly as it's pretty common to pass std::function by value which would lead to type slicing problems. So when a Java developer extends our std::function objects and overrides call we need to do some extra work to make it so that C++ which uses that object actually calls the Java implementation given that we can't just use directors to handle this automatically.
So what we do looks a little bit weird. If you construct a Java object that is meant to implement std::function then there's a special, protected constructor for that. This constructor leaves the swigCPtr member variable, which normally points to a real C++ object as 0 and instead creates an anonymous wrapper object that implements the "Impl" interface and simply proxies everything back to the call member of the Java object.
We have another typemap too that gets applied, in Java, everywhere we pass a std::function object to C++. Its role is to detect which case we have - a C++ implemented std::function object, or a Java one. In the C++ case it does nothing special and everything proceeds as normal. In the Java case it takes the proxy object and asks C++ to convert it back to another, separate std::function instance which gets substituted instead.
This is enough to get us the behaviour we want in both languages without anything that feels weird on either side (other than a lot of mechanical lifting that happens transparently).
The catch here is that it's non-trivial to automatically construct the proxy object. Java has dynamic proxy classes as part of the reflection API, but these only implement interfaces, not extend abstract classes. One possibility I did try to use was void call(Object ...args) on the Java side, which is a variadic function argument. Whilst legal this didn't seem to actually override any cases in the super class as would be needed.
What I ended up doing was adapting some macros to iterate over variadic macro arguments in the way I wanted. This is a fairly sensible solution given that we already decided to use variadic C99 macro arguments for other reasons. This mechanism gets used four times in total in my solution, once in the function declaration and once in the delgated call for both Java and C++. (C++ has perfect forwarding properties retained and Java needs a typemap lookup to be performed, so they are distinct in each and every case).
There's also a custom typemap to simplify some of the Java code - in a void function it's not legal to write return other_void_function();, so we would need to special case void functions if it weren't for that.
So let's see what that looks like in reality. First up is the run.java I used for testing, it's only slightly modified from previous examples to add a Java implementation of the std::function object.
public class run extends Functor {
public static void main(String[] argv) {
System.loadLibrary("test");
test.make_functor().call(1,2.5);
new Functor(test.add_and_print_cb).call(3,4.5);
Functor f = new run();
test.do_things(f);
}
#Override
public void call(int a, double b) {
System.out.println("Java: " + a + ", " + b);
}
}
The std_function.i is now substantially larger with all the changes outlined above:
%{
#include <functional>
#include <iostream>
#ifndef SWIG_DIRECTORS
#error "Directors must be enabled in your SWIG module for std_function.i to work correctly"
#endif
%}
// These are the things we actually use
#define param(num,type) $typemap(jstype,type) arg ## num
#define unpack(num,type) arg##num
#define lvalref(num,type) type&& arg##num
#define forward(num,type) std::forward<type>(arg##num)
// This is the mechanics
#define FE_0(...)
#define FE_1(action,a1) action(0,a1)
#define FE_2(action,a1,a2) action(0,a1), action(1,a2)
#define FE_3(action,a1,a2,a3) action(0,a1), action(1,a2), action(2,a3)
#define FE_4(action,a1,a2,a3,a4) action(0,a1), action(1,a2), action(2,a3), action(3,a4)
#define FE_5(action,a1,a2,a3,a4,a5) action(0,a1), action(1,a2), action(2,a3), action(3,a4), action(4,a5)
#define GET_MACRO(_1,_2,_3,_4,_5,NAME,...) NAME
%define FOR_EACH(action,...)
GET_MACRO(__VA_ARGS__, FE_5, FE_4, FE_3, FE_2, FE_1, FE_0)(action,__VA_ARGS__)
%enddef
%define %std_function(Name, Ret, ...)
%feature("director") Name##Impl;
%typemap(javaclassmodifiers) Name##Impl "abstract class";
%{
struct Name##Impl {
virtual ~Name##Impl() {}
virtual Ret call(__VA_ARGS__) = 0;
};
%}
%javamethodmodifiers Name##Impl::call "abstract protected";
%typemap(javaout) Ret Name##Impl::call ";" // Suppress the body of the abstract method
struct Name##Impl {
virtual ~Name##Impl();
protected:
virtual Ret call(__VA_ARGS__) = 0;
};
%typemap(maybereturn) SWIGTYPE "return ";
%typemap(maybereturn) void "";
%typemap(javain) std::function<Ret(__VA_ARGS__)> "$javaclassname.getCPtr($javaclassname.makeNative($javainput))"
%typemap(javacode) std::function<Ret(__VA_ARGS__)> %{
protected Name() {
wrapper = new Name##Impl(){
public $typemap(jstype, Ret) call(FOR_EACH(param, __VA_ARGS__)) {
$typemap(maybereturn, Ret)Name.this.call(FOR_EACH(unpack, __VA_ARGS__));
}
};
proxy = new $javaclassname(wrapper);
}
static $javaclassname makeNative($javaclassname in) {
if (null == in.wrapper) return in;
return in.proxy;
}
// Bot of these are retained to prevent garbage collection from happenign to early
private Name##Impl wrapper;
private $javaclassname proxy;
%}
%rename(Name) std::function<Ret(__VA_ARGS__)>;
%rename(call) std::function<Ret(__VA_ARGS__)>::operator();
namespace std {
struct function<Ret(__VA_ARGS__)> {
// Copy constructor
function<Ret(__VA_ARGS__)>(const std::function<Ret(__VA_ARGS__)>&);
// Call operator
Ret operator()(__VA_ARGS__) const;
// Conversion constructor from function pointer
function<Ret(__VA_ARGS__)>(Ret(*const)(__VA_ARGS__));
%extend {
function<Ret(__VA_ARGS__)>(Name##Impl *in) {
return new std::function<Ret(__VA_ARGS__)>([=](FOR_EACH(lvalref,__VA_ARGS__)){
return in->call(FOR_EACH(forward,__VA_ARGS__));
});
}
}
};
}
%enddef
And test.i is slightly expanded to validate the Java -> C++ passing of std::function objects and enable directors:
%module(directors="1") test
%include "std_function.i"
%std_function(Functor, void, int, double);
%{
#include <iostream>
void add_and_print(int a, double b) {
std::cout << a+b << "\n";
}
%}
%callback("%s_cb");
void add_and_print(int a, double b);
%nocallback;
%inline %{
std::function<void(int,double)> make_functor() {
return [](int x, double y){
std::cout << x << ", " << y << "\n";
};
}
void do_things(std::function<void(int,double)> in) {
in(-1,666.6);
}
%}
This compiled and ran as with the previous examples. It's worth noting that we've crossed into writing a lot of Java specific code - although the design would work for other languages if you were targeting Python it's a lot simpler to fix some of these issues using Python specific features.
There are two things I'd like to improve:
Use C++14 variadic lambdas to avoid the macro preprocessor magic I've used to keep them compatible with C++11. If you have C++ 14 the %extend constructor becomes:
%extend {
function<Ret(__VA_ARGS__)>(Name##Impl *in) {
return new std::function<Ret(__VA_ARGS__)>([=](auto&& ...param){
return in->call(std::forward<decltype(param)>(param)...);
});
}
}
When it comes to using this macro with std::shared_ptr as expected the macro itself needs no changes. There is however a problem with the implementation of the javadirectorin and directorin typemaps that get applied, which do prevent things from "just working". This is true even with a build of SWIG from "trunk". (There's an outstanding question on combining directors and shared_ptr)
We can work around that though, by adding two additional typemaps in the main .i file of our module right after the call to %shared_ptr:
%shared_ptr(some::ns::TheThing);
%typemap(javadirectorin) std::shared_ptr<some::ns::TheThing> "new $typemap(jstype, some::ns::TheThing)($1,false)";
%typemap(directorin,descriptor="L$typemap(jstype, some::ns::TheThing);") std::shared_ptr<some::ns::TheThing> %{
*($&1_type*)&j$1 = &$1;
%}
The first of these two typemaps is actually dead code because we forced the "call" method to be abstract in our abstract class, but it's easier to fix the compilation of this method than it is to suppress it. The second typemap is important. It's substantially similar to the normal "out" typemap in that it creates a jlong which is really just a representation of a C++ pointer, i.e. it prepares an object to go from C++, to Java.
Note that you might need to modify the descriptor attribute of the directorin typemap if you use packages in your module, either to "L$packagepath/$typemap(...);" or simply write it by hand.
This should remove the spurious "SWIGTYPE_p_sstd__shared_ptr..." type generated now as well. If you have virtual functions that return shared_ptr objects you'll need to write directorout and javadirectorout typemaps for them too. These can be base on the normal "in" typemap.
This was sufficient for my own simple testing with a modified Functor to work, at least with my version of SWIG checked out from the trunk today. (My test with 2.0.x failed and I didn't put much effort into making it work since this is a known work in progress area).
I am currently faced with the current situation:
I would like to create a toggle for the Double Tap to Wake gesture which is "turned on" with the following commit to the Nexus 6 PowerHAL: https://gerrit.omnirom.org/#/c/13930/1/power/power_shamu.c
I would like to achieve this by using a system app (written in java) to provide a toggle to enable/disable this feature (written to the kernel sysfs path in the above C file).
Clearly, I cannot just wrap it in an ifdef or anything, but I am told that I can create a property in the app (Java file) and then inherit it in the C file.
Theoretically this will function as follows:
Enable/Disable feature in app (Java sets property to on or off)
Property is used by C file to determine what value to write to the sysfs path
The content of the sysfs file will be as simple as comparing values of the file between enabled and disabled, I am more concerned with the logic involved in accomplishing this.
I know very little Java but have a solid foundation of C++.
I did some Google searching and wasn't able to find anything relevant.
Any insight would be great.
-- Jake
Android NDK has everything you need
public class MyActivity extends Activity {
static {
System.loadLibrary("library");
}
/**
* Native method implemented in C/C++
*/
public native String toggleFoo();
}
#include <string.h>
#include <jni.h>
jstring Java_com_package_MyActivity_toggleFoo(JNIEnv* env, jobject javaThis) {
return (*env)->NewStringUTF(env, "Hello from native code!");
}
I have a large amount of Java code (only calculation functions, no UI) that I want to reuse as a static library in iOS. My approach was to use robovm and follow the unofficial way to create a static library described in the two articles in the robovm forum: 1 Basic way and 2 Refined version
Trying to follow the steps exactly as described I got stuck unfortunately after creating the shared library with the script, linking the library (.a) in Xcode and building the project successfully.
During runtime I see that my C++ bridge code is called but the JNI calls back to the library fail with a BAD_ACCESS. For example the following line crashes:
jclass myJavaClass = jniEnv->FindClass("com/test/robovm/bridge/MyJavaRoboCode");
in this method:
void callSomethingInJava(const char* arg) {
// To call into java from your native app, use JNI
Env* rvmEnv = rvmGetEnv();
JNIEnv* jniEnv = &(rvmEnv->jni);
jclass myJavaClass = jniEnv->FindClass("com/test/robovm/bridge/MyJavaRoboCode");
jmethodID myJavaMethod = jniEnv->GetStaticMethodID(myJavaClass, "callJava", "(Ljava/lang/String;)V");
jstring argAsJavaString = jniEnv->NewStringUTF(arg);
jniEnv->CallStaticVoidMethod(myJavaClass, myJavaMethod, argAsJavaString);
}
The same is true if I try to use the rvmXX methods directly instead of JNI and try to access something in my "Java" classes. It looks like the rvmEnv is not fully initialized. (I double checked for package name errors or typos).
It would be great if someone already succeeded with the creation of a shared static library from a robovm project and could share the experience here or point me in the right direction to resolve the issue.
As you mentioned, you probably haven't finished initialising robovm.
You'll need to create a method, say initRoboVM(), to somewhat mirror bc.c's main method. This will be called by your code when you want to initialise robovm. You'll need to pass the app path in, which you can hardcode when you're testing.
initRoboVM() will need some modifications, namely it should not call your Java app's main method, well, at least, that's what well behaving libraries should not do IMO. It should also not call rvmShutdown.
How to change and update the title of the command prompt window from the java command line application? Every time I run my application, the command prompt window title shows:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe - java MyApp.
I'd like to change and update the window title as the java program runs, for example as wget(win32) updates downloading status in the title: Wget [12%].
Although I haven't tried it myself, in Windows, one can use the Win32 API call to SetConsoleTitle in order to change the title of the console.
However, since this is a call to a native library, it will require the use of something like Java Native Interface (JNI) in order to make the call, and this will only work on Windows 2000 and later.
Edit - A solution using JNI
The following is an example of using JNI in order to change the title of the console window from Java in Windows. To implement this, the prerequiste is some knowledge in C and using the compiler/linker.
First, here's result:
(source: coobird.net)
Disclaimer: This is my first Java application using JNI, so it's probably not going to be a good example of how to use it -- I don't perform any error-checking at all, and I may be missing some details.
The Java program was the following:
class ChangeTitle {
private static native void setTitle(String s);
static {
System.loadLibrary("ChangeTitle");
}
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
String title = "Hello! " + i;
System.out.println("Setting title to: " + title);
setTitle(title);
Thread.sleep(1000);
}
}
}
Basically, the title is changed every 5 seconds by calling the setTitle native method in an external native library called ChangeTitle.
Once the above code is compiled to make a ChangeTitle.class file, the javah command is used to create a C header that is used when creating the C library.
Writing the native library
Writing the library will involve writing the C source code against the C header file generated by javah.
The ChangeTitle.h header was the following:
/* DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE - it is machine generated */
#include <jni.h>
/* Header for class ChangeTitle */
#ifndef _Included_ChangeTitle
#define _Included_ChangeTitle
#ifdef __cplusplus
extern "C" {
#endif
/*
* Class: ChangeTitle
* Method: setTitle
* Signature: (Ljava/lang/String;)V
*/
JNIEXPORT void JNICALL Java_ChangeTitle_setTitle
(JNIEnv *, jclass, jstring);
#ifdef __cplusplus
}
#endif
#endif
Now, the implementation, ChangeTitle.c:
#include <windows.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <conio.h>
#include <jni.h>
#include "ChangeTitle.h"
JNIEXPORT void JNICALL
Java_ChangeTitle_setTitle(JNIEnv* env, jclass c, jstring s) {
const jbyte *str;
str = (*env)->GetStringUTFChars(env, s, NULL);
SetConsoleTitle(str);
(*env)->ReleaseStringUTFChars(env, s, str);
};
A String that is passed into the native function is changed into an UTF-8 encoded C string, which is sent to the SetConsoleTitle function, which, as the function name suggests, changes the title of the console.
(Note: There may be some issues with just passing in the string into the SetConsoleTitle function, but according to the documentation, it does accept Unicode as well. I'm not too sure how well the code above will work when sending in various strings.)
The above is basically a combination of sample code obtained from Section 3.2: Accessing Strings of The Java Native Interface Programmer's Guide and Specification, and the SetConsoleTitle Function page from MSDN.
For a more involved sample code with error-checking, please see the Section 3.2: Accessing Strings and SetConsoleTitle Function pages.
Building the DLL
The part that turned out to take the most amount of time for me to figure out was getting the C files to compile into an DLL that actually could be read without causing an UnsatisfiedLinkError.
After a lot of searching and trying things out, I was able to get the C source to compile to a DLL that could be called from Java. Since I am using MinGW, I found a page form mingw.org which described exactly how to build a DLL for JNI.
Sources:
The Java Native Interface Programmer's Guide and Specification
Chapter 2: Getting Started - Details the process using JNI.
JNI-MinGW-DLL - Building a JNI DLL on MinGW with gcc.
This depends on your terminal emulator, but essentially it's just printing out control sequences to the console.
Now I'm not clear on what control sequences CMD.EXE responds to (I haven't one available to try this on) but I hear there's a command called TITLE which sets the title of the window. I tried piping TITLE's output to a file, but apparently, it doesn't actually set the title by outputting control characters. The START command can take a parameter which is title of the window followed by the command to run in the window. So something like
cmd TITLE "lovely Application that is in a command window." && "java" MyApp
REM or
start "lovely Application that is java based." java MyApp
Personally I would just bundle the whole thing with a shortcut where you can edit the properties such as the current directory, the command, it's parameters, and the window size, style and title (if I remember rightly). Give it a nice icon and people will use it.
Here's my solution using JNA:
import com.sun.jna.Library;
import com.sun.jna.Native;
import com.sun.jna.Platform;
public class SetTitle {
public interface CLibrary extends Library {
CLibrary INSTANCE = (CLibrary)
Native.loadLibrary((Platform.isWindows() ? "kernel32" : "c"),
CLibrary.class);
boolean SetConsoleTitleA(String title);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
CLibrary.INSTANCE.SetConsoleTitleA("Testing 123");
System.exit(0);
}
}
You can use the CLITools Java library
following dlamblin's revelation ;-)
here's a python code.
note that there are 2 different commands in most programming languages:
system
exec
system will issue a system command, exec indeed spawns a new process. thus:
C:\>python
>>> import os
>>> os.system("title berry tsakala")
which works inside a running program. Just find the java equivalent.