JNI Hello World Unsatisfied Link Error

Question

This is my first attempt at JNI. My ultimate goal is to get all tasks currently running on a machine, but need to get even a simple example running. I keep getting this erro

Answer 1

I just removed -MD option and compiled it worked like charm

cl -I"C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_21\include" -I"C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_21\include\win32" -LD HelloWorld.c -FeHelloWorld.dll

Answer 2

If you change the location (package) of your native function declaration from the java side without updating the h file, and the signature of the method in the c++ side, It won't resolve to the method and will throw unsatisfied..

package x;
public class A {
    private native void print();
    ...
}

moved to:

package x.y;
public class A {
    private native void print();
    ...
}

This will require regeneration of the H file (to something like Java_x_y_A_print ).

Note you can change those signatures manually but I won't recommend

Answer 3

The Unsatisfied Link Error can mean many things went wrong. I would use

System.loadLibrary("HelloWorld");

Instead of

System.load();

As TwentyMiles suggested.

Also, when invoking your program you need to (assuming your DLL is on the same directory as your class files:

java -Djava.library.path=. HelloWorld

Here's a simple demo I made that calls a Win32 API function (MessageBox)

Java class

class CallApi{
    private native String showMessageBox(String msg);
    private native double getRandomDouble();

    static{
        try{
            System.loadLibrary("CallApi");
            System.out.println("Loaded CallApi");
        }catch(UnsatisfiedLinkError e){
            //nothing to do
            System.out.println("Couldn't load CallApi");
            System.out.println(e.getMessage());
        }
    }

    public static void main(String args[]){
        CallApi api = new CallApi();
        double randomNumber = api.getRandomDouble();
        String retval = api.showMessageBox("Hello from Java!\n"+
            "The native random number: "+randomNumber);
            System.out.println("The native string: "+retval);
    }
}

Generated header file

/* DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE - it is machine generated */
#include <jni.h>
/* Header for class CallApi */

#ifndef _Included_CallApi
#define _Included_CallApi
#ifdef __cplusplus
extern "C" {
#endif
/*
 * Class:     CallApi
 * Method:    showMessageBox
 * Signature: (Ljava/lang/String;)Ljava/lang/String;
 */
JNIEXPORT jstring JNICALL Java_CallApi_showMessageBox
  (JNIEnv *, jobject, jstring);

/*
 * Class:     CallApi
 * Method:    getRandomDouble
 * Signature: ()D
 */
JNIEXPORT jdouble JNICALL Java_CallApi_getRandomDouble
  (JNIEnv *, jobject);

#ifdef __cplusplus
}
#endif
#endif

The C DLL code

#include "CallApi.h"
#include <windows.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <time.h>

#pragma comment(lib,"user32.lib")

JNIEXPORT jstring JNICALL Java_CallApi_showMessageBox
  (JNIEnv *env, jobject thisObject, jstring js)
{
    //first convert jstring to const char for use in MessageBox
    const jbyte* argvv = (*env)->GetStringUTFChars(env, js, NULL);
    char* argv =(char *) argvv;

    //Call MessageBoxA
    MessageBox(NULL, argv, "Called from Java!", MB_ICONEXCLAMATION | MB_OK);
    return js;
}

JNIEXPORT jdouble JNICALL Java_CallApi_getRandomDouble
  (JNIEnv *env, jobject thisObject)
{
    double num1;
    srand((unsigned)(time(0)));
    num1 = ((double)rand()/(double)RAND_MAX);

    return num1;
}

Compile instructions

I compile with the Visual C++ express 2008 cl, removing the -ML flag since it causes an exception when the Java code tries to call the native code:

cl /I"c:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_10\include" /I"c:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_10\include\win32" -LD CallApi.c -FeCallApi.dll

Then, to run the code:

java -Djava.library.path=. CallApi

Answer 4

I'm not claiming to understand the situation enough to explain it, however some users reported the error when using the "-MD" compiler flag.

For more information see Java Native Interface (JNI) - Impossible to use VS2005 with Java? which discusses this problem and offers possible work-arounds and think techie blog for alternatives.

Answer 5

I believe that you should be using

System.loadLibrary("HelloWorld");

instead of System.load. LoadLibrary will check your system path (not the Java library path) so make sure that HelloWorld.dll is in a directory where it can found. Also note that it does not require the full path, and you don't need to add the dll extension to the end.