🏷 Foreign Function & Memory API
2 patterns
Topic: Foreign Function & Memory API
All Java patterns related to Foreign Function & Memory API — java.evolved
Language
Calling out to C code from Java
Old
public class CallCFromJava {
static { System.loadLibrary("strlen-jni"); }
public static native long strlen(String s);
public static void main(String[] args) {
long ret = strlen("Bambi");
System.out.println("Return value " + ret); // 5
}
}
// Run javac -h to generate the .h file, then write C:
// #include "CallCFromJava.h"
// #include <string.h>
// JNIEXPORT jlong JNICALL Java_CallCFromJava_strlen(
// JNIEnv *env, jclass clazz, jstring str) {
// const char* s = (*env)->GetStringUTFChars(env, str, NULL);
// jlong len = (jlong) strlen(s);
// (*env)->ReleaseStringUTFChars(env, str, s);
// return len;
// }
Modern
void main() throws Throwable {
try (var arena = Arena.ofConfined()) {
// Use any system library directly — no C wrapper needed
var stdlib = Linker.nativeLinker().defaultLookup();
var foreignFuncAddr = stdlib.find("strlen").orElseThrow();
var strlenSig = FunctionDescriptor.of(ValueLayout.JAVA_LONG, ValueLayout.ADDRESS);
var strlenMethod = Linker.nativeLinker() .downcallHandle(foreignFuncAddr, strlenSig);
var ret = (long) strlenMethod.invokeExact(arena.allocateFrom("Bambi"));
System.out.println("Return value " + ret); // 5
}
}
// Your own C library needs no special Java annotations:
// long greet(char* name) {
// printf("Hello %s\n", name);
// return 0;
// }
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JDK 22+
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I/O
File memory mapping
Old
try (FileChannel channel =
FileChannel.open(path,
StandardOpenOption.READ,
StandardOpenOption.WRITE)) {
MappedByteBuffer buffer =
channel.map(
FileChannel.MapMode.READ_WRITE,
0, (int) channel.size());
// Limited to 2GB
// Freed by GC, no control
}
Modern
FileChannel channel =
FileChannel.open(path,
StandardOpenOption.READ,
StandardOpenOption.WRITE);
try (Arena arena = Arena.ofShared()) {
MemorySegment segment =
channel.map(
FileChannel.MapMode.READ_WRITE,
0, channel.size(), arena);
// No size limit
// ...
} // Deterministic cleanup
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JDK 22+
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