Ubuntu and ld.so.conf vs LD_LIBRARY_PATH and java.library.path

[Joe Areeda]

If the title made sense to you, you probably already understand but here's the problem.

I use NetBeans for development but any Java application that is started by the launcher has this problem.

Java searches for external dynamic libraries based on java.library.path which is set when the JVM starts from LD_LIBRARY_PATH. But Ubuntu doesn't let us set LD_LIBRARY_PATH anywhere except in the user's .profile (or .cshrc..) so it's not available to anything run from the application launcher.

Java doesn't use ld.so.conf and bash doesn't allow dots (.) in environment variable names.

There must be a way to affect LD_LIBRARY_PATH or java.library.path for programs started by the launcher but I can't find it.

Has anyone solved this? I have come up with a few work-arounds that work for development but none I'd like to include in a release.

[Jesper de Jong]

I don't have my Ubuntu machine here, but I think it works like this on Ubuntu:

In /etc/ld.conf.d (the name of a directory; I'm not 100% sure this is right) there are little text files that contain library paths. The linker, ld, has a cache somewhere that is built up from those files. You can add a text file yourself in that directory (ofcourse you have to be root to put it there) with the path to your native library. After you did that, run sudo ldconfig to rebuild the cache for the linker.

See man ldconfig for more details.

[Joe Areeda]

You are correct for most programs BUT as far as I can tell Java does not use ld.so.conf. Let's see if I can prove or disprove that.

here's a test program:

public class LoadLibTest
{

    /**
     * @param args the command line arguments
     */
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        try
        {
            System.loadLibrary("xuggle-xuggler");
            System.out.println("loadLibrary succeeded");
        }
        catch (UnsatisfiedLinkError e)
        {
            System.out.println(e.getLocalizedMessage());
        }

    }
}

We can verify ld.so.conf is configured correctlty with the command ldconfig -v

It outputs all the library directories and libraries configured. Edited output:

/usr/local/xuggler/lib:
<snip>
libxuggle-xuggler.so.3 -> libxuggle-xuggler.so.3.4.1012

if LD_LIBRARY_PATH is not set the program produces:

$java -jar dist/LoadLibTest.jar 
no xuggle-xuggler in java.library.path

If I set LD_LIBRARY_PATH, though I get:

$export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/xuggler/lib
$java -jar dist/LoadLibTest.jar 
loadLibrary succeeded

So as far as I can tell System.loadLibrary does not use the path set by ld.so.conf

Joe