Problems with java.library.path

Question

Hi.
I'm having trouble with the java.library.path setting. Ok, this is the scenario:
My app is inside a JAR. What I need is to load a native library, and for user convenience I'm putting some common locations manually in java.library.path. Like this:
          // append custom path for the native libraries
          String libraryPath = System.getProperty("java.library.path");
          String sep = System.getProperty("path.separator");
          libraryPath = "." + sep + "libs" + sep + "native" + sep + libraryPath;
          System.setProperty("java.library.path", libraryPath);
          System.out.println(libraryPath);Pretty easy, right? (This is the first thing in my main method). Ok, so I've put the native libraries in the same dir than my JAR. I just do 'java -jar myjar.jar' and my app spits this:
.:libs:native:/usr/java/jdk1.5.0_06/jre/lib/i386/client:/usr/java/jdk1.5.0_06/jre/lib/i386:/usr/java/jdk1.5.0_06/jre/../lib/i386so my hack is working but... voila! I get UnsatisfiedLinkError.
What is really annoying and has me out of my mind is the fact that if I run my app as:
java -Djava.library.path=. -jar myapp.jarit works! If I do this my app prints:
.:libs:native:.and everything works as expected. What the ff$�(�&$ is going on here??
Please, help me I'm desperate.
Thanks

Answer 1

this one drove me batty for a while too.
once the library path is set, that's it, playing with it has no effect.
my solution involved a new instance the VM, something along the lines of:
String[] C = new String[] { "bash", "-c", "java -Djava.library.path="+libraryPath };
Runtime rt = Runtime.getRuntime();
Process proc = rt.exec( C );
int eVal = proc.waitFor();
System.exit( eVal );
or cmd/command in C[0], /c in C[1] for a M$ system.
the err and out streams are available using proc.getErrorStream() and proc.getInputStream() as well.