Determining the API of the target application

Section not yet written.


The Jacob DLL

Jacob.jar relies on a DLL file that it loads off of the library path or classpath. The code is written so that the jacob.dll is only loaded one time per classloader. This works fine in the standard application but can cause problems if jacob.jar is loaded from more than one class loader. This can happen in the situation where multiple jacob dependent web applications run in the same container like a web server or JWS runtime.

In the case of a web server, Jacob is normally put in the application specific WEB-INF/lib directory. This is the "right" way to do it and works in most situations. But, if Jacob is put in the WEB-INF/lib directory of each application's war file for more than one application then a problem occurs. In this situation, the web server uses a different classloader for each applicaiton. This means that each application will attempt to load the jacob.dll and errors are generated. The only way around this at this time (1.11) is to put the jacob.jar in the common/lib because that classloader is inherited by all of the applicaitons so the DLLs will only get loaded once. This problem is described in SF 1645463 and should be fixed in some future release, fix method and time not yet determined.


Microsoft Visual C++ library dependencies.

Jacob 1.3 is built with VC++ 2005 that creates a dependency on msvcr80.dll. Windows XP and later seem to already include the necessary components. NT/2000 and Server/2003 require that you download vcredist_x86.exe from the microsoft web site. Microsoft has a download available that supplies the necessary components. It is distributed as a redistributable package. See the following links.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=32bc1bee-a3f9-4c13-9c99-220b62a191ee&displaylang=en
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=200b2fd9-ae1a-4a14-984d-389c36f85647&displaylang=en


Jacob Command Line Settings

This library supports several different :

java.library.path

Used to add the location of the jacob dll to the JVM's library path.

Example: -Djava.library.path=d:/jacob/release/x86

com.jacob.autogc

Determines if automatic garbage collection is enabled. This is the only way to free up objects created in event callbacks. Automatic garbage collection , based on Java gc rules, garbage collection can be enabled via the com.java.autogc command line option. This feature was added in release 1.9 is not fully debugged.

There are real reasons for managing the lifetime of JacobObjects on a per thread basis. Jacob normally manages the the com/Java object lifetime as described in the JacobComLifetime.html document. Some users have run into situations where they wish to try and let the Java GC lifetime manage the lifetime of objects. This seems to usually be tied to long running threads or to objects created as part of event callbacks. Code was added to let users try and let the JVM manage the object life cycles even though the JacobComLifetime.html document says this is a bad idea.

This value is cached at startup and cannot be changed on-the-fly via System.setProperty();

The default value is false

Example: -Dcom.jacob.autogc=false

<class_name>.PutInROT

Lets a program specify that instances of certain classes are to not be inserted into the ROT. This experimental (1.13) feature provides a mechanism for freeing VariantViaEvent objects that are created in Event threads. There is normally no way to free those objects because the thread terminates outside of any normaly MTA/STA Startup/Teardown code. Each event occures in a new thread and creates a new ROT entry so they grow without bounds.

This option may cause VM crashes in certain situations where windows memory is freed outside of the thread it was created in but emperical evidence shows there are situations where this great reduces the long running memory footprint of applications that process a lot of events. This function is still experimental. The functionality of this overlaps the experimental com.jacob.autogc introduced in 1.9. See the ROT.java test program for an example of the effects of this option.

This value is checked every time and can be changed on-the-fly via System.setProperty();

Example: System.setProperty("com.jacob.com.VariantViaVariant.PutInROT","false");
Example: -Dcom.jacob.com.VariantViaVariant.PutInROT=false

com.jacob.debug

Determines if debug output is enabled to standard out.

This value is cached at startup and cannot be changed on-the-fly via System.setProperty();

The default value is false

Example: -Dcom.jacob.debug=false

-XCheck:jni

This turns on additional JVM checking for JNI issues. This is not an actual JACOB system property but a property used by the JVM.

The default is "no additional checking" Example: -XCheck:jni


Finding the DLL version using windows command line

The jacob.dll file includes the jacob release number in the version field. Run the following from the command prompt dumpbin /version jacob.dll . The dll version number is stored in the "image version" field of the "OPTIONAL HEADER VALUES" section. This information from The Microsoft msdn web site

Last Modified 2/2007