javabind: C++ and Java interoperability

javabind is a lightweight C++17 header-only library that exposes C++ types to Java and vice versa, primarily in order to create Java bindings for existing C++ code. The objective of this library is to provide an easy-to-use interoperability interface that feels natural from both C++ and Java. javabind uses C++ compile-time introspection to generate Java Native Interface (JNI) stubs that can be accessed from Java with regular function invocation. The stubs incur minimal or no overhead compared to hand-written JNI code.

This project has been inspired by a similar binding interface between JavaScript and C++ in emscripten, between Python and C++ in PyBind11 and Boost.Python, and between Kotlin and C++ in ktbind. Unlike JNA, which one can utilize by means of an intermediary C interface, javabind offers a direct interface between C++ and Java.

Core features

The following C++ features can be mapped to Java:

• Fundamental types and custom data structures as function arguments or return values
• Instance methods and static methods
• Functions with template parameters
• Overloaded functions
• Operators
• Instance attributes and static attributes
• Arbitrary exception types
• STL containers

Furthermore, the following Java features are seamlessly exposed to C++:

• Primitive types and boxed primitive types
• Arrays of primitive types passed with zero-copy semantics
• Collection types
• Functional interfaces and lambda expressions
• Arbitrary exception types

Getting started

javabind is a header-only library, including the interoperability header in your C++ project allows you to create bindings to Java:

#include <javabind/javabind.hpp>

Consider the following C++ class as an example:

class Person
{
    std::string name;
    Residence residence;
public:
    Person() = default;
    Person(const std::string& n) : name(n) {}
    Person(const std::string& n, const Residence& r) : name(n), residence(r) {}
    Residence get_residence() const { return residence; }
    void set_residence(const Residence& r) { residence = r; }
};

Let's suppose we want to expose this classes to Java. All Java bindings should be registered in the extension module block. We use native_class and its builder functions constructor and function to expose the member functions of the class Person:

DECLARE_NATIVE_CLASS(Person, "hu.info.hunyadi.test.Person");

JAVA_EXTENSION_MODULE() {
    using namespace javabind;
    native_class<Person>()
        .constructor<Person(std::string)>("create")
        .constructor<Person(std::string, Residence)>("create")
        .function<&Person::get_residence>("getResidence")
        .function<&Person::set_residence>("setResidence")
        ;
    print_registered_bindings();
}

DECLARE_NATIVE_CLASS assigns a fully-qualified Java class name to the C++ class, which is required to look up objects at run time.

The type parameter of the template function constructor is a function signature to help choose between multiple available constructors. Use the same style you would with std::function<R(Args...)>.

The non-type template parameter of function is a function pointer, either a member function pointer (as shown above) or a free function pointer. If multiple functions have the same name (making the pointer reference ambiguous), a static cast to the right signature might be necessary.

print_registered_bindings is a utility function that lets you print the Java class definition that corresponds to the registered C++ class definitions. print_registered_bindings prints to Java System.out when you load the compiled shared library (*.so on macOS and Linux, or *.dll on Windows) with Java's System.loadLibrary(). You would normally use it in the development phase.

Next, we need corresponding native bindings in Java:

package hu.info.hunyadi.test;

import hu.info.hunyadi.javabind.NativeObject;

public class Person extends NativeObject {
    public static native Person create(String name);
    public static native Person create(String name, Residence residence);
    public native void close();
    public native Residence getResidence();
    public native void setResidence(Residence residence);
}

The example above highlights many interesting characteristics.

First, Person derives from NativeObject. Internally, NativeObject stores a raw pointer as a Java long. This raw pointer is completely opaque to Java, and refers to an object in the C++ memory space. When methods of Person are called, the raw pointer is de-referenced, and the call is routed to the C++ mapping of Person, as registered by native_class in the extension module block.

Second, there are two factory methods to create instances of Person. Factory methods are necessary because the raw pointer has to be populated in C++, and cannot be set in Java. The constructor call in native_class routes the Java factory method to template-generated C++ code, which creates the object, calls the appropriate C++ constructor, sets the raw pointer, and returns a reference to the object. Meanwhile, NativeObject has a protected constructor to prevent instantiating Person objects directly in Java.

Third, Person implements the close method inherited from the AutoCloseable interface (via NativeObject). C++ objects have constructors and destructors but Java (JVM) has garbage collection. In order to ensure that objects are properly reclaimed when they are no longer needed, native_class in C++ binds a template-generated de-allocator to close, and calling the close method triggers the C++ destructor. You may have close() called automatically at the end of a try block in Java.

Finally, getter and setter methods involve a Java record class called Residence. Residence is defined in Java as follows:

public record Residence(String country, String city) {
    String getCountry() {
        return country;
    }

    String getCity() {
        return city;
    }
}

In order to make fields of the record class accessible from C++, we need to define a corresponding C++ class and declare bindings:

struct Residence
{
    std::string country;
    std::string city;
};

DECLARE_RECORD_CLASS(Residence, "hu.info.hunyadi.test.Residence");

JAVA_EXTENSION_MODULE()
{
    using namespace javabind;
    // ...
    record_class<Residence>()
        .field<&Residence::country>("country")
        .field<&Residence::city>("city")
        ;
}

The above declaration makes Residence a type that we can pass and return in function calls. When Residence objects are received, data in Java is copied into the struct defined in C++. When Residence objects are returned, data in C++ is copied into the Java record class.

Signatures

C++ function signatures that are invoked from Java can take arguments by value or by const reference. C++ functions return simple or composite types by value.

Type mapping

javabind recognizes several widely-used types and marshals them automatically between C++ and Java without explicit user-defined type specification:

C++ type	Java consumed type	Java produced type
void	n/a	void
bool	boolean	boolean
int8_t	byte	byte
char16_t	char	char
int16_t	short	short
int32_t	int	int
int64_t	long	long
float	float	float
double	double	double
std::string (UTF-8)	String	String
std::string_view (UTF-8)	String	String
std::u16string_view (UTF-16)	String	String
boxed<bool>	Boolean	Boolean
boxed<int8_t>	Byte	Byte
boxed<char16_t>	Character	Character
boxed<int16_t>	Short	Short
boxed<int32_t>	Integer	Integer
boxed<int64_t>	Long	Long
boxed<float>	Float	Float
boxed<double>	Double	Double
std::basic_string_view<T> if T is an arithmetic type	T[]	n/a
std::vector<T> if T is an arithmetic type	T[]	T[]
std::vector<T> if T is not an arithmetic type	java.util.List<T>	java.util.ArrayList<T>
std::set<E>	java.util.Set<E>	java.util.TreeSet<E>
std::unordered_set<E>	java.util.Set<E>	java.util.HashSet<E>
std::map<K,V>	java.util.Map<K,V>	java.util.TreeMap<K,V>
std::unordered_map<K,V>	java.util.Map<K,V>	java.util.HashMap<K,V>
std::optional<T>	T	T
std::function<R(T)>	Function<T,R>	NativeFunction<T,R> implements Function<T,R>
std::function<R(int32_t)>	IntFunction<R>	NativeIntFunction<R> implements IntFunction<R>
std::function<R(int64_t)>	LongFunction<R>	NativeLongFunction<R> implements LongFunction<R>
std::function<R(double)>	DoubleFunction<R>	NativeDoubleFunction<R> implements DoubleFunction<R>
std::function<int32_t(T)>	ToIntFunction<T>	NativeToIntFunction<T> implements ToIntFunction<T>
std::function<int64_t(T)>	ToLongFunction<T>	NativeToLongFunction<T> implements ToLongFunction<T>
std::function<double(T)>	ToDoubleFunction<T>	NativeToDoubleFunction<T> implements ToDoubleFunction<T>
std::function<bool(T)>	Predicate<T>	NativePredicate<T> implements Predicate<T>
std::function<bool(int32_t)>	IntPredicate	NativeIntPredicate implements IntPredicate
std::function<bool(int64_t)>	LongPredicate	NativeLongPredicate implements LongPredicate
std::function<bool(double)>	DoublePredicate	NativeDoublePredicate implements DoublePredicate
std::function<void(T)>	Consumer<T>	NativeConsumer<T> implements Consumer<T>
std::function<void(int32_t)>	IntConsumer	NativeIntConsumer implements IntConsumer
std::function<void(int64_t)>	LongConsumer	NativeLongConsumer implements LongConsumer
std::function<void(double)>	DoubleConsumer	NativeDoubleConsumer implements DoubleConsumer

boxed is a lightweight C++ wrapper defined by the library to match Java boxed types such as java.lang.Integer. boxed has no C++ run-time overhead, it is only used for disambiguation.

Collection types are copied between C++ and Java.

Optionals are converted to a null-value in Java when they don't have a value in C++. Null-values are converted to an empty optional in C++.

C++ types basic_string_view<T> translate to JNI calls GetPrimitiveArrayCritical and ReleasePrimitiveArrayCritical to get a direct pointer to the memory managed by the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). This imposes significant restrictions:

After calling GetPrimitiveArrayCritical, the native code should not run for an extended period of time before it calls ReleasePrimitiveArrayCritical. We must treat the code inside this pair of functions as running in a "critical region." Inside a critical region, native code must not call other JNI functions, or any system call that may cause the current thread to block and wait for another Java thread. (For example, the current thread must not call read on a stream being written by another Java thread.)

The C++ type u16string_view translates to JNI calls GetStringCritical and ReleaseStringCritical, which entail similar restrictions as GetPrimitiveArrayCritical and ReleasePrimitiveArrayCritical.

Exceptions

Exceptions thrown in C++ automatically trigger a Java exception when crossing the language boundary. The interoperability layer catches all exceptions that inherit from std::exception, and throws a java.lang.Exception before passing control back to the JVM.

Exceptions originating from Java are automatically wrapped in a C++ type called JavaException, which derives from std::exception. The function what() in JavaException retrieves the Java exception message. C++ code can catch JavaException and take appropriate action, which causes the exception to be cleared in Java.

Functional interface

javabind can expose C++ function objects (std::function<R(T)>) to Java with wrappers that implement functional interfaces such as Function<T,R> or Predicate<T>. Each wrapper such as NativeFunction<T,R> or NativePredicate<T> extends the abstract base class NativeCallback, which is responsible for encapsulating a raw pointer. This raw pointer points at a memory location in the C++ domain, allocated with the operator new, and de-allocated with delete once the Java wrapper is garbage collected. Invocation is done in a way similar to regular native class methods but the call is bound not to an object instance (as with NativeObject) but to a function object.

Because function objects as C++ return values are depending on class definitions in Java, auxiliary classes such as NativeFunction<T,R> or NativePredicate<T> must be available on the class path at binding registration time to be accessible for FindClass. All of these are defined in the namespace hu.info.hunyadi.javabind.

Auxiliary classes use java.lang.ref.Cleaner to ensure associated native resources are reclaimed when the Java object becomes phantom reachable.

Binding registration

The macro JAVA_EXTENSION_MODULE expands into a pair of function definitions:

JNIEXPORT jint JNI_OnLoad(JavaVM* vm, void* reserved) { ... }
JNIEXPORT void JNI_OnUnload(JavaVM* vm, void* reserved) { ... }

These definitions, in turn, iterate over the function and field bindings registered with native_class, static_class and record_class.

Each function binding generates a function pointer at compile time, which are passed to the JNI function RegisterNatives. Each of these function pointers points at a static member function of a template class, where the template parameters capture the type information extracted from the function signature. When the function is invoked through the pointer, the function makes the appropriate type conversions to cast Java types into C++ types and back. For example, the C++ function signature

bool func(const std::string& str, const std::vector<int32_t>& vec, double d);

causes the function adapter template to be instantiated with parameter types std::string, std::vector<int32_t> and double and return type bool. When Java calls the pointer through JNI, the adapter transforms the types std::string and std::vector<int32_t>. (double and bool need no transformation.) For each transformed type, a temporary object is created, all of which are then used in invoking the original function func.

Internally, field bindings utilize JNI accessor functions like GetObjectField and SetObjectField to extract and populate Java objects. Like with function bindings, javabind uses C++ type information to make the appropriate JNI function call. For instance, setting a field with type double entails a call to GetDoubleField (from Java to C++) or SetDoubleField (from C++ to Java). If the type is a composite type, such as a std::vector<T>, then a Java object is constructed recursively, and then set with SetObjectField. For example,

• Setting a field of type std::vector<boxed<int32_t>> first creates a java.util.ArrayList with JNI's NewObject, then sets elements with the add method (invoked using JNI's CallBooleanMethod), performing boxing for the primitive type int with valueOf, and finally uses SetObjectField with the newly created java.util.ArrayList instance.
• Setting an std::vector<std::string> field involves creating a java.util.ArrayList with JNI's NewObject, and a call to JNI's NewStringUTF for each string element. The strings are then added to the java.util.ArrayList instance with add, and finally to the field with SetObjectField.