Best way to do RAW socket programming involving Java.

I have some existing C code that uses ICMP raw sockets to do Ping and I need to use this code in Java as Java does not support ICMP packages. When I wrap the code in JNI and call it, the C code fails to obtain the socket when doing:

socket(AF_INET, SOCK_RAW, 1);

I guess that Java has dropped some privileges that disables the use of raw socket from the Java process. This I must find a solution to.

I have observed the following:

If I write a C program and call that from Java using Runtime the forked code may open the socket.
If I run this native code from Eclipse it also runs nicely. I guess this comes from the fact that Eclipse has been started from eclipse.exe, and not from java.exe.

This means that I could solve my problem by choosing one of these two strategies, but I like neither. Are there any other ways that I could get Java to accept that the JNI code is opening this socket?

Edit: The more I look into this problem I figure that it must be a windows 7 related issue with how Java is being started.

It also appears that if you get windows to behave or if you are on some other platform than Windows the method InetAddress.isReachable() could be used as well.

This library looks great. It is though doing the same as our native code already are doing, so my problem must be windows related.

Knubo 2010-10-05 08:45:46

Yeah, I find writing JNI libraries to be a bit painful. So, when in doubt-- use something that already exists. Did you get this lib to work with Windows 7 or is it failing as well?

Andy 2010-10-05 14:00:43

We decided to go with the Runtime.exec() as we have to solve it and keep moving forward. I think your answer is the best one so far and it should really solves my question though not my problem so I'll accept it :)

Knubo 2010-10-12 13:02:25

It's the only answer too =P. But I really can't think of any other good solutions than using some form of a JNI library. Or doing some weird overly complicated IPC.

Andy 2010-10-12 13:34:47

ansaurus

tags:

views:

answers:

Best way to do RAW socket programming involving Java.

related questions