Java Reference
In-Depth Information
23.4. The Rest of Runtime
The Runtime class provides functionality in six different areas:
Interacting with the garbage collector and querying memory usage
Asking for the number of processors available
Executing external programs
Terminating the current Runtime
Loading native code libraries
Debugging
You have already learned about the first four of these areas (you learned
about interacting with the garbage collector via the gc and runFinalization
methods in Chapter 17 , on page 452 , and about availableProcessors in
Chapter 14 on page 359 ) . Now is the time to cover the final two.
23.4.1. Loading Native Code
In Chapter 2 , you learned about the native modifier (see page 74 ) that
can be applied to methods and which signifies that the method's imple-
mentation is being provided by native code. At runtime the native code
for such methods must be loaded into the virtual machine so that the
methods can be executed. The details of this process are system-depend-
ent, but two methods in Runtime allow this activity to occur:
public void loadLibrary(String libname)
Loads the dynamic library with the specified library name. The
library corresponds to a file in the local file system that is loc-
ated in some place where the system knows to look for library
 
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