Convert c++ executable program to shared object

I have an strange issue.. I have source code of JAGS software which I can compile in solaris i86 and it generates an executable file.. and it was working fine... now issue is

1. I want to call this executable file from JAVA and wish I was able to do that..
2. Now I want to use the same source code without ex开发者_StackOverflowecutable file and want to create an shared object which can be triggered from java usin JNI.

Is it possible to modify the make file and generate a shared object instead of an executable file?

You can call an executable from java. Just a matter of:

String[] cmd = { "/path/to/program", "arg1", "arg2" };
Process proc = Runtime.getRuntime().exec( cmd );

You can then use proc to communicate with the command via standard I/O streams, and to wait for it to finish.

Now if you wanted to go down the JNI path you will need to write some additional code to act as the JNI layer between the java and C. This layer is responsible for keeping track of the allocated C memory and converting between C data types and Java datatypes. This layer would then be able to call functions in your other source code (but probably not the main function). Then you need to modify/create a makefile which links your new JNI layer source code with the source code you already have into a .dll/.so. You then need to write the java class(es) that sit atop your JNI layer.

Which approach you choose really depends on what you want the native code to do, and how much interaction you need with it.