Classloader, JNI and "already loaded in another classloader"

[Mark Benzel <be...@entelos.com>]

I have a webapp running under Tomcat 3.2.1 that needs to make JNI calls in
order to access data and methods in legacy C++ code.  A servlet is loaded on
startup of the webapp that, as part if its init method, causes a data set
specific to that webapp instance to be loaded into the C++ data structures.
This Java code for this servlet contains the following:

    static
    {
        try {
            System.loadLibrary("JCoreImpl");
            System.out.println("JCoreImpl loaded");
            m_bLibraryLoaded = true;
        } catch (UnsatisfiedLinkError e) {
            m_bLibraryLoaded = false;
            System.out.println("JCoreImpl NOT loaded " + e);
        }
    }

Things work fine if there is only one webapp (let's call it "webapps/aaa").
If I have a second webapp ("webapps/bbb") that is identical to webapps/aaa
except for the data set used in the C++ data structures, then webapps/aaa
starts up just fine, but when webapps/bbb is started I get an error stating
that:

JCoreImpl NOT loaded java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: Native Library
E:\WebStation\binDebug\JCoreImpl.dll already loaded in another classloader

I need to have a separate instance of the native library for each of my
webapps as each instance needs to contain data that is unique to that
particular webapp.  I have searched through the mail archives and read
emails by Craig McLanahan explaining the classloader hierarchy.  But I have
not been able to find anything specific to loading a unique instance of a
native library for each webapp.

Any ideas?  Thanks,

Mark