As of Java 2 RE 1.2.2_15, it is no longer possible to create a JVM from a
standalone program via JNI along the lines in the JNI spec - the only program
not affected by this is probably the java launcher itself!

The call to JNI_GetDefaultJavaVMInitArgs() will result in a null pointer
dereference, segmentation violation, SIGSEGV and core dump even before
JNI_CreateJavaVM() is called. (And the java launcher is immune to it only
and precisely because it doesn't call JNI_GetDefaultJavaVMInitArgs().)

In particular, this affects SUNWj2rt VERSION=1.2.2,REV=2003.12.09.20.42
(1.2.2_17b) which ships on the Solaris 8 2/04 media.

The quickest way to reproduce the issue is to install vanilla Sol8 2/04,
invoke /usr/dt/bin/netscape a.k.a. /usr/dt/appconfig/netscape/netscape,
and point it at file:/usr/dt/appconfig/netscape/j2pi/ControlPanel.html
(which tries to launch the Plugin (SUNWj2pi) Control Panel as an applet).
You'll get a subprocess diagnostics popup "Pugin: Java VM process has died."

Run the same under
truss -adeflo /tmp/truss.out -vall -u libjvm::\* ...
to see where it happens.

(To get a core, you'll need to add -S11 to the truss options and take a
gcore when truss abandons the dying process; then use prun to let it die.)

I don't expect many people will care, but there's still at least one customer
using 3rd party applets which won't run on anything newer than Java 2 RE 1.2.2
and cannot upgrade on short notice, so I just wanted to have this on record -
maybe it'll save somebody else a little time one day...

###@###.### 2005-2-08 20:14:10 GMT