[CASSANDRA-16615] Incompatible JNA libraries cause unnecessary failures when using cassandra-all jar.

• Type: Bug
• Status: Open
• Priority: Normal
• Resolution: Unresolved
• Component/s: Local/Other
• Bug Category: Code - Bug - Unclear Impact
• Severity: Low
• Complexity: Normal
• Discovered By: User Report
• Platform: All
• Assignee: Unassigned
• Reporter: Doug Rohrer
• Created: 19/Apr/21 17:06
• Updated: 21/Jan/23 14:48

Description

There are some additional use-cases where lack of JNA libraries is causing issues for users of cassandra-all libraries - cases where the native libraries were not loaded but we should be able to continue should be handled without throwing exceptions. Note that the Cassandra server will not start up without an appropriate/compatible JNA jar available, but users of the cassandra-all libraries will have a more difficult time maintaining compatibility across JNA versions as they deploy to, for example, Spark setups that have newer/older JNA versions.
Proposal:

• Audit usages of `NativeLibrary`
• Wherever possible, handle the -1 return values without failing if `DatabaseDescriptor.isClientInitialized()` returns true.
• Maintain existing failure behavior if the system is not in client mode but the call returns -1.