Publish fat JAR with platform-specific native libraries to Maven Central

Start by inspecting the existing JNI and Maven build configuration, then run mvn package to understand the current artifact layout. Track how native libraries can be produced for the four listed targets and assembled under target/classes; done means a single Maven Central artifact loads the matching library and the release workflow deploys it with documented steps.

Background

datafusion-java provides a JVM binding to DataFusion via JNI. To distribute it through Maven Central, we need a packaging strategy that delivers the compiled Rust native library (.so / .dylib / .dll) alongside the Java classes so that consumers get a working artifact with a single dependency declaration — no separate native install step.

Goal

Publish a single artifact to Maven Central that works out of the box on:

• Linux x86_64
• Linux aarch64
• macOS x86_64
• macOS aarch64

Windows (x86_64) support is desirable but out of scope for the initial release. The design should leave room to add it later without restructuring.

Proposed approach: single fat JAR

Bundle all platform-specific native libraries in one published JAR, organized by OS/arch under a known resource path:

org/apache/datafusion/linux/amd64/libdatafusion_jni.so
org/apache/datafusion/linux/aarch64/libdatafusion_jni.so
org/apache/datafusion/darwin/x86_64/libdatafusion_jni.dylib
org/apache/datafusion/darwin/aarch64/libdatafusion_jni.dylib

At runtime, a loader class detects the current OS/arch, extracts the matching library from the JAR to a temp file, and calls System.load() on the absolute path. A System.loadLibrary() attempt should come first so users can override with a system-installed build.

This mirrors the approach used by Apache DataFusion Comet (referenced only as prior art for fat-JAR packaging — datafusion-java is not otherwise related to Comet or Spark). The alternative — publishing one JAR per platform with Maven classifiers — is also viable but pushes platform selection onto consumers and complicates dependency declarations.

Work items

• Add a native loader class that detects OS/arch, extracts from the resource path, and loads via System.load(), with a System.loadLibrary() fallback. Include temp-file locking to handle concurrent JVMs.
• Set up cross-compilation for the four target triples (Linux x86_64, Linux aarch64, macOS x86_64, macOS aarch64). Options: a CI matrix that produces per-arch artifacts, or Docker + OSXCross for cross-platform builds from a single host.
• Wire the build so compiled libraries land at the correct target/classes/... path before mvn package runs.
• Add a GitHub Actions release workflow: matrix builds per platform produce native libs as artifacts; a final job assembles them into the resource tree and runs mvn deploy.
• Configure Maven Central / Sonatype publishing: staging repo, GPG signing, POM metadata.
• Document the release process.

Future work

• Windows x86_64 support. The loader OS enum should already account for .dll and the win32 path segment so this becomes a build-matrix change. Windows complicates temp-file cleanup (can't delete a loaded DLL) — extract to a versioned path and let the OS handle cleanup.