Is the best way to package jsvc with your java service as source code, then have people who use it compile before using?

Question

I've noticed that many open source projects use jsvc (the apache commons daemon) for wrapping a java program in a service. I've seen several ways of including it, as source or with binaries for common environments. Is source a preferred method?

Answer 1

Unless you have a well defined set of supported platforms (e.g. like Apache BigTop) then you are better off sticking with source packaging.

Especially when JVSC is built with shared libraries, keeping your bundled binaries compatible across platforms is going to be a larger headache than it's worth. For a case study in this difficulty, you can read the problems Hadoop ran into when it attempted to bundle JVSC (they opted to skip even including source and went with requiring external installation)