Recently jnr-ffi master branch is updated with ppc64le specific TypeAliases. Older versions don't have ppc64le specific TypeAliases due to which we are not above to invoke hbase shell in ppc64le.

[ayappan@soe07-vm3 bin]$ ./hbase shell
include_class is deprecated. Use java_import.
include_class is deprecated. Use java_import.
include_class is deprecated. Use java_import.
Apr 01, 2015 6:09:35 AM jnr.ffi.provider.jffi.NativeRuntime buildNativeTypeAliases
SEVERE: failed to load type aliases: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: jnr.ffi.provider.jffi.platform.unknown.linux.TypeAliases
NoMethodError: undefined method `getTerminal' for Java::Jline::Terminal:Module
refresh_width at /home/ayappan/hbase/hbase-shell/src/main/ruby/shell/formatter.rb:33
initialize at /home/ayappan/hbase/hbase-shell/src/main/ruby/shell/formatter.rb:46
(root) at /home/ayappan/hbase/bin/../bin/hirb.rb:128

So jruby has to pickup the upcoming jnr-ffi version to have ppc64le support