Develop Reference

cmd.exe is hanging unexpectedly depending on where the file I use is located

This has got to be one of the strangest things I have ever observed. Consider the following Java program:
import java.io.IOException;
public class StrangeError {
public static void main(String[] args) {
try {
Process process = new ProcessBuilder(
"cmd",
"/c",
"\"C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\\VC\\vcvarsall.bat\" amd64 && set"
).start();
process.waitFor();
} catch (IOException|InterruptedException e) {
System.out.println(e.getMessage());
}
}
}
I compiled it with javac StrangeError.java, copied it to my server running Windows Server 2012 R2, and ran it with java StrangeError.
Here's where things start to get weird. The program hangs, waiting for the process it spawned to finish. This is not the expected behavior, since the vcvarsall.bat script should complete immediately as well as set.
So I started playing around and discovered the following:
Removing set causes vcvarsall.bat to terminate
Removing vcvarsall.bat causes set to terminate
Replacing && with || causes everything to terminate correctly
Copying vcvarsall.bat to a location on the desktop and changing the path causes everything to terminate correctly
A nearly equivalent program works fine in Go using the same commands
I get this output if I run everything in WinDbg and interrupt the process after it hangs
This does not appear to be reproducible with vcvarsall.bat from MSVC2013 but is also reproducible with MSVC2015 on Windows 10
What on earth is wrong with the original program? If I copy and paste the entire command (cmd /c "C:\...) into Start->Run, it immediately launches cmd and terminates, as expected.
Is this a bug with Java? Is this a bug with Windows?

Is this a bug with Java? Is this a bug with Windows?
It's a bug in your code. :-)
By default, a child process created using a ProcessBuilder object has output redirected to a pipe, the parent end of which can be obtained using Process.getInputStream() and which is not automatically drained if your code does not make use of it.
Since your code simply calls .waitFor without making any provision to drain the pipe, it will deadlock as soon as the pipe's buffer overflows. I believe the default buffer size is 4,096 bytes. On my machine, the output of the command you're running is 5,192 bytes, but this will vary depending on the original contents of the environment block. (From the sounds of it, the output length in your environment is borderline, only just above the limit, so that even small changes like changing the version of VS make a difference.)
One of the many possible solutions, depending on what you're actually trying to do, is to tell Java not to pipe the child's output:
import java.io.IOException;
public class StrangeError {
public static void main(String[] args) {
try {
ProcessBuilder processb = new ProcessBuilder(
"cmd",
"/c",
"\"C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\\VC\\vcvarsall.bat\" amd64 && set"
);
processb.redirectOutput(ProcessBuilder.Redirect.INHERIT);
Process process = processb.start();
process.waitFor();
} catch (IOException|InterruptedException e) {
System.out.println(e.getMessage());
}
}
}

Not possible to read standard input and output error inside the same ProcessBuilder.
So you need to create two ProcessBuilder
Process process1 = new ProcessBuilder(
"cmd",
"/c",
"\"C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\\VC\\vcvarsall.bat\",
"amd64");
Process process2 = new ProcessBuilder(
"cmd",
"/c",
"set");
process1.start();
if (process1.waitFor() == 0) {
process2.start();
if (process2.waitFor() == 0) {
// Successfull execution
}
}
And one thing : I don't think it is a good practice to do shell/batch launches with Java (or another language). Maybe you should use a script (shell, batch, python, perl...) to control standard input/output streams.

Using Java's getRuntime.exec() to Run a Linux Shell Command: How?

Below is a python script that executes a linux bash command "echo Hello World > ./output"
import os
os.system("bash -c \"echo Hello World > ./output\"");
I am trying to do the same with Java. Below is my best effort, following the instructions I found here: Want to invoke a linux shell command from Java
import java.io.IOException;
public class callCommand {
public static void main(String[] args) {
try {
Process p = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(
new String[]{"bash","-c",
"\"echo Hello World > ./output\""});
} catch(IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
It compiles without issue, and runs without complaint, but no output file is generated.

The extra quotes around echo ... should be removed:
Process p = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(new String[]{
"bash", "-c",
"echo Hello World > ./output"
});
The python version needs extra quotes to tell the underlying system that echo Hello World > ./output is a single argument. The java version explicitly specifies arguments as separate strings, so it doesn't need those quotes.
Also, your version doesn't "run without complaint", you just don't see the complaints, because you don't read the error stream of the created process.

The standard input, output and error streams to/from a system process started from Java are accessed through the methods getOutputStream(), getInputStream() and getErrorStream() of Process.
I recommend you to get the error output produced by your system process:
Process p = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(...);
InputStream input=p.getErrorStream();
do
{
n=input.read(...);
}
while (n>=0);
Be careful: For your actual problem, this would be enough. But for a process which produces a longer error/output, you need to perform the reading of the standard error/output in a separate thread. If not, the system process would block when the error/output buffer is full, and wait till it is externally consumed, and if you place the reading loop just after the process is executed, it will never execute and so, the program will get into a deadlock.

How to exit the windows command prompt in which a java application got started

How to exit the console of a simple Java program after displaying an error message?
currently my code has:
...
...
if (some condition){
//print error
System.exit();
...
...
But this System.exit(); leaves the console open. I have tried exit(0);, System.exit(0); as well.

If you're wanting to close the Command Prompt window that your application is running in, then I don't believe there is a way to do it (At least not nicely).
Why do you want to start your application from the command prompt and then close the pre-existing Command Prompt window? This will surely get rid of the error message that you're outputting (unless it's also being logged - in which case why print it to a window you want to close?).
This is Windows specific, but would creating a shortcut in Windows Explorer to java -jar MyJarFile.jar or java MyCompiledClass do what you want? Instructions for this sort of approach can be found here.

System.exit(1);
should work fine. Note that if you're exiting with an error, you would normally set a non-zero exit code. From the doc:
The argument serves as a status code; by convention, a nonzero status
code indicates abnormal termination.
This means you can script using common conventions, any process spawning your program can react correspondingly etc.

If I understand you correctly, you want to run your program in a command prompt and if the program fails you want it to display the error message, close the program AND the commad prompt window?
If this is the case then the only thing I could think of would to be to run your program in a batch file that checks the exit status of your program. So in your code write your error message, then I suggest sleep for a few seconds so the user can actually see it, then exit with status code 1.e.g.
if(SomeCondition){
System.err.println("ERROR MESSAGE...");
Thread.sleep(3000);//Sleep for 3 seconds...
System.exit(1);
}
Then run your program from a batch file which checks the "ERRORLEVEL" environment variable e.g.
java <INSERT_PROGRAM_NAME>
IF %ERRORLEVEL% == 1 exit
Hope this helps :)

java.lang.System doesn't have an exit method with no parameters, so System.exit(); would be a compile-error. (System.exit(1);, however, would be fine.) The reason that your code isn't working is probably that you're not recompiling it, so you're still running some old version from before you added that line.

Suppose you are trying to install firefox .bat file from java
public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException {
try {
String[] command = { "cmd.exe", "/C", "Start", "C:\\firefox.bat" };
Runtime.getRuntime().exec(command).waitFor();
}
catch (Exception e)
{
System.out.println("Execution error");
}
}
This would trigger the command prompt and the window will be opened until you manually go and close it after the firefox is installed.
The fix is that in your .bat file just after your command just put an "exit" For eg:
Your firefox.bat would contain
#Start /wait "Firefox" "C:\Firefox Setup 41.0.exe" -ms
exit
This will close your command prompt window. Hope this helps...

have a look at the below link
http://www.cs.bris.ac.uk/jot/decisions/exercise11/exit.html
There is a general convention that a program must return an exit code. The exit code should be zero to indicate success, and non-zero to indicate failure. Platforms differ about what different non-zero codes mean, so programmers often just return 1 as a general indication of failure.

System.exit(); terminates the JVM. The int is the status code (0 means "normal" exit). If it's not exiting it's because that part of your code is not reachable and not being executed at all.
Java API - System.exit()

How do I launch a completely independent process from a Java program?

I am working on a program written in Java which, for some actions, launches external programs using user-configured command lines. Currently it uses Runtime.exec() and does not retain the Process reference (the launched programs are either a text editor or archive utility, so no need for the system in/out/err streams).
There is a minor problem with this though, in that when the Java program exits, it doesn't really quit until all the launched programs are exited.
I would greatly prefer it if the launched programs were completely independent of the JVM which launched them.
The target operating system is multiple, with Windows, Linux and Mac being the minimum, but any GUI system with a JVM is really what is desired (hence the user configurability of the actual command lines).
Does anyone know how to make the launched program execute completely independently of the JVM?
Edit in response to a comment
The launch code is as follows. The code may launch an editor positioned at a specific line and column, or it may launch an archive viewer. Quoted values in the configured command line are treated as ECMA-262 encoded, and are decoded and the quotes stripped to form the desired exec parameter.
The launch occurs on the EDT.
static Throwable launch(String cmd, File fil, int lin, int col) throws Throwable {
String frs[][]={
{ "$FILE$" ,fil.getAbsolutePath().replace('\\','/') },
{ "$LINE$" ,(lin>0 ? Integer.toString(lin) : "") },
{ "$COLUMN$",(col>0 ? Integer.toString(col) : "") },
};
String[] arr; // array of parsed tokens (exec(cmd) does not handle quoted values)
cmd=TextUtil.replace(cmd,frs,true,"$$","$");
arr=(String[])ArrayUtil.removeNulls(TextUtil.stringComponents(cmd,' ',-1,true,true,true));
for(int xa=0; xa<arr.length; xa++) {
if(TextUtil.isQuoted(arr[xa],true)) {
arr[xa]=TextDecode.ecma262(TextUtil.stripQuotes(arr[xa]));
}
}
log.println("Launching: "+cmd);
Runtime.getRuntime().exec(arr);
return null;
}
This appears to be happening only when the program is launched from my IDE. I am closing this question since the problem exists only in my development environment; it is not a problem in production. From the test program in one of the answers, and further testing I have conducted I am satisfied that it is not a problem that will be seen by any user of the program on any platform.

There is a parent child relation between your processes and you have to break that.
For Windows you can try:
Runtime.getRuntime().exec("cmd /c start editor.exe");
For Linux the process seem to run detached anyway, no nohup necessary.
I tried it with gvim, midori and acroread.
import java.io.IOException;
public class Exec {
public static void main(String[] args) {
try {
Runtime.getRuntime().exec("/usr/bin/acroread");
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
System.out.println("Finished");
}
}
I think it is not possible to to it with Runtime.exec in a platform independent way.
for POSIX-Compatible system:
Runtime.getRuntime().exec(new String[]{"/bin/sh", "-c", "your command"}).waitFor();

I have some observations that may help other people facing similar issue.
When you use Runtime.getRuntime().exec() and then you ignore the java.lang.Process handle you get back (like in the code from original poster), there is a chance that the launched process may hang.
I have faced this issue in Windows environment and traced the problem to the stdout and stderr streams. If the launched application is writing to these streams, and the buffer for these stream fills up then the launched application may appear to hang when it tries to write to the streams. The solutions are:
Capture the Process handle and empty out the streams continually - but if you want to terminate the java application right after launching the process then this is not a feasible solution
Execute the process call as cmd /c <<process>> (this is only for Windows environment).
Suffix the process command and redirect the stdout and stderr streams to nul using 'command > nul 2>&1'

It may help if you post a test section of minimal code needed to reproduce the problem. I tested the following code on Windows and a Linux system.
public class Main {
/**
* #param args the command line arguments
*/
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
Runtime.getRuntime().exec(args[0]);
}
}
And tested with the following on Linux:
java -jar JustForTesting.jar /home/monceaux/Desktop/__TMP/test.sh
where test.sh looks like:
#!/bin/bash
ping -i 20 localhost
as well as this on Linux:
java -jar JustForTesting.jar gedit
And tested this on Windows:
java -jar JustForTesting.jar notepad.exe
All of these launched their intended programs, but the Java application had no problems exiting. I have the following versions of Sun's JVM as reported by java -version :
Windows: 1.6.0_13-b03
Linux: 1.6.0_10-b33
I have not had a chance to test on my Mac yet. Perhaps there is some interaction occuring with other code in your project that may not be clear. You may want to try this test app and see what the results are.

You want to launch the program in the background, and separate it from the parent. I'd consider nohup(1).

I suspect this would require a actual process fork. Basically, the C equivalent of what you want is:
pid_t id = fork();
if(id == 0)
system(command_line);
The problem is you can't do a fork() in pure Java. What I would do is:
Thread t = new Thread(new Runnable()
{
public void run()
{
try
{
Runtime.getRuntime().exec(command);
}
catch(IOException e)
{
// Handle error.
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
});
t.start();
That way the JVM still won't exit, but no GUI and only a limited memory footprint will remain.

I tried everything mentioned here but without success. Main parent Java process can't quit until the quit of subthread even with cmd /c start and redirecting streams tu nul.
Only one reliable solution for me is this:
try {
Runtime.getRuntime().exec("psexec -i cmd /c start cmd.cmd");
}
catch (Exception e) {
// handle it
}
I know that this is not clear, but this small utility from SysInternals is very helpful and proven. Here is the link.

One way I can think of is to use Runtime.addShutdownHook to register a thread that kills off all the processes (you'd need to retain the process objects somewhere of course).
The shutdown hook is only called when the JVM exits so it should work fine.
A little bit of a hack but effective.

Problem with starting OpenOffice service (soffice) from Java (command working in commandline, but not from Java)

I want to exceute a simple command which works from the shell but doesn't work from Java.
This is the command I want to execute, which works fine:
soffice -headless "-accept=socket,host=localhost,port=8100;urp;"
This is the code I am excecuting from Java trying to run this command:
String[] commands = new String[] {"soffice","-headless","\"-accept=socket,host=localhost,port=8100;urp;\""};
Process process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(commands)
int code = process.waitFor();
if(code == 0)
System.out.println("Commands executed successfully");
When I run this program I get "Commands executed successfully".
However the process is not running when the program finishes.
Is it possible that the JVM kills the program after it has run?
Why doesn't this work?

I'm not sure if I'm not mistaken, but as far as I see you're generating the commands but never passing them to the "execute" method... you're executing "".
Try using Runtime.getRuntime().exec(commands) =)

I would like to say how I solved this.
I created a sh script that basically run the command of soffice for me.
Then from Java I just run the script, and it works fine, like this:
public void startSOfficeService() throws InterruptedException, IOException {
//First we need to check if the soffice process is running
String commands = "pgrep soffice";
Process process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(commands);
//Need to wait for this command to execute
int code = process.waitFor();
//If we get anything back from readLine, then we know the process is running
BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(process.getInputStream()));
if (in.readLine() == null) {
//Nothing back, then we should execute the process
process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("/etc/init.d/soffice.sh");
code = process.waitFor();
log.debug("soffice script started");
} else {
log.debug("soffice script is already running");
}
in.close();
}
I also kill the soffice process by calling this method:
public void killSOfficeProcess() throws IOException {
if (System.getProperty("os.name").matches(("(?i).*Linux.*"))) {
Runtime.getRuntime().exec("pkill soffice");
}
}
Note that this only works in Linux.

I believe you aren't handling quoting correctly. The original sh command line includes double quotes to prevent the shell interpreting the semicolons. The shell strips them off before the soffice process sees them.
In your Java code the shell will never see the arguments, so the extra double quotes (escaped with backslashes) are not needed - and they are probably confusing soffice.
Here's the code with the extra quotes stripped out (and a semicolon thrown in)
String[] commands = new String[] {"soffice","-headless","-accept=socket,host=localhost,port=8100;urp;"};
Process process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(commands);
int code = process.waitFor();
if(code == 0)
System.out.println("Commands executed successfully");
(Disclaimer: I don't know Java, and I haven't tested this!)

"/Applications/OpenOffice.org\ 2.4.app/Contents/MacOS/soffice.bin -headless -nofirststartwizard -accept='socket,host=localhost,port=8100;urp;StartOffice.Service'"
or simply escaping the quotes will work as well. We feed a command like this to an ant script that ultimately ends up in an exec call like you have above. I would also recommend restarting the process every 500 or so conversions because OOO does not properly free memory (depending on what version you are running).