Develop Reference

Shell command via ProcessBuilder fails to do anything on MacOS, but exit code == 0 and no errors

So I have been trying to find a solution to this problem for quite a while now but haven't been able to even get an error message. I am trying to toggle the dark mode on MacOS with this command: /usr/local/bin/dark-mode on
It works if I execute it with the standard terminal, but executing the code below doesn't do anything. The log file is empty. To make sure my code is correct I used a different command (commented out) and this one gave me the correct output to whoami and returned my current user.
I thought this may have to do with application security on MacOS? I have no idea where to start though.
private void switchDark() {
try {
//Activate the dark mode on MacOS
String command = new String[] { "/usr/local/bin/dark-mode", "on" };
//String command = new String[] { "whoami" }; //This works and gives me the current user
ProcessBuilder pb =
new ProcessBuilder(command[0], command[1]);
File log = new File("LOG.txt");
pb.redirectErrorStream(true);
pb.redirectOutput(Redirect.appendTo(log));
Process proc = pb.start();
proc.waitFor();
if(proc.exitValue() != 0) {
throw new IllegalThreadStateException();
}
} catch (IOException | InterruptedException | IllegalThreadStateException ex) {
System.out.println("Setting dark mode failed!");
if(debug)System.out.println(ex.getMessage());
}
}

I looked at the code to see what that "dark-mode" command does. (https://github.com/sindresorhus/dark-mode - thanks #MadProgrammer)
I'm no Swift or MacOS expert, but that command's implementation doesn't look like it tests if the AppleScript command succeeded. Furthermore, there doesn't seem to be anything to set non-zero exit status in the event of a failure.
So my conclusion is that the underlying AppleScript command is not working ... for reasons that are not reported ... and that information is not passed back to Java via the exit status. There is nothing you can do about it at the Java level.
My guess is that the "dark mode" request is actually failing for permissions-related reasons.

Clearing console in Intellij-idea

Could anyone tell me if it's possible to clear console in intellij-idea and how?
So far I have tried:
System.out.print("\033[H\033[2J");
System.out.flush();
and:
Runtime.getRuntime().exec("clear");
but any of those did work.
I'm using Intellij-idea ultimate 2017 2.4 and Linux Mint.

Use Grep Console plugin for clearing it when it matches some output.

"Right" click over the console and select "clear all"

I don't believe you can, think of that window as a log file.
BTW, why would you want to clear that?

IntelliJ IDEA console is not a real terminal, so there is no command to clear it from your Java code.
See the issue here.
Try run your application in other terminal, then you can make a function like this:
public static void ClearConsole(){
try{
String operatingSystem = System.getProperty("os.name") //Check the current operating system
if(operatingSystem.contains("Windows")){
ProcessBuilder pb = new ProcessBuilder("cmd", "/c", "cls");
Process startProcess = pb.inheritIO.start();
startProcess.waitFor();
} else {
ProcessBuilder pb = new ProcessBuilder("clear");
Process startProcess = pb.inheritIO.start();
startProcess.waitFor();
}
}catch(Exception e){
System.out.println(e);
}
}

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.

Execute Unix system command from JAVA problem

I am facing a weird issue with executing a system command from JAVA code.
Actually i want to get the Mac OSX system information from my JAVA App.
For that im using
Runtime.getRuntime().exec("system_profiler -detailLevel full");
This is working fine.If i print the output,it is cool.
But i want to write this information to a plist file for future use.For that im using the -xml argument of system_profiler.like,
String cmd = "system_profiler -detailLevel full -xml > "+System.getProperty( "user.home" )+"/sysinfo.plist";
Process p = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(cmd);
Basically this should create a plist file in the current users home directory.
But this seems to be not writing anything to file.
Am i missing something here ?

My Java is more than rusty, so please be gentle. ;-)
Runtime.exec() does not automatically use the shell to execute the command you passed, so the IO redirection is not doing anything.
If you just use:
"/bin/sh -c system_profiler -detailLevel full > path/file.plist"
Then the string will be tokenized into:
{ "/bin/sh", "-c", "system_profiler", "-detailLevel", "full", ">", "path/file.plist" }
Which also wouldn't work, because -c only expects a single argument.
Try this instead:
String[] cmd = { "/bin/sh", "-c", "system_profiler -detailLevel full > path/file.plist" };
Process p = Runtime.getRuntime.exec(cmd);
Of course, you could also just read the output of your Process instance using Process.getInputStream() and write that into the file you want; thus skip the shell, IO redirection, etc. altogether.

Christian.K is absolutely correct. Here is a complete example:
public class Hello {
static public void main (String[] args) {
try {
String[] cmds = {
"/bin/sh", "-c", "ls -l *.java | tee tmp.out"};
Process p = Runtime.getRuntime().exec (cmds);
p.waitFor ();
System.out.println ("Done.");
}
catch (Exception e) {
System.out.println ("Err: " + e.getMessage());
}
}
}
If you weren't using a pipe (|) or redirect (>), then you'd be OK with String cmd = "ls -l *.java", as in your original command.
If you actually wanted to see any of the output in your Java console window, then you'd ALSO need to call Process.getInputStream().
Here's a good link:
Running system commands in Java applications

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.