Develop Reference

How to make a Jtext Component for input and output of a single process ran through ProcessBuilder like netbeans console [duplicate]

I am trying to create a sort of console/terminal that allows the user to input a string, which then gets made into a process and the results are printed out. Just like a normal console. But I am having trouble managing the input/output streams. I have looked into this thread, but that solution sadly doesn't apply to my problem.
Along with the standard commands like "ipconfig" and "cmd.exe", I need to be able to run a script and use the same inputstream to pass some arguments, if the script is asking for input.
For example, after running a script "python pyScript.py", I should be able pass further input to the script if it is asking for it(example: raw_input), while also printing the output from the script. The basic behavior you would expect from a terminal.
What I've got so far:
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.event.KeyEvent;
import java.awt.event.KeyListener;
import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.BufferedWriter;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.io.OutputStream;
import java.io.OutputStreamWriter;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JScrollPane;
import javax.swing.JTextPane;
import javax.swing.text.BadLocationException;
import javax.swing.text.Document;
public class Console extends JFrame{
JTextPane inPane, outPane;
InputStream inStream, inErrStream;
OutputStream outStream;
public Console(){
super("Console");
setPreferredSize(new Dimension(500, 600));
setLocationByPlatform(true);
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
// GUI
outPane = new JTextPane();
outPane.setEditable(false);
outPane.setBackground(new Color(20, 20, 20));
outPane.setForeground(Color.white);
inPane = new JTextPane();
inPane.setBackground(new Color(40, 40, 40));
inPane.setForeground(Color.white);
inPane.setCaretColor(Color.white);
JPanel panel = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
panel.add(outPane, BorderLayout.CENTER);
panel.add(inPane, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
JScrollPane scrollPanel = new JScrollPane(panel);
getContentPane().add(scrollPanel);
// LISTENER
inPane.addKeyListener(new KeyListener(){
#Override
public void keyPressed(KeyEvent e){
if(e.getKeyCode() == KeyEvent.VK_ENTER){
e.consume();
read(inPane.getText());
}
}
#Override
public void keyTyped(KeyEvent e) {}
#Override
public void keyReleased(KeyEvent e) {}
});
pack();
setVisible(true);
}
private void read(String command){
println(command);
// Write to Process
if (outStream != null) {
System.out.println("Outstream again");
BufferedWriter writer = new BufferedWriter(new OutputStreamWriter(outStream));
try {
writer.write(command);
//writer.flush();
//writer.close();
} catch (IOException e1) {
e1.printStackTrace();
}
}
// Execute Command
try {
exec(command);
} catch (IOException e) {}
inPane.setText("");
}
private void exec(String command) throws IOException{
Process pro = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(command, null);
inStream = pro.getInputStream();
inErrStream = pro.getErrorStream();
outStream = pro.getOutputStream();
Thread t1 = new Thread(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
try {
String line = null;
while(true){
BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(inStream));
while ((line = in.readLine()) != null) {
println(line);
}
BufferedReader inErr = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(inErrStream));
while ((line = inErr.readLine()) != null) {
println(line);
}
Thread.sleep(1000);
}
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
});
t1.start();
}
public void println(String line) {
Document doc = outPane.getDocument();
try {
doc.insertString(doc.getLength(), line + "\n", null);
} catch (BadLocationException e) {}
}
public static void main(String[] args){
new Console();
}
}
I don't use the mentioned ProcessBuilder, since I do like to differentiate between error and normal stream.
UPDATE 29.08.2016
With the help of #ArcticLord we have achieved what was asked in the original question.
Now it is just a matter of ironing out any strange behavior like the non terminating process. The Console has a "stop" button that simply calls pro.destroy(). But for some reason this does not work for infinitely running processes, that are spamming outputs.
Console: http://pastebin.com/vyxfPEXC
InputStreamLineBuffer: http://pastebin.com/TzFamwZ1
Example code that does not stop:
public class Infinity{
public static void main(String[] args){
while(true){
System.out.println(".");
}
}
}
Example code that does stop:
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
public class InfinitySlow{
public static void main(String[] args){
while(true){
try {
TimeUnit.SECONDS.sleep(1);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
System.out.println(".");
}
}
}

You are on the right way with your code. There are only some minor things you missed.
Lets start with your read method:
private void read(String command){
[...]
// Write to Process
if (outStream != null) {
[...]
try {
writer.write(command + "\n"); // add newline so your input will get proceed
writer.flush(); // flush your input to your process
} catch (IOException e1) {
e1.printStackTrace();
}
}
// ELSE!! - if no outputstream is available
// Execute Command
else {
try {
exec(command);
} catch (IOException e) {
// Handle the exception here. Mostly this means
// that the command could not get executed
// because command was not found.
println("Command not found: " + command);
}
}
inPane.setText("");
}
Now lets fix your exec method. You should use separate threads for reading normal process output and error output. Additionally I introduce a third thread that waits for the process to end and closes the outputStream so next user input is not meant for process but is a new command.
private void exec(String command) throws IOException{
Process pro = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(command, null);
inStream = pro.getInputStream();
inErrStream = pro.getErrorStream();
outStream = pro.getOutputStream();
// Thread that reads process output
Thread outStreamReader = new Thread(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
try {
String line = null;
BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(inStream));
while ((line = in.readLine()) != null) {
println(line);
}
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
System.out.println("Exit reading process output");
}
});
outStreamReader.start();
// Thread that reads process error output
Thread errStreamReader = new Thread(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
try {
String line = null;
BufferedReader inErr = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(inErrStream));
while ((line = inErr.readLine()) != null) {
println(line);
}
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
System.out.println("Exit reading error stream");
}
});
errStreamReader.start();
// Thread that waits for process to end
Thread exitWaiter = new Thread(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
try {
int retValue = pro.waitFor();
println("Command exit with return value " + retValue);
// close outStream
outStream.close();
outStream = null;
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
});
exitWaiter.start();
}
Now this should work.
If you enter ipconfig it prints the command output, closes the output stream and is ready for a new command.
If you enter cmd it prints the output and let you enter more cmd commands like dir or cd and so on until you enter exit. Then it closes the output stream and is ready for a new command.
You may run into problems with executing python scripts because there are problems with reading Process InputStreams with Java if they are not flushed into system pipeline.
See this example python script
print "Input something!"
str = raw_input()
print "Received input is : ", str
You could run this with your Java programm and also enter the input but you will not see the script output until the script is finished.
The only fix I could find is to manually flush the output in the script.
import sys
print "Input something!"
sys.stdout.flush()
str = raw_input()
print "Received input is : ", str
sys.stdout.flush()
Running this script will bahave as you expect.
You can read more about this problem at
Java: is there a way to run a system command and print the output during execution?
Why does reading from Process' InputStream block altough data is available
Java: can't get stdout data from Process unless its manually flushed
EDIT: I have just found another very easy solution for the stdout.flush() problem with Python Scripts. Start them with python -u script.py and you don't need to flush manually. This should solve your problem.
EDIT2: We discussed in the comments that with this solution output and error Stream will be mixed up since they run in different threads. The problem here is that we cannot distinguish if output writing is finish when error stream thread comes up. Otherwise classic thread scheduling with locks could handle this situation. But we have a continuous stream until process is finished no matter if data flows or not. So we need a mechanism here that logs how much time has elapsed since last line was read from each stream.
For this I will introduce a class that gets an InputStream and starts a Thread for reading the incoming data. This Thread stores each line in a Queue and stops when end of stream arrives. Additionally it holds the time when last line was read and added to Queue.
public class InputStreamLineBuffer{
private InputStream inputStream;
private ConcurrentLinkedQueue<String> lines;
private long lastTimeModified;
private Thread inputCatcher;
private boolean isAlive;
public InputStreamLineBuffer(InputStream is){
inputStream = is;
lines = new ConcurrentLinkedQueue<String>();
lastTimeModified = System.currentTimeMillis();
isAlive = false;
inputCatcher = new Thread(new Runnable(){
#Override
public void run() {
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(100);
int b;
try{
while ((b = inputStream.read()) != -1){
// read one char
if((char)b == '\n'){
// new Line -> add to queue
lines.offer(sb.toString());
sb.setLength(0); // reset StringBuilder
lastTimeModified = System.currentTimeMillis();
}
else sb.append((char)b); // append char to stringbuilder
}
} catch (IOException e){
e.printStackTrace();
} finally {
isAlive = false;
}
}});
}
// is the input reader thread alive
public boolean isAlive(){
return isAlive;
}
// start the input reader thread
public void start(){
isAlive = true;
inputCatcher.start();
}
// has Queue some lines
public boolean hasNext(){
return lines.size() > 0;
}
// get next line from Queue
public String getNext(){
return lines.poll();
}
// how much time has elapsed since last line was read
public long timeElapsed(){
return (System.currentTimeMillis() - lastTimeModified);
}
}
With this class we could combine the output and error reading thread into one. That lives while the input reading buffer threads live and have not comsumed data. In each run it checks if some time has passed since last output was read and if so it prints all unprinted lines at a stroke. The same with the error output. Then it sleeps for some millis for not wasting cpu time.
private void exec(String command) throws IOException{
Process pro = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(command, null);
inStream = pro.getInputStream();
inErrStream = pro.getErrorStream();
outStream = pro.getOutputStream();
InputStreamLineBuffer outBuff = new InputStreamLineBuffer(inStream);
InputStreamLineBuffer errBuff = new InputStreamLineBuffer(inErrStream);
Thread streamReader = new Thread(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
// start the input reader buffer threads
outBuff.start();
errBuff.start();
// while an input reader buffer thread is alive
// or there are unconsumed data left
while(outBuff.isAlive() || outBuff.hasNext() ||
errBuff.isAlive() || errBuff.hasNext()){
// get the normal output if at least 50 millis have passed
if(outBuff.timeElapsed() > 50)
while(outBuff.hasNext())
println(outBuff.getNext());
// get the error output if at least 50 millis have passed
if(errBuff.timeElapsed() > 50)
while(errBuff.hasNext())
println(errBuff.getNext());
// sleep a bit bofore next run
try {
Thread.sleep(100);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
System.out.println("Finish reading error and output stream");
}
});
streamReader.start();
// remove outStreamReader and errStreamReader Thread
[...]
}
Maybe this is not a perfect solution but it should handle the situation here.
EDIT (31.8.2016)
We discussed in comments that there is still a problem with the code while implementing a stop button that kills the started
process using Process#destroy(). A process that produces very much output e.g. in an infinite loop will
be destroyed immediately by calling destroy(). But since it has already produced a lot of output that has to be consumed
by our streamReader we can't get back to normal programm behaviour.
So we need some small changes here:
We will introduce a destroy() method to the InputStreamLineBuffer that stops the output reading and clears the queue.
The changes will look like this:
public class InputStreamLineBuffer{
private boolean emergencyBrake = false;
[...]
public InputStreamLineBuffer(InputStream is){
[...]
while ((b = inputStream.read()) != -1 && !emergencyBrake){
[...]
}
}
[...]
// exits immediately and clears line buffer
public void destroy(){
emergencyBrake = true;
lines.clear();
}
}
And some little changes in the main programm
public class ExeConsole extends JFrame{
[...]
// The line buffers must be declared outside the method
InputStreamLineBuffer outBuff, errBuff;
public ExeConsole{
[...]
btnStop.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
if(pro != null){
pro.destroy();
outBuff.destroy();
errBuff.destroy();
}
}});
}
[...]
private void exec(String command) throws IOException{
[...]
//InputStreamLineBuffer outBuff = new InputStreamLineBuffer(inStream);
//InputStreamLineBuffer errBuff = new InputStreamLineBuffer(inErrStream);
outBuff = new InputStreamLineBuffer(inStream);
errBuff = new InputStreamLineBuffer(inErrStream);
[...]
}
}
Now it should be able to destroy even some output spamming processes.
Note: I found out that Process#destroy() is not able to destroy child processes. So if you start cmd on windows
and start a java programm from there you will end up destroying the cmd process while the java programm is still running.
You will see it in the task manager. This problem could not be solved with java itself. it will need
some os depending external tools to get the pids of these processes and kill them manually.

Although #ArticLord solution is nice and neat, recently I faced the same kind of problem and came up with a solution that's conceptually equivalent, but slightly different in its implementation.
The concept is the same, namely "bulk reads": when a reader thread acquires its turn, it consumes all the stream it handles, and pass the hand only when it is done.
This guarantees the out/err print order.
But instead of using a timer-based turn assignment, I use a lock-based non-blocking read simulation:
// main method for testability: replace with private void exec(String command)
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception
{
// create a lock that will be shared between reader threads
// the lock is fair to minimize starvation possibilities
ReentrantLock lock = new ReentrantLock(true);
// exec the command: I use nslookup for testing on windows
// because it is interactive and prints to stderr too
Process p = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("nslookup");
// create a thread to handle output from process (uses a test consumer)
Thread outThread = createThread(p.getInputStream(), lock, System.out::print);
outThread.setName("outThread");
outThread.start();
// create a thread to handle error from process (test consumer, again)
Thread errThread = createThread(p.getErrorStream(), lock, System.err::print);
errThread.setName("errThread");
errThread.start();
// create a thread to handle input to process (read from stdin for testing purpose)
PrintWriter writer = new PrintWriter(p.getOutputStream());
Thread inThread = createThread(System.in, null, str ->
{
writer.print(str);
writer.flush();
});
inThread.setName("inThread");
inThread.start();
// create a thread to handle termination gracefully. Not really needed in this simple
// scenario, but on a real application we don't want to block the UI until process dies
Thread endThread = new Thread(() ->
{
try
{
// wait until process is done
p.waitFor();
logger.debug("process exit");
// signal threads to exit
outThread.interrupt();
errThread.interrupt();
inThread.interrupt();
// close process streams
p.getOutputStream().close();
p.getInputStream().close();
p.getErrorStream().close();
// wait for threads to exit
outThread.join();
errThread.join();
inThread.join();
logger.debug("exit");
}
catch(Exception e)
{
throw new RuntimeException(e.getMessage(), e);
}
});
endThread.setName("endThread");
endThread.start();
// wait for full termination (process and related threads by cascade joins)
endThread.join();
logger.debug("END");
}
// convenience method to create a specific reader thread with exclusion by lock behavior
private static Thread createThread(InputStream input, ReentrantLock lock, Consumer<String> consumer)
{
return new Thread(() ->
{
// wrap input to be buffered (enables ready()) and to read chars
// using explicit encoding may be relevant in some case
BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(input));
// create a char buffer for reading
char[] buffer = new char[8192];
try
{
// repeat until EOF or interruption
while(true)
{
try
{
// wait for your turn to bulk read
if(lock != null && !lock.isHeldByCurrentThread())
{
lock.lockInterruptibly();
}
// when there's nothing to read, pass the hand (bulk read ended)
if(!reader.ready())
{
if(lock != null)
{
lock.unlock();
}
// this enables a soft busy-waiting loop, that simultates non-blocking reads
Thread.sleep(100);
continue;
}
// perform the read, as we are sure it will not block (input is "ready")
int len = reader.read(buffer);
if(len == -1)
{
return;
}
// transform to string an let consumer consume it
String str = new String(buffer, 0, len);
consumer.accept(str);
}
catch(InterruptedException e)
{
// catch interruptions either when sleeping and waiting for lock
// and restore interrupted flag (not necessary in this case, however it's a best practice)
Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
return;
}
catch(IOException e)
{
throw new RuntimeException(e.getMessage(), e);
}
}
}
finally
{
// protect the lock against unhandled exceptions
if(lock != null && lock.isHeldByCurrentThread())
{
lock.unlock();
}
logger.debug("exit");
}
});
}
Note that both solutions, #ArticLord's and mine, are not totally starvation-safe, and chances (really few) are inversely proportional to consumers speed.
Happy 2016! ;)

Vaadin Table using threads only working one way

I have a class called HomeView that is used to extend a Vaadin Designer HTML class. This class has a Vaadin table that takes input from an uploaded file. So far the file uploads fine and I can split the file up into lines for testing. I was trying to use Vaadin threads to lock the session and go to the UploadFile class in which I will split up the file and add to a row in the table. I would then unlock the session, exit back to the background thread and the UI should update the table with new rows. This is not happening with the code below.
public void uploadSucceeded(Upload.SucceededEvent succeededEvent) {
//upload notification for upload
new Notification("File Uploaded Successfully",
Notification.Type.HUMANIZED_MESSAGE)
.show(Page.getCurrent());
//create new class for parsing logic
uf = new UploadFile();
new Thread(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
try {
getSession().lock();
uf.parseFile();
getSession().unlock();
} catch (IOException e) {
new Notification("Could not parse file type",
e.getMessage(),
Notification.Type.ERROR_MESSAGE)
.show(Page.getCurrent());
}
catch (UnsupportedOperationException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} catch (ReadOnlyException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}).start();
//outputFile.delete();
}
});
UploadFile class
public class UploadFile extends HomeView {
/**
*
*/
private static final long serialVersionUID = 839096232794540854L;
public void parseFile() throws IOException {
//container.removeAllItems();
BufferedReader reader = null;
reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(new FileInputStream(outputFile.getAbsolutePath()), StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
String line;
while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null)
{
System.out.println("before add:" + uploadTable.size());
container = uploadTable.getContainerDataSource();
container.addItem("row3");
Item item2 = container.getItem("row3");
Property property2 = item2.getItemProperty("name");
property2.setValue("hello");
uploadTable.setContainerDataSource(container);
System.out.println("after add:" + uploadTable.size());
}
reader.close();
}
}
If I take the code above and just put it in place of the method call, then the table updates fine. The table is updating the row count in the background, it's just not refreshing the view. What am I missing to make the UI refresh?
#Override
public void uploadSucceeded(Upload.SucceededEvent succeededEvent) {
//upload notification for upload
new Notification("File Uploaded Successfully",
Notification.Type.HUMANIZED_MESSAGE)
.show(Page.getCurrent());
//create new class for parsing logic
uf = new UploadFile();
new Thread(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
try {
getSession().lock();
BufferedReader reader = null;
reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(new FileInputStream(outputFile.getAbsolutePath()), StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
String line;
while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null)
{
System.out.println("before add:" + uploadTable.size());
container = uploadTable.getContainerDataSource();
container.addItem("row3");
Item item2 = container.getItem("row3");
Property property2 = item2.getItemProperty("name");
property2.setValue("hello");
uploadTable.setContainerDataSource(container);
System.out.println("after add:" + uploadTable.size());
}
reader.close();
getSession().unlock();
} catch (IOException e) {
new Notification("Could not parse file type",
e.getMessage(),
Notification.Type.ERROR_MESSAGE)
.show(Page.getCurrent());
}
catch (UnsupportedOperationException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} catch (ReadOnlyException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}).start();
//outputFile.delete();
}
});

UI.getCurrent() helper uses a ThreadLocal variable to get the active UI and it only works in a code executed in UI thread (e.g. a init method or button click listener). Get the UI reference before constructing the Thread and use the access method around your code that modifies UI. Do not use getSession().lock() or similar, you'll most likely do something wrong with that. Here is a simple usage example that should help you to resolve your use case as well.
// Get the reference to UI to be modified
final UI ui = getUI();
new Thread() {
#Override
public void run() {
// Do stuff that don't affect UI state here, e.g. potentially
// slow calculation or rest call
final double d = 1*1;
ui.access(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
// This code here is safe to modify ui
Notification.show("The result of calculation is " + d);
}
});
}
}.start();
In addition to properly synchronised UI access you need to have properly working push connection or polling to get changes to the client. If you want to use "real push" you need to add the annotation and add vaadin-push module to your app. Simpler method (and most often just as good) is just to enable polling:
ui.setPollInterval(1000); // 1000ms polling interval for client

Read file with BufferReader when multiple thread writing to the file

All, I am trying to read a file which will be written by multiple threads, I am going to use BufferedReader to read that file in a thread.
The code looks like below.
FileReader reader = new FileReader(file);
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(reader);
String detail;
while ((detail =br.readLine()) != null)
{
...
}
Currently It seems works fine. But I have some questions about it.
If the question sound silly. please don't laugh at me . thanks.
Is it possible that the loop never been broken ? because the other threads are writing into the file.So maybe the readLine() may never return null?
Updated
Let's say there are 3 threads(T1,T2,T3).
T1 and T2 are writer.
T3 is reader.
The code runs in below sequence.
1.The current file lines number is 100.
2.T1 write a line to file.(file lines increase to 101)
3.T3 reads the last line of file(101). next read will get null.
4.T2 append a line to file.(file lines increase to 102)
5.T3 read again....(Does it return null or not? because T2 just added a new line into file before T3 read again.)
Please help to review it .thanks in advance.

Yes, it is possible that the loop will never end (at least until you run out of memory). Here's some code to prove it:
public class test {
public static void main(String[] args) {
// start thread to write to file
new Thread(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
FileWriter writer;
try {
int i = 1;
writer = new FileWriter("D:\\text.txt");
writer.append("line"+ i++ + "\n");
writer.flush();
while (true)
{
writer.append("line"+ i++ + "\n");
writer.flush();
}
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}).start();
try {
Thread.sleep(500);
} catch (InterruptedException e1) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e1.printStackTrace();
}
// start thread to read file
new Thread(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
try {
FileReader reader = new FileReader("D:\\text.txt");
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(reader);
String detail;
while ((detail =br.readLine()) != null)
{
System.out.println(detail);
}
br.close();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}).start();
}
}

I did some experiment for it .
One eclipse run a program as writer .
public class Main {
private static Logger log = Logger.getLogger(Main.class);
/**
* #param args
*/
public static void main(String[] args) {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
PropertyConfigurator.configure("log4j.properties");
log.warn("Test test test ");
}
}
Another eclipse run the program as reader.
public class Main {
/**
* #param args
* #throws IOException
*/
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
StringBuffer intiLine = new StringBuffer("");
FileReader reader = new FileReader("D:\\logs\\notify-subscription.log");
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(reader);
String detail;
while ((detail =br.readLine()) != null)//debug and set breakpoint here
{
System.out.println(detail);
}
}
}
before I began to test them. The original log file content is empty.
I ran the reader program at first. the result of br.readLine() supposed to be null. But I set break point at the code line while ((detail =br.readLine()) != null) run, before it run , I ran the writer program. So the file contains test test test. and br.readLine() will not be null.

You are absolutely Correct .There will be a chance for Deadlock also if you keep creating threads for writing content to the file.Because if threads are keep on writing to the file there wont be any chance of exiting from loop it goes to infinite state

Why Android thread gets terminated before it finishes to execute it?

I have a thread which get some data from Internet. It seams that it is executed correctly and data is retrieved. However if I call a method which should return data it leaves me with null. From that I drew a conclusion that thread is somehow stopped just before finning.
Here is the code:
private class getHash extends AsyncTask<String, Void, String>{
#Override
protected String doInBackground(String... params) {
String str = null;
try {
// Create a URL for the desired page
URL url = new URL(params[0]);
// Read all the text returned by the server
InputStream is = url.openStream();
InputStreamReader isr = new InputStreamReader(is);
BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(isr);
str = in.readLine();
is.close();
isr.close();
in.close();
} catch (MalformedURLException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
hash = str; //If I set a global variable here it gets passed without a hitch
return str;
}
#Override
protected void onPostExecute(String result) {
hash = result; // If I comment the line above and live this one I left with a null
}
}
EDIT:
As requested adding code where the thread was called:
getHash hashThread = new getHash();
hashThread.execute(new String[] {"http://www.full.path/to/the/file.hash"});
if(hash != null && !hash.equals(localHash)){
....

Whatever launched the AsyncTask
{
....
getHash hashThread = new getHash(this);
hashThread.execute(new String[] {"http://www.full.path/to/the/file.hash"});
return; // ok now we just have to wait for it to finish ... can't read it until then
}
// Separate callback method
public void onHashComplete(String hash) {
if(hash != null && !hash.equals(localHash)) {
....
}
....
}
Now in your GetHash class
public String doInBackground(String[] params) {
.... // don't set hash here ... it will work but you will probably read it at the wrong time.
return str;
}
public void onPostExecute(String str) {
onHashComplete(str); // or just do all the work in here since it is a private inner class
}
....
Hopefully that helps. Remember doInBackground() happens on the AsyncTask thread, onPostExecute() executes on the main Thread. Whatever thread called execute() is should also be the main thread. Because of the way the main thread works, you can't expect the onPostCreate() to occur until whatever callback that it was using to call execute() in the first place, finishes. So that is why I add the return.

Exit gracefully from blocked process

I am launching a service (process) with the code below. My issue is as follows:
I need to read the output of the process to make sure it gets started
if it gets started, I return and everything is fine
if it does not get started for whatever reason, the while will block forever as the process just hangs without outputting anything
Any ideas how I could exit the method gracefully if I don't get the expected string?
ps: I could do it with a Future and a timeout on get but thought there might be a better way.
public boolean startService() {
try {
ProcessBuilder pb = new ProcessBuilder("service.exe");
pb.directory(new File("C:/serviceFolder/"));
pb.redirectErrorStream(true);
Process p = pb.start();
BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(p.getInputStream()));
String line;
while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
if (line.toLowerCase().contains("started")) {
return true;
}
}
return false; //I never get there when it fails
} catch (IOException e) {
throw new RuntimeException("Could not start the service.exe process", e);
}
}

If you can modify the service code, it's better to change it not to hang if it can't start - it should exit and log an error message. This way your Java code will work as-is.
If you can't, there is no other way beside setting a timeout, because your Java code has no means to know what's going on.
Of course, if you can modify the service, an alternative is to watch for output other then the process's standard output/error, like a PID file, an error log message, or whatever. If the subprocess already creates a PID file, for example, you can schedule a check on this file instead of the standard input, but really it's the same concept, just applied differently to use nicer/simpler code

Something like this should work. Essentially, start the service in a separate thread and create a Timer that interrupts it after a certain period. Note that the timer task is a Daemon so it should not hold up your process if it needs to quit.
Obviously this will not work if reader.readLine() consumes and discards interrupts.
private static class ServiceRunner implements Runnable {
// Am I running?
volatile boolean running = true;
// My thread.
volatile Thread thread = Thread.currentThread();
#Override
public void run() {
// Start a timer.
Timer timer = new Timer("Wait for ServiceRunner to finish.", true);
// Fire it after 2 seconds.
timer.schedule(new StopTask(), 2000);
try {
// Start the service.
startService();
} finally {
// No longer running.
running = false;
}
}
class StopTask extends TimerTask {
#Override
public void run() {
if (running) {
// Interrupt the service runner.
thread.interrupt();
}
}
}
public boolean startService() {
try {
ProcessBuilder pb = new ProcessBuilder("service.exe");
pb.directory(new File("C:/serviceFolder/"));
pb.redirectErrorStream(true);
Process p = pb.start();
BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(p.getInputStream()));
String line;
while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
if (line.toLowerCase().contains("started")) {
return true;
}
}
return false; //I never get there when it fails
} catch (IOException e) {
throw new RuntimeException("Could not start the service.exe process", e);
}
}
}
I have not tested this code but it should work.
You will need to make adjustments to retain whether the service started or not.

It seems that the Future#get approach is preferred. For future reference, I have modified the code in the following way:
public boolean startService() {
Callable<Boolean> start = new Callable<Boolean>() {
#Override
public Boolean call() throws Exception {
ProcessBuilder pb = new ProcessBuilder("service.exe");
pb.directory(new File("C:/serviceFolder/"));
pb.redirectErrorStream(true);
Process p = pb.start();
BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(p.getInputStream()));
String line;
while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
if (line.toLowerCase().contains("started")) {
return true;
}
}
return false;
}
};
ExecutorService executor = Executors.newSingleThreadExecutor();
Future<Boolean> future = executor.submit(start);
try {
return future.get(1, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
} catch (InterruptedException ignore) {
Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
return false;
} catch (ExecutionException | TimeoutException e) {
logger.error("Could not start service", e);
return false;
} finally {
executor.shutdownNow();
}
}