Runtime objRuntime = Runtime.getRuntime();
String strBackupString = "mysqldump -u " + userName + " -p" + password + " " + dbName;
Process objProcess = objRuntime.exec(strBackupString);
This is used for backup of database. But what exactly happens? Can anybody make me explain, what is the purpose of Runtime and Process class?
Is this class used to act as if we are typing command from command prompt? Then what should i pass to objRuntime.exec() if i want to open notepad? And is the command executed as soon as we call exec method? If yes, then what purpose does Process serve here? I really can't understand these two classes. Please make me understand. Thanks in advance :)
Whenever in doubt, always consult the API:
java.lang.Process
The ProcessBuilder.start() and Runtime.exec methods create a native process and return an instance of a subclass of Process that can be used to control the process and obtain information about it. The class Process provides methods for performing input from the process, performing output to the process, waiting for the process to complete, checking the exit status of the process, and destroying (killing) the process.
Runtime.exec(String command)
Executes the specified system command in a separate process.
So yes, Runtime.exec can execute a command that you'd usually type in the system command prompt. This is hardly a platform-independent solution, but sometimes it's needed. The returned Process object lets you control it, kill it, and importantly sometimes, redirect its standard input/output/error streams.
Related questions
Is java Runtime.exec platform independent?
How to create a process in Java
Get output from a process
Runtime.getRuntime().exec()
API links
java.lang.Process
java.lang.ProcessBuilder
java.lang.Runtime
notepad.exe example
As mentioned before, this is platform dependent, but this snippet works on my Windows machine; it launches notepad.exe, and attempts to open test.txt from the current working directory. The program then waits for the process to terminate, and prints its exit code.
public class ExecExample {
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
Process p = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("notepad.exe test.txt");
System.out.println("Waiting for notepad to exit...");
System.out.println("Exited with code " + p.waitFor());
}
}
It's an object-based representation of a process. Similar to the Thread class, which represents a thread.
Related
In Java, I start one new Process using Runtime.exec(), and this process in turn spawns several child processes.
I want to be able to kill all the processes, and have previously been trying process.destroy() and process.destroyForcibly() - but the docs say that destroyForcibly() just calls destroy() in the default implementation and destroy() may not kill all subprocesses (I've tried and it clearly doesn't kill the child processes).
I'm now trying a different approach, looking up the PID of the parent process using the method suggested here and then calling ps repeatedly to traverse the PIDs of child processes, then killing them all using kill. (It only needs to run on Linux).
I've managed the first bit - looking up the PID, and am trying the following command to call ps to get the child PIDs:
String command = "/bin/ps --ppid " + pid;
Process process = new ProcessBuilder(command).start();
process.waitFor();
Unfortunately the 2nd line above is throwing an IOException, with the following message: java.io.IOException: Cannot run program "/bin/ps --ppid 21886": error=2, No such file or directory
The command runs fine if I paste it straight into the terminal on Ubuntu 16.04.
Any ideas would be very much appreciated.
Thanks
Calling the command you wish to run this way is always destined to fail.
Since Process does not effectively run a shell session, the command is basically handed over to the underlying OS to run. This means that it'll fail, since the path to t he program to be executed (in this case ps), is not the full one hence the error you're getting.
Also, testing whether your command works using a terminal is not correct. Using a terminal contains the notion of performing an action with an active logged in user with a correct path etc etc. All the above are not the case though when running a command through Process as these are not taken into consideration.
Furthermore, you also need to account for cases where the actual java application could be running under a different user, with a different set of permissions, paths etc.
In order for your to fix this, you can simply do either of the following:
1) Invoke your ps command using the full path to it (still not sure if it would work)
2) Change the way your create the Process object into something like: p = new ProcessBuilder("bash", "-c", command).start();
The second, will effectively run a bash session, passing in the ps command as an argument thus obtaining the desired result.
http://commons.apache.org/proper/commons-exec/tutorial.html
```
String line = "AcroRd32.exe /p /h " + file.getAbsolutePath();
CommandLine cmdLine = CommandLine.parse(line);
DefaultExecutor executor = new DefaultExecutor();
int exitValue = executor.execute(cmdLine);
```
I was successfully using AutoIt to execute commands but I was thinking I could get a more stable implementation via Runtime. That way I know the commands will always be executed and won't get thrown by Interruption exceptions, and other random crap. Is there something about Runtime that I don't know which won't allow for continuous execution of commands? Does it not have a memory for the outputs of previous commands, i.e. is it not running in a persistent command line?
The following commands navigate to a folder and execute a Maven script. How would I get this to work? If there were 10+ more commands that follow, would they execute within in the same process?
sendCommand("cmd.exe cd homepath/plugins");
sendCommand("mvn archetype:generate -DarchetypeCatalog=file://homepath/.m2/repository");
private static void sendCommand(String text) throws IOException {
Runtime.getRuntime().exec(text);
}
Runtime.exec() returns a Process instance. Call waitFor() on this object to wait until it is complete before running a next command. You can communicate with a Process via its getInputStream()/getOutputStream() methods.
Also read the Javadoc. For Runtime.exec it says "Executes the specified string command in a separate process."
A few things.
You should use Process and ProcessBuilder instead.
The commands have to be split up and tokenized according to arguments.
The way you have it written, those two commands will not be executed in the same process.
Fortunately for you, ProcessBuilder supports changing the working directory of the command anyway.
As an example:
sendCommand("homepath/plugins", "mvn", "archetype:generate", "-DarchetypeCatalog=file://homepath/.m2/repository");
private static void sendCommand(String workingDirectory, String... command) throws IOException {
Process proc = new ProcessBuilder(command).directory(new File(workingDirectory)).start();
int status = proc.waitFor();
if (status != 0) {
// Handle non-zero exit code, which means the command failed
}
}
Notice how a) the command has been split up, and b) that the working directory is passed in and set using ProcessBuilder.directory(File). This will get your desired behavior, but note that each command will still be a separate process, and there's no way to combine them with Java. You'd have to use Maven's features to get them all to run at once by specifying multiple build targets.
I am launching a process with Runtime.getRuntime().exec()
However, once Java reaches the end of the main() loop, java will not close, unless I destroy() the process first.
Problem with that is, I need the process to keep running after Java is closed.
I pretty much want to do this
public static void main(String args[]) {
Runtime.getRuntime().exec("file.bat");
// now I want java to close, and I want file.bat to keep running
}
I tried System.exit(), it will stop my main() loop, however I think a thread or something that was started by exec() keeps running, preventing java from closing. I can't even end it in Eclipse without first exiting file.bat
Why isn't it closing? And how would I fix it?
I couldn't find anything online, and I've been experimenting for a while, so I decided to ask you guys.
Thank you,
-Alex Benoit
Figured it out. I'll share my code in case anyone else has the same question. I brought it down to 1 line.
Desktop.getDesktop().open(new File("C:\\Folder\\File"));
This is a system dependent question. I am not sure if in Windows the parent process can terminate before the child. I believe this is true in linux.
As a guideline, you should call waitFor() on the process. However, on some systems, just doing so might not be enough. As pointed out in the javadoc, the out/err stream need to be properly purged (using the streams returned by getOutputStream() and getErrorStream()) because they could keep your process from completing. To do so, I found it most appropriate to use two separate threads, one purging the err stream, the other the out stream. The calling thread (main in your case), has to do the following:
start the external process;
start a thread to purge the out stream;
start a thread to purge the err stream;
call waitFor() on the calling thread (main).
I found the above approach very robust and easy to implement (if you are familiar with threads). Please use an ExecutorService for the threads.
Launch the file with cmd for Windows Only
Older windows will probably have to use command.com instead
Runtime.getRuntime().exec("cmd /c start file.bat");
Using the start with /wait parameter waits until bat is finished without /wait it should work.
public class Command {
public static void main(String[] args) throws java.io.IOException, InterruptedException {
String path = "C:\\DOCUME~1\\\USER\\DESKTOP";
Process p = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("cmd /c start /wait " + path + "\\test.bat");
System.out.println("Waiting for batch file ...");
p.waitFor();
System.out.println("Batch file done.");
}
}
test.bat
#echo off
cls
:start
echo This is a loop
goto start
Use the command.com file to get short path name, since long path names don't get processed too well in start program.
Here is a sample I made download link below:
https://www.mediafire.com/?mu7vht3e6tto698
Your problem may be that you are not on a Windows Administrator account you could try, But this requires you to type in your Administrator password which is very stupid.
Process p = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("runas /profile /user:Administrator \"cmd.exe /c start test.bat\"");
I've created a GUI (swing) that executes a batch file that contains a command prompt .exe file execution with specific parameters.
When I run the batch file manually (by double clicking it), everything is as expected.
The problem is: the command prompt window doesn't open to show progress, moreover, it doesn't really start to work (only initiated) until I exit the GUI (forking?). When it starts to work, is works somewhere in the background and seen only in the task manager.
Only a blank command prompt window is opened.
From digging little bit around, I've constructed this command that gives me same result as above:
Runtime.getRuntime().exec("cmd.exe /c start \"Encoding\" cmd.exe /c start md \"" + Gui.outputDirField.getText() + "\\encoderOutput\" & cd \"" + Gui.outputDirField.getText() + "\\encoderOutput\" & \"" + Gui._batFile + "\" & pause");
Could you please assist?
Sorry if it sounds stupid..
this way works for me:
new Thread() {
#Override public void run() {
try {
Runtime.getRuntime().exec("cmd.exe /c start " + Gui._batFile);
} catch (IOException e1) {
e1.printStackTrace();
}
}
}.run();
trashgod may be on to something. We ran into issues with paths with spaces. This is from the release notes for jre 7u21
Changes to Runtime.exec
On Windows platform, the decoding of command strings specified to Runtime.exec(String), Runtime.exec(String,String[]) and Runtime.exec(String,String[],File) methods, has been improved to follow the specification more closely. This may cause problems for applications that are using one or more of these methods with commands that contain spaces in the program name, or are invoking these methods with commands that are not quoted correctly.
For example, Runtime.getRuntime().exec("C:\\My Programs\\foo.exe bar") is an attempt to launch the program "C:\\My" with the arguments "Programs\\foo.exe" and "bar". This command is likely to fail with an exception to indicate "C:\My" cannot be found.
The example Runtime.getRuntime().exec("\"C:\\My Programs\\foo.exe\" bar") is an attempt to launch the program "\"C:\\My". This command will fail with an exception to indicate the program has an embedded quote.
Applications that need to launch programs with spaces in the program name should consider using the variants of Runtime.exec that allow the command and arguments to be specified in an array.
Alternatively, the preferred way to create operating systems processes since JDK 5.0 is using java.lang.ProcessBuilder. The ProcessBuilder class has a much more complete API for setting the environment, working directory and redirecting streams for the process.
Does your bat file requiere user interaction or why are you putting a pause on your command? If so, the Runtime.exec just runs the file with no window, why would you want a Window? >ou can get a Process object as a result from the exec, from this object you can get an InputStream (and if needed, an OutputStream) so you can print your output or interact with the process.
I want to run different commands which can be executed on my command prompt or terminal through Java.
I did search few place but did not get appropriate reply.
I want to run a compiler which is set in the environment as VISAGE_HOME as well as run GRADLE so as to do all my build tasks.
I want to invoke all these commands from within Java Program.
Since it is a swing application I would like to invoke these commands on click of button or some other events.
My Problem is that I am not able to program this :( .
Neither do I know an API which would do this. I went through some sample codes but most of them have same kind of example codes of executing the shell commands or command prompt commands. None showed me to do the above stuff.
Have a look at ProcessBuilder. The Process object it returns has a waitFor method so you can wait for the process to finish. Then you can start your next process.
For example
Process p = new ProcessBuilder("runYourCommand").start();
InputStream in = process.getInputStream();
InputStreamReader inr = new InputStreamReader(in);
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(inr);
String inputLine;
while ((inputLine = br.readLine()) != null) {
System.out.println(inputLine);
}
p.waitFor();
Another interesting method on ProcessBuilder is environment(). This will return the environment variables that you can access. From the API docs
Map<String, String> env = pb.environment();
env.put("VAR1", "myValue");
Something like this:
String cmd = "gedit";
Runtime run = Runtime.getRuntime();
Process pr = run.exec(cmd);
Firstly, ProcessBuilder is your friend...
You could have a look at;
Getting started with Java’s ProcessBuilder (Linux focus)
Using ProcessBuilder to Make System Calls
Run processbuilder and get in and output
ProcessBuilder and how redirecting input and output from operating system's processes
Executing Operating System Commands from Java
Secondly, You will need to use System.getenv to find the value of the specified environment variable and substitute it yourself.
nb: Thanks to Guillaume Polet for pointing out that the Process will automatically include the path environment variable to find commands.
Also, remember, DO NOT EXECUTE ANY BLOCKING PROCESS ON THE EDT.
Executing external commands are inherently blocking actions, while not explicitly, taking into account needing to consume the output of the process or wanting to know about the processes termination, these would require you to perform some kind of blocking action. Don't do this on the EDT. It will cause you program to appear as if it's hung.
You can use the Runtime.exec methods to run commands from within Java. The system enviroment variables are normally not visible from within the jvm. You could use a launcher, that submits these system enviroment properties as jvm properties to your java application.
According to http://javarevisited.blogspot.de/2011/02/how-to-execute-native-shell-commands.html implementing the following into your code after including "java.lang.Runtime" should perfectly work:
try {
Process process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("Command to be executed");
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace(System.err);
}