java newbie question: richer java subprocesses - java

I would like to spawn a subprocess Java Virtual Machine (through a Java API call) and communicate with it.
Maybe I'm just not searching for the right thing on Google, but I keep getting pointed back to Runtime.exec(), which is not what I want. I know I could connect standard input/output and use various serialization techniques, or use remote method invocation, but these seem to cumbersome/heavyweight. It seems like an API call could be more robust than attempting to call Runtime.exec("/usr/bin/java -cp [system.getclasspath] ...").
The purpose / motivation of this is that dynamically reloading classes with many dependencies seems somewhat tricky (several sites mention reading a .class file and passing it to [ClassLoader].defineClass, but this doesn't handle loading of dependent class files well). If I don't need much communication bandwidth or low latency, I think a new JVM instance would work fine; it's that communicating with it seems cumbersome. In any case this question isn't high priority; I'll probably go the straightforward route and see how I can load dependent class files (e.g. ones for inner classes).

As long as the classes you want to load are in a JAR file or a directory tree separate from your main app, using an URLClassLoader and running them in a separate Thread works fine. AFAIK all Java app servers work like this, so it's definitely a proven technique.

I would definitely recommend taking a look at the class loader mechanism used by the Tomcat servlet container - they seem to have exactly the same class loading problem and seem to have solved it very well.

If you go the communication route you should consider Java RMI.

ClassRunner (shown in the listing below) uses ProcessBuilder to run the main function of any available class in your classpath using the same class path and library path as the current JVM. It will even clone the environment and the working directory of the current JVM.
Caveat: ClassRunner assumes that java is on the PATH of the current JVM. You may want to put some logic around locating java or java.exe based on System.getProperty("java.home") :)
Listing of ClassRunner.java:
import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
public class ClassRunner
{
private final Class<?> classToRun;
public ClassRunner(Class<?> classToRun)
{
this.classToRun = classToRun;
}
public void run(String... args) throws Exception
{
String javaCommand = "java";
String libraryPath = "-Djava.library.path=\"" + System.getProperty("java.library.path") + "\"";
String classpath = "\"" + System.getProperty("java.class.path") + "\"";
ProcessBuilder processBuilder = new ProcessBuilder(javaCommand,
libraryPath,
"-classpath", classpath,
classToRun.getCanonicalName());
processBuilder.redirectErrorStream();
for (String arg : args) processBuilder.command().add(arg);
Process process = processBuilder.start();
BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(process.getInputStream()));
String line;
while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null) System.out.println(line);
reader.close();
process.waitFor();
}
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception
{
new ClassRunner(Main.class).run("Hello");
}
}
Listing of Main.java:
public class Main
{
public static void main(String... args)
{
System.out.println("testing Main");
for (String arg : args) System.out.println(arg);
}
}

Related

Trouble with ProcessBuilder

Following code opens status very fine in notepad:
import java.util.*;
class test
{
public static void main(String args[])
{
try{
ProcessBuilder pb=new ProcessBuilder("notepad","F:/status");
pb.start();
}catch(Exception e)
{
System.out.println(e);
}
}
}
Following code does'not play the song:
import java.util.*;
class test
{
public static void main(String args[])
{
try{
ProcessBuilder pb=new ProcessBuilder("C:/Program Files (x86)/VideoLAN/VLC/vlc","D:/02 Tu Jaane Na");
pb.start();
}catch(Exception e)
{
System.out.println(e);
}
}
}
I think that the problem is that you're ignoring the fact that the files you're trying to open have filename extensions.
Windows Explorer doesn't display file extensions by default - that is probably why you are not aware of their existence.
The reason why notepad worked in your first example is that notepad automatically adds .txt extension to its filename parameter in case you didn't provide one yourself. So in reality the file that is being open is not status but status.txt.
VLC doesn't have this "advanced" functionality because there's no specific filename extension it is designed to work with.
So you will need to look up the dir command output and add the full file name as a parameter.
If that was the real issue - you might want to modify your Windows Explorer settings for it to display file extensions:
or, which is better, switch to a more programmer-friendly OS :)
For 1.6+ code, use Desktop.open(File) instead.
Of course, the sensible thing to do immediately before calling that is to check File.exists().
OTOH, Desktop.open(File) throws a slew of handy exceptions, including:
NullPointerException - if file is null
IllegalArgumentException - if the specified file doesn't exist
UnsupportedOperationException - if the current platform does not support the Desktop.Action.OPEN action
IOException - if the specified file has no associated application or the associated application fails to be launched
Properly handled, the exception would indicate the immediate problem.
As an aside, the Desktop class is designed to be cross-platform, and will handle any file type for which an association is defined. In that sense it is a lot more useful for something like this, than trying to use a Process.

Java DTrace bridge on OS X

I am trying to grab filesystem events on OS / Kernel level on OS X.
There are 2 requirements i have to follow. The first one is to do this in java as the whole project im developing for is written in java. The second one is that i have to find out when a document is opened.
For Linux I used inotify-java, but I can't find a good equivalent on OS X. Also the JNA doesn't provide a helpful binding. Currently I'm avoiding catching events by frequently calling the lsof program. This, however, is a bad solution.
Thanks for the help.
You can use dtrace on OSX, but since it needs root privileges it's not something you'd want to put into a runtime of a system.
In any case, you won't be able to do this in pure Java (any Java API would be a wrapper around some lower level C introspection, and if you're doing it kernel-wide, would need to be done as root).
If you just want to track when your program is opening files (as opposed to other files on the same system) then you can install your own Security Manager and implement the checkRead() family of methods, which should give you an idea of when accesses are happening.
import java.io.*;
public class Demo {
public static void main(String args[]) throws Exception {
System.setSecurityManager(new Sniffer());
File f = new File("/tmp/file");
new FileInputStream(f);
}
}
class Sniffer extends SecurityManager {
public void checkRead(String name) {
System.out.println("Opening " + name);
}
}

How can I restart a Java application?

How can I restart a Java AWT application? I have a button to which I have attached an event handler. What code should I use to restart the application?
I want to do the same thing that Application.Restart() do in a C# application.
Of course it is possible to restart a Java application.
The following method shows a way to restart a Java application:
public void restartApplication()
{
final String javaBin = System.getProperty("java.home") + File.separator + "bin" + File.separator + "java";
final File currentJar = new File(MyClassInTheJar.class.getProtectionDomain().getCodeSource().getLocation().toURI());
/* is it a jar file? */
if(!currentJar.getName().endsWith(".jar"))
return;
/* Build command: java -jar application.jar */
final ArrayList<String> command = new ArrayList<String>();
command.add(javaBin);
command.add("-jar");
command.add(currentJar.getPath());
final ProcessBuilder builder = new ProcessBuilder(command);
builder.start();
System.exit(0);
}
Basically it does the following:
Find the java executable (I used the java binary here, but that depends on your requirements)
Find the application (a jar in my case, using the MyClassInTheJar class to find the jar location itself)
Build a command to restart the jar (using the java binary in this case)
Execute it! (and thus terminating the current application and starting it again)
import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.lang.management.ManagementFactory;
public class Main {
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException, InterruptedException {
StringBuilder cmd = new StringBuilder();
cmd.append(System.getProperty("java.home") + File.separator + "bin" + File.separator + "java ");
for (String jvmArg : ManagementFactory.getRuntimeMXBean().getInputArguments()) {
cmd.append(jvmArg + " ");
}
cmd.append("-cp ").append(ManagementFactory.getRuntimeMXBean().getClassPath()).append(" ");
cmd.append(Main.class.getName()).append(" ");
for (String arg : args) {
cmd.append(arg).append(" ");
}
Runtime.getRuntime().exec(cmd.toString());
System.exit(0);
}
}
Dedicated to all those who say it is impossible.
This program collects all information available to reconstruct the original commandline. Then, it launches it and since it is the very same command, your application starts a second time. Then we exit the original program, the child program remains running (even under Linux) and does the very same thing.
WARNING: If you run this, be aware that it never ends creating new processes, similar to a fork bomb.
Basically, you can't. At least not in a reliable way. However, you shouldn't need to.
The can't part
To restart a Java program, you need to restart the JVM. To restart the JVM you need to
Locate the java launcher that was used. You may try with System.getProperty("java.home") but there's no guarantee that this will actually point to the launcher that was used to launch your application. (The value returned may not point to the JRE used to launch the application or it could have been overridden by -Djava.home.)
You would presumably want to honor the original memory settings etc (-Xmx, -Xms, …) so you need to figure out which settings where used to start the first JVM. You could try using ManagementFactory.getRuntimeMXBean().getInputArguments() but there's no guarantee that this will reflect the settings used. This is even spelled out in the documentation of that method:
Typically, not all command-line options to the 'java' command are passed to the Java virtual machine. Thus, the returned input arguments may not include all command-line options.
If your program reads input from Standard.in the original stdin will be lost in the restart.
Lots of these tricks and hacks will fail in the presence of a SecurityManager.
The shouldn't need part
I recommend you to design your application so that it is easy to clean every thing up and after that create a new instance of your "main" class.
Many applications are designed to do nothing but create an instance in the main-method:
public class MainClass {
...
public static void main(String[] args) {
new MainClass().launch();
}
...
}
By using this pattern, it should be easy enough to do something like:
public class MainClass {
...
public static void main(String[] args) {
boolean restart;
do {
restart = new MainClass().launch();
} while (restart);
}
...
}
and let launch() return true if and only if the application was shut down in a way that it needs to be restarted.
Strictly speaking, a Java program cannot restart itself since to do so it must kill the JVM in which it is running and then start it again, but once the JVM is no longer running (killed) then no action can be taken.
You could do some tricks with custom classloaders to load, pack, and start the AWT components again but this will likely cause lots of headaches with regard to the GUI event loop.
Depending on how the application is launched, you could start the JVM in a wrapper script which contains a do/while loop, which continues while the JVM exits with a particular code, then the AWT app would have to call System.exit(RESTART_CODE). For example, in scripting pseudocode:
DO
# Launch the awt program
EXIT_CODE = # Get the exit code of the last process
WHILE (EXIT_CODE == RESTART_CODE)
The AWT app should exit the JVM with something other than the RESTART_CODE on "normal" termination which doesn't require restart.
Eclipse typically restarts after a plugin is installed. They do this using a wrapper eclipse.exe (launcher app) for windows. This application execs the core eclipse runner jar and if the eclipse java application terminates with a relaunch code, eclipse.exe restarts the workbench. You can build a similar bit of native code, shell script or another java code wrapper to achieve the restart.
Windows
public void restartApp(){
// This launches a new instance of application dirctly,
// remember to add some sleep to the start of the cmd file to make sure current instance is
// completely terminated, otherwise 2 instances of the application can overlap causing strange
// things:)
new ProcessBuilder("cmd","/c start /min c:/path/to/script/that/launches/my/application.cmd ^& exit").start();
System.exit(0);
}
/min to start script in minimized window
^& exit to close cmd window after finish
a sample cmd script could be
#echo off
rem add some sleep (e.g. 10 seconds) to allow the preceding application instance to release any open resources (like ports) and exit gracefully, otherwise the new instance could fail to start
sleep 10
set path=C:\someFolder\application_lib\libs;%path%
java -jar application.jar
sleep 10 sleep for 10 seconds
Just adding information which is not present in other answers.
If procfs /proc/self/cmdline is available
If you are running in an environment which provides procfs and therefore has the /proc file system available (which means this is not a portable solution), you can have Java read /proc/self/cmdline in order to restart itself, like this:
public static void restart() throws IOException {
new ProcessBuilder(getMyOwnCmdLine()).inheritIO().start();
}
public static String[] getMyOwnCmdLine() throws IOException {
return readFirstLine("/proc/self/cmdline").split("\u0000");
}
public static String readFirstLine(final String filename) throws IOException {
try (final BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(filename))) {
return in.readLine();
}
}
On systems with /proc/self/cmdline available, this probably is the most elegant way of how to "restart" the current Java process from Java. No JNI involved, and no guessing of paths and stuff required. This will also take care of all JVM options passed to the java binary. The command line will be exactly identical to the one of the current JVM process.
Many UNIX systems including GNU/Linux (including Android) nowadays have procfs However on some like FreeBSD, it is deprecated and being phased out. Mac OS X is an exception in the sense that it does not have procfs. Windows also does not have procfs. Cygwin has procfs but it's invisible to Java because it's only visible to applications using the Cygwin DLLs instead of Windows system calls, and Java is unaware of Cygwin.
Don't forget to use ProcessBuilder.inheritIO()
The default is that stdin / stdout / stderr (in Java called System.in / System.out / System.err) of the started Process are set to pipes which allow the currently running process to communicate with the newly started process. If you want to restart the current process, this is most likely not what you want. Instead you would want that stdin / stdout / stderr are the same as those of the current VM. This is called inherited. You can do so by calling inheritIO() of your ProcessBuilder instance.
Pitfall on Windows
A frequent use case of a restart() function is to restart the application after an update. The last time I tried this on Windows this was problematic. When overwrote the application's .jar file with the new version, the application started to misbehave and giving exceptions about the .jar file. I'm just telling, in case this is your use case. Back then I solved the issue by wrapping the application in a batch file and using a magic return value from System.exit() that I queried in the batch file and had the batch file restart the application instead.
Although this question is old and answered, I've stumbled across a problem with some of the solutions and decided to add my suggestion into the mix.
The problem with some of the solutions is that they build a single command string. This creates issues when some parameters contain spaces, especially java.home.
For example, on windows, the line
final String javaBin = System.getProperty("java.home") + File.separator + "bin" + File.separator + "java";
Might return something like this:C:\Program Files\Java\jre7\bin\java
This string has to be wrapped in quotes or escaped due to the space in Program Files. Not a huge problem, but somewhat annoying and error prone, especially in cross platform applications.
Therefore my solution builds the command as an array of commands:
public static void restart(String[] args) {
ArrayList<String> commands = new ArrayList<String>(4 + jvmArgs.size() + args.length);
List<String> jvmArgs = ManagementFactory.getRuntimeMXBean().getInputArguments();
// Java
commands.add(System.getProperty("java.home") + File.separator + "bin" + File.separator + "java");
// Jvm arguments
for (String jvmArg : jvmArgs) {
commands.add(jvmArg);
}
// Classpath
commands.add("-cp");
commands.add(ManagementFactory.getRuntimeMXBean().getClassPath());
// Class to be executed
commands.add(BGAgent.class.getName());
// Command line arguments
for (String arg : args) {
commands.add(arg);
}
File workingDir = null; // Null working dir means that the child uses the same working directory
String[] env = null; // Null env means that the child uses the same environment
String[] commandArray = new String[commands.size()];
commandArray = commands.toArray(commandArray);
try {
Runtime.getRuntime().exec(commandArray, env, workingDir);
System.exit(0);
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
If you realy need to restart your app, you could write a separate app the start it...
This page provides many different examples for different scenarios:
http://www.rgagnon.com/javadetails/java-0014.html
Similar to Yoda's 'improved' answer, but with further improvements (both functional, readability, and testability). It's now safe to run, and restarts for as as many times as the amount of program arguments given.
No accumulation of JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS options.
Automatically finds main class.
Inherits current stdout/stderr.
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
if (args.length == 0)
return;
else
args = Arrays.copyOf(args, args.length - 1);
List<String> command = new ArrayList<>(32);
appendJavaExecutable(command);
appendVMArgs(command);
appendClassPath(command);
appendEntryPoint(command);
appendArgs(command, args);
System.out.println(command);
try {
new ProcessBuilder(command).inheritIO().start();
} catch (IOException ex) {
ex.printStackTrace();
}
}
private static void appendJavaExecutable(List<String> cmd) {
cmd.add(System.getProperty("java.home") + File.separator + "bin" + File.separator + "java");
}
private static void appendVMArgs(Collection<String> cmd) {
Collection<String> vmArguments = ManagementFactory.getRuntimeMXBean().getInputArguments();
String javaToolOptions = System.getenv("JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS");
if (javaToolOptions != null) {
Collection<String> javaToolOptionsList = Arrays.asList(javaToolOptions.split(" "));
vmArguments = new ArrayList<>(vmArguments);
vmArguments.removeAll(javaToolOptionsList);
}
cmd.addAll(vmArguments);
}
private static void appendClassPath(List<String> cmd) {
cmd.add("-cp");
cmd.add(ManagementFactory.getRuntimeMXBean().getClassPath());
}
private static void appendEntryPoint(List<String> cmd) {
StackTraceElement[] stackTrace = new Throwable().getStackTrace();
StackTraceElement stackTraceElement = stackTrace[stackTrace.length - 1];
String fullyQualifiedClass = stackTraceElement.getClassName();
String entryMethod = stackTraceElement.getMethodName();
if (!entryMethod.equals("main"))
throw new AssertionError("Entry point is not a 'main()': " + fullyQualifiedClass + '.' + entryMethod);
cmd.add(fullyQualifiedClass);
}
private static void appendArgs(List<String> cmd, String[] args) {
cmd.addAll(Arrays.asList(args));
}
V1.1 Bugfix: null pointer if JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS is not set
Example:
$ java -cp Temp.jar Temp a b c d e
[/usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64/jre/bin/java, -cp, Temp.jar, Temp, a, b, c, d]
[/usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64/jre/bin/java, -cp, Temp.jar, Temp, a, b, c]
[/usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64/jre/bin/java, -cp, Temp.jar, Temp, a, b]
[/usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64/jre/bin/java, -cp, Temp.jar, Temp, a]
[/usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64/jre/bin/java, -cp, Temp.jar, Temp]
$
I was researching the subject myself when came across this question.
Regardless of the fact that the answer is already accepted, I would still like to offer an alternative approach for completeness. Specifically, Apache Ant served as a very flexible solution.
Basically, everything boils down to an Ant script file with a single Java execution task (refer here and here) invoked from a Java code (see here). This Java code, which can be a method launch, could be a part of the application that needs to be restarted. The application needs to have a dependency on the Apache Ant library (jar).
Whenever application needs to be restarted, it should call method launch and exit the VM. The Ant java task should have options fork and spawn set to true.
Here is an example of an Ant script:
<project name="applaucher" default="launch" basedir=".">
<target name="launch">
<java classname="package.MasinClass" fork="true" spawn="true">
<jvmarg value="-splash:splash.jpg"/>
<jvmarg value="-D other VM params"/>
<classpath>
<pathelement location="lib-1.jar" />
...
<pathelement location="lib-n.jar" />
</classpath>
</java>
</target>
</project>
The code for the launch method may look something like this:
public final void launch(final String antScriptFile) {
/* configure Ant and execute the task */
final File buildFile = new File(antScriptFile);
final Project p = new Project();
p.setUserProperty("ant.file", buildFile.getAbsolutePath());
final DefaultLogger consoleLogger = new DefaultLogger();
consoleLogger.setErrorPrintStream(System.err);
consoleLogger.setOutputPrintStream(System.out);
consoleLogger.setMessageOutputLevel(Project.MSG_INFO);
p.addBuildListener(consoleLogger);
try {
p.fireBuildStarted();
p.init();
final ProjectHelper helper = ProjectHelper.getProjectHelper();
p.addReference("ant.projectHelper", helper);
helper.parse(p, buildFile);
p.executeTarget(p.getDefaultTarget());
p.fireBuildFinished(null);
} catch (final BuildException e) {
p.fireBuildFinished(e);
}
/* exit the current VM */
System.exit(0);
}
A very convenient thing here is that the same script is used for initial application start up as well as for restarts.
Old question and all of that. But this is yet another way that offers some advantages.
On Windows, you could ask the task scheduler to start your app again for you. This has the advantage of waiting a specific amount of time before the app is restarted. You can go to task manager and delete the task and it stops repeating.
SimpleDateFormat hhmm = new SimpleDateFormat("kk:mm");
Calendar aCal = Calendar.getInstance();
aCal.add(Calendar.SECOND, 65);
String nextMinute = hhmm.format(aCal.getTime()); //Task Scheduler Doesn't accept seconds and won't do current minute.
String[] create = {"c:\\windows\\system32\\schtasks.exe", "/CREATE", "/F", "/TN", "RestartMyProg", "/SC", "ONCE", "/ST", nextMinute, "/TR", "java -jar c:\\my\\dev\\RestartTest.jar"};
Process proc = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(create, null, null);
System.out.println("Exit Now");
try {Thread.sleep(1000);} catch (Exception e){} // just so you can see it better
System.exit(0);
System.err.println("Someone is Restarting me...");
setVisible(false);
try {
Thread.sleep(600);
} catch (InterruptedException e1) {
e1.printStackTrace();
}
setVisible(true);
I guess you don't really want to stop the application, but to "Restart" it. For that, you could use this and add your "Reset" before the sleep and after the invisible window.

Calling a java program from another

How do i call a Java command from a stand alone java program.
I understand that Runtime.getRuntime().exec("cmd c/ javac <>.java"); would work. However, this would be platform specific.
Any other APIs available that could make it work in j2sdk1.4 ?
If you can run everything in the same JVM, you could do something like this:
public class Launcher {
...
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
launch(Class.forName(args[0]), programArgs(args, 1));
}
protected static void launch(Class program, String[] args) throws Exception {
Method main = program.getMethod("main", new Class[]{String[].class});
main.invoke(null, new Object[]{args});
}
protected static String[] programArgs(String[] sourceArgs, int n) {
String[] destArgs = new String[sourceArgs.length - n];
System.arraycopy(sourceArgs, n, destArgs, 0, destArgs.length);
return destArgs;
}
And run it with a command line like this:
java Launcher OtherClassWithMainMethod %CMD_LINE_ARGS%
Calling Runtime.getRuntime().exec() is not only platform specific, it is extremely inefficient. It will result in spawning a brand new shell and an entire jvm which could potentially be very expensive depending on the dependencies of this application (no pun intended).
The best way to execute "external" Java code would be to place it in your CLASSPATH. If you must call an application's main method you can simply import and call the method directly. This could be done like so:
import my.externals.SomeMain
// call as if we are running from console
SomeMain.main(new String[] {"some", "console", "arguments"})
Of course, the best case scenario would be to simply use this as an external library and access the code you need without having to call SomeMain.main(). Adhering to best practices and writing proper encapsulated modular objects allows for much greater portability and ease of use when being used by other applications.
When you leave the JVM and move to system commands, then you have to deal with the platform specific commands yourself. The JVM offers a good way for abstraction, so why move away?
If you want to execute java specific binaries, check out the ant libraries of java. You can execute ant scripts from java which execute platform depending commands.
Java programming from quercus php on GAE:
import com.newatlanta.commons.vfs.provider.gae.GaeVFS;
import org.apache.commons.io.IOUtils;
import java.lang.Long;
import java.lang.Boolean;
GaeVFS::setRootPath(quercus_servlet_request()->getSession(true)->getServletContext()->getRealPath('/'));
define('VFSM', GaeVFS::getManager());
//VFSM->resolveFile('gae://gaevfs')->createFolder();
$file=VFSM->resolveFile('gae://gaevfs/tmp1');
//$file->createFile();
$text='pp';
$method=$file->getClass()->getDeclaredMethod('updateContentSize', array(Long::TYPE, Boolean::TYPE));
$method->setAccessible(true);
$method->invoke($file, strlen($text), true);
$out=$file->getContent()->getOutputStream();
IOUtils::write($text, $out, 'UTF8');
$out->close();
$in=$file->getContent()->getInputStream();
$method=$file->getClass()->getDeclaredMethod('doGetContentSize',array());
$method->setAccessible(true);
$len=$method->invoke($file);
$whole=IOUtils::toString($in, 'UTF8').':'.$len."<br>";
$in->close();
echo $whole;
GaeVFS::clearFilesCache();
GaeVFS::close();

How can I replace the current Java process, like a unix-style exec?

I have a server written in Java that runs as a Windows service (thanks to Install4J). I want this service to be able to download the latest version of the JAR file it runs from, and start running the new code. The stitch is that I don't want the Windows service to fully exit.
Ideally, I would accomplish this by a unix-style exec() call to stop the current version and run the new one. How can I best accomplish this?
Here is a complicated, but portable, way.
Split your code into two jars. One very small jar is there just to manage process startup. It creates a ClassLoader that holds the other jar on its classpath.
When you want to load a new version, you terminate all threads running code from the old jar. Null out all references to instances of classes from the old jar. Null out all references to the ClassLoader that loaded the old jar. At this point, if you didn't miss anything, the old classes and ClassLoader should be eligible for garbage collection.
Now you start over with a new ClassLoader instance pointing at the new jar, and restart your application code.
As far as I know, there is no way to do this in Java.
I suppose you could work around it by using the Java Runtime.exec or ProcessBuilder's start() command (which start new processes) then letting the current one end... the docs state
The subprocess is not killed when
there are no more references to the
Process object, but rather the
subprocess continues executing
asynchronously.
I'm assuming the same is true if the parent finishes and is garbage collected.
The catch is Runtime.exec's process will no longer have valid in, out, and err streams.
Java Service Wrapper does this and more.
You could use the built in reloading functionality of for example Tomcat, Jetty or JBoss, they can be run as a service, and you don't have to use them as a web container or Java EE container.
Other options are OSGi, and your own class loading functionality.
But be aware of reloading in a production environment. It is not always the best solution.
General approach:
import java.io.BufferedInputStream;
import java.util.Arrays;
public class ProcessSpawner {
public static void main(String[] args) {
//You can change env variables and working directory, and
//have better control over arguments.
//See [ProcessBuilder javadocs][1]
ProcessBuilder builder = new ProcessBuilder("ls", "-l");
try {
Process p = builder.start();
//here we just echo stdout from the process to java's stdout.
//of course, this might not be what you're after.
BufferedInputStream stream =
new BufferedInputStream(p.getInputStream());
byte[] b = new byte[80];
while(stream.available() > 0) {
stream.read(b);
String s = new String(b);
System.out.print(s);
Arrays.fill(b, (byte)0);
}
//exit with the exit code of the spawned process.
System.exit(p.waitFor());
} catch(Exception e) {
System.err.println("Exception: "+e.getMessage());
System.exit(1);
}
}
}

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