java-start-process

Important This project has moved to javadelight/delight-java-start-process Important

Wrapper to make work with Runtime.getRuntime() easier and less error-prone.

Why

Starting another program from within a Java application is easy to do. Just provide the path to the application to the method Runtime.exec() and the JVM will launch the specified application. However, as with so many supposedly simple tasks in software development, the devil lies in the detail. It is all too easy to introduce bugs around a call to Runtime.exec(), especially when one wants to pass parameters or read the output of the launched application.

This library is designed to make the task of starting applications from Java programs easier.

Usage

1. Link the project as Maven dependency or as JAR to your project (or just download and copy&paste the packages).
2. Start external process in your Java application.

Starting a process synchronously

Spawn.runCommand(new String[] { "/bin/bash", "-c",
                "vmstat -s -S M | egrep -ie 'memory|swap' | grep 'free memory'" },
                        null);

Starting a process asynchronously

final String cmd = "C:\\Windows\\System32\\NETSTAT.exe -ab";
final File folder = new File("C:\\Windows\\System32\\");

Spawn.startProcess(cmd, folder, new ProcessListener() {

	@Override
	public void onOutputLine(final String line) {
		System.out.println(line);
	}

	@Override
	public void onOutputClosed() {
		System.out.println("process completed");
	}

	@Override
	public void onErrorLine(final String line) {

	}

	@Override
	public void onError(final Throwable t) {
		throw new RuntimeException(t);
	}
});

Thread.sleep(600);

Maven Dependency

Artifact

<groupId>de.mxro.process</groupId>
<artifactId>java-start-process</artifactId>
<version>[0.0.1,)</version>

Repository

<repositories>
    <repository>
        <id>onedb Releases</id>
        <url>http://dl.dropbox.com/u/957046/onedb/mvn-releases</url>
    </repository>
</repositories>

Resources

When Runtime.exec() won't

Executing a Command Line Executable From Java

Five Common java.lang.Process Pitfalls

Apache Commons Exec

SO: Java Process with Input/Output Stream

SO: Starting a process in Java?