Java System Calls

1. The class java.lang.Runtime class features a static method called getRuntime( ) which retrieves the current Java Runtime Environment. That is the only way to obtain a reference to the Runtime object. With that reference, you can run external commands by invoking the Runtime classs exec( ) method.
Runtime rt = Runtime.getRuntime(); Process p = rt.exec( external command);

2. Overloaded exec( ) methods

public public public public Process Process Process Process exec(String command) exec(String[ ] cmdArray) exec(String command, String[ ] envp) exec(String[] cmdArray, String[ ] envp)

3. The exec( ) method creates an operating system specific process (a running program) with a reference to a Process class returned to the Java VM. The Process class is an abstract class, because a specific subclass of Process exists for each operating system. 4. exitValue( ) method of the Process class returns the exit value for the subprocess. It will thrown an IllegalThreadStateException if the external process has not yet completed. You can use the waitFor( ) method that causes the current thread to wait until the process represented by this Process object has terminated.
int exitVal = p.exitValue( ); int exitVal = p.waitFor();

5. To handle output text from an external program, we make use of IO streams, assuming that the external command is an executable program.
InputStream stderr = p.getErrorStream(); InputStreamReader isr = new InputStreamReader(stderr); BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(isr); InputStream stdin = p.getInputStream(); InputStreamReader reader = new InputStreamReader(stdin); BufferedReader b = new BufferedReader(reader);

6. For an non-executable program (especially in Windows), execute either command.com or cmd.exe depending on the Windows operating system you use.
String cmd[] = new String[3]; cmd[0] = command.com; cmd[1] = /C; cmd[2] = dir *.java; p = rt.exec(cmd);

MyExecutioner.java 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 import java.io.*; import java.util.*; public class MyExecutioner { public static void main(String[] args){ try { Runtime rt = Runtime.getRuntime(); String[] cmd = new String[3]; cmd[0] = "cmd"; cmd[2] = args[0]; cmd[1] = "/C"; Process p = rt.exec(cmd); //Error detection here BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(p.getErrorStream())); String line = ""; while( (line = br.readLine()) != null ){ System.out.println("ERROR: " + line); } //get output from the subprocess BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(p.getInputStream())); while((line = in.readLine()) != null){ System.out.println("OUTPUT: " + line); } int exitVal = p.waitFor(); System.out.println("Is there an error? " + exitVal); } catch(Throwable t){ t.printStackTrace(); } }

10/30/2012

} /* getErrorStream() - returns the input stream connected to the error output of the subprocess getInputStream() - returns the input stream connected to the normal of the subprocess getOutputStream() - returns the output stream connected to the normal input of the subprocess */