I am trying to execute some Linux commands from Java using redirection (>&) and pipes (|). How can Java invoke csh
or bash
commands?
I tried to use this:
Process p = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(\"shell command\");
But it\'s not compatible with redirections or pipes.
exec does not execute a command in your shell
try
Process p = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(new String[]{\"csh\",\"-c\",\"cat /home/narek/pk.txt\"});
instead.
EDIT::
I don\'t have csh on my system so I used bash instead. The following worked for me
Process p = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(new String[]{\"bash\",\"-c\",\"ls /home/XXX\"});
Use ProcessBuilder to separate commands and arguments instead of spaces. This should work regardless of shell used:
import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
public class Test {
public static void main(final String[] args) throws IOException, InterruptedException {
//Build command
List<String> commands = new ArrayList<String>();
commands.add(\"/bin/cat\");
//Add arguments
commands.add(\"/home/narek/pk.txt\");
System.out.println(commands);
//Run macro on target
ProcessBuilder pb = new ProcessBuilder(commands);
pb.directory(new File(\"/home/narek\"));
pb.redirectErrorStream(true);
Process process = pb.start();
//Read output
StringBuilder out = new StringBuilder();
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(process.getInputStream()));
String line = null, previous = null;
while ((line = br.readLine()) != null)
if (!line.equals(previous)) {
previous = line;
out.append(line).append(\'\\n\');
System.out.println(line);
}
//Check result
if (process.waitFor() == 0) {
System.out.println(\"Success!\");
System.exit(0);
}
//Abnormal termination: Log command parameters and output and throw ExecutionException
System.err.println(commands);
System.err.println(out.toString());
System.exit(1);
}
}
Building on @Tim\'s example to make a self-contained method:
import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.util.ArrayList;
public class Shell {
/** Returns null if it failed for some reason.
*/
public static ArrayList<String> command(final String cmdline,
final String directory) {
try {
Process process =
new ProcessBuilder(new String[] {\"bash\", \"-c\", cmdline})
.redirectErrorStream(true)
.directory(new File(directory))
.start();
ArrayList<String> output = new ArrayList<String>();
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(
new InputStreamReader(process.getInputStream()));
String line = null;
while ( (line = br.readLine()) != null )
output.add(line);
//There should really be a timeout here.
if (0 != process.waitFor())
return null;
return output;
} catch (Exception e) {
//Warning: doing this is no good in high quality applications.
//Instead, present appropriate error messages to the user.
//But it\'s perfectly fine for prototyping.
return null;
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
test(\"which bash\");
test(\"find . -type f -printf \'%T@\\\\\\\\t%p\\\\\\\\n\' \"
+ \"| sort -n | cut -f 2- | \"
+ \"sed -e \'s/ /\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ /g\' | xargs ls -halt\");
}
static void test(String cmdline) {
ArrayList<String> output = command(cmdline, \".\");
if (null == output)
System.out.println(\"\\n\\n\\t\\tCOMMAND FAILED: \" + cmdline);
else
for (String line : output)
System.out.println(line);
}
}
(The test example is a command that lists all files in a directory and its subdirectories, recursively, in chronological order.)
By the way, if somebody can tell me why I need four and eight backslashes there, instead of two and four, I can learn something. There is one more level of unescaping happening than what I am counting.
Edit: Just tried this same code on Linux, and there it turns out that I need half as many backslashes in the test command! (That is: the expected number of two and four.) Now it\'s no longer just weird, it\'s a portability problem.