Difference between ProcessBuilder and Runtime.exec()

user_867030 0
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I'm trying to execute an external command from java code, but there's a difference I've noticed between Runtime.getRuntime().exec(...) and new ProcessBuilder(...).start().

When using Runtime:

Process p = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(installation_path + 
                                       uninstall_path + 
                                       uninstall_command + 
                                       uninstall_arguments);
p.waitFor();

the exitValue is 0 and the command is terminated ok.

However, with ProcessBuilder:

Process p = (new ProcessBuilder(installation_path +    
                                 uninstall_path +
                                 uninstall_command,
                                 uninstall_arguments)).start();
p.waitFor();

the exit value is 1001 and the command terminates in the middle, although waitFor returns.

What should I do to fix the problem with ProcessBuilder?

processbuilder runtime.exec java
4 Answers

There are no difference between ProcessBuilder.start() and Runtime.exec() because implementation of Runtime.exec() is:

public Process exec(String command) throws IOException {
    return exec(command, null, null);
}

public Process exec(String command, String[] envp, File dir)
    throws IOException {
    if (command.length() == 0)
        throw new IllegalArgumentException("Empty command");

    StringTokenizer st = new StringTokenizer(command);
    String[] cmdarray = new String[st.countTokens()];
    for (int i = 0; st.hasMoreTokens(); i++)
        cmdarray[i] = st.nextToken();
    return exec(cmdarray, envp, dir);
}

public Process exec(String[] cmdarray, String[] envp, File dir)
    throws IOException {
    return new ProcessBuilder(cmdarray)
        .environment(envp)
        .directory(dir)
        .start();
}

So code:

List<String> list = new ArrayList<>();
new StringTokenizer(command)
.asIterator()
.forEachRemaining(str -> list.add((String) str));
new ProcessBuilder(String[])list.toArray())
            .environment(envp)
            .directory(dir)
            .start();

should be the same as:

Runtime.exec(command)

Thanks dave_thompson_085 for comment

user_84423660
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