Class ProcessBuilder
Each ProcessBuilder
instance manages a collection
of process attributes. The start()
method creates a new
Process
instance with those attributes. The start()
method can be invoked repeatedly from the same instance
to create new subprocesses with identical or related attributes.
The startPipeline
method can be invoked to create
a pipeline of new processes that send the output of each process
directly to the next process. Each process has the attributes of
its respective ProcessBuilder.
Each process builder manages these process attributes:
- a command, a list of strings which signifies the external program file to be invoked and its arguments, if any. Which string lists represent a valid operating system command is system-dependent. For example, it is common for each conceptual argument to be an element in this list, but there are operating systems where programs are expected to tokenize command line strings themselves - on such a system a Java implementation might require commands to contain exactly two elements.
- an environment, which is a system-dependent mapping from
variables to values. The initial value is a copy of
the environment of the current process (see
System.getenv()
). - a working directory. The default value is the current
working directory of the current process, usually the directory
named by the system property
user.dir
. - a source of standard input.
By default, the subprocess reads input from a pipe. Java code
can access this pipe via the output stream returned by
Process.getOutputStream()
. However, standard input may be redirected to another source usingredirectInput
. In this case,Process.getOutputStream()
will return a null output stream, for which: - a destination for standard output
and standard error. By default, the subprocess writes standard
output and standard error to pipes. Java code can access these pipes
via the input streams returned by
Process.getInputStream()
andProcess.getErrorStream()
. However, standard output and standard error may be redirected to other destinations usingredirectOutput
andredirectError
. In this case,Process.getInputStream()
and/orProcess.getErrorStream()
will return a null input stream, for which: - a redirectErrorStream property. Initially, this property
is
false
, meaning that the standard output and error output of a subprocess are sent to two separate streams, which can be accessed using theProcess.getInputStream()
andProcess.getErrorStream()
methods.If the value is set to
true
, then:- standard error is merged with the standard output and always sent to the same destination (this makes it easier to correlate error messages with the corresponding output)
- the common destination of standard error and standard output can be
redirected using
redirectOutput
- any redirection set by the
redirectError
method is ignored when creating a subprocess - the stream returned from
Process.getErrorStream()
will always be a null input stream
Modifying a process builder's attributes will affect processes
subsequently started by that object's start()
method, but
will never affect previously started processes or the Java process
itself.
Most error checking is performed by the start()
method.
It is possible to modify the state of an object so that start()
will fail. For example, setting the command attribute to
an empty list will not throw an exception unless start()
is invoked.
Note that this class is not synchronized.
If multiple threads access a ProcessBuilder
instance
concurrently, and at least one of the threads modifies one of the
attributes structurally, it must be synchronized externally.
Starting a new process which uses the default working directory and environment is easy:
Process p = new ProcessBuilder("myCommand", "myArg").start();
Here is an example that starts a process with a modified working directory and environment, and redirects standard output and error to be appended to a log file:
ProcessBuilder pb =
new ProcessBuilder("myCommand", "myArg1", "myArg2");
Map<String, String> env = pb.environment();
env.put("VAR1", "myValue");
env.remove("OTHERVAR");
env.put("VAR2", env.get("VAR1") + "suffix");
pb.directory(new File("myDir"));
File log = new File("log");
pb.redirectErrorStream(true);
pb.redirectOutput(Redirect.appendTo(log));
Process p = pb.start();
assert pb.redirectInput() == Redirect.PIPE;
assert pb.redirectOutput().file() == log;
assert p.getInputStream().read() == -1;
To start a process with an explicit set of environment
variables, first call Map.clear()
before adding environment variables.
Unless otherwise noted, passing a null
argument to a constructor
or method in this class will cause a NullPointerException
to be
thrown.
- Since:
- 1.5
-
Nested Class Summary
Modifier and TypeClassDescriptionstatic class
Represents a source of subprocess input or a destination of subprocess output. -
Constructor Summary
ConstructorDescriptionProcessBuilder
(String... command) Constructs a process builder with the specified operating system program and arguments.ProcessBuilder
(List<String> command) Constructs a process builder with the specified operating system program and arguments. -
Method Summary
Modifier and TypeMethodDescriptioncommand()
Returns this process builder's operating system program and arguments.Sets this process builder's operating system program and arguments.Sets this process builder's operating system program and arguments.Returns this process builder's working directory.Sets this process builder's working directory.Returns a string map view of this process builder's environment.Sets the source and destination for subprocess standard I/O to be the same as those of the current Java process.Returns this process builder's standard error destination.redirectError
(File file) Sets this process builder's standard error destination to a file.redirectError
(ProcessBuilder.Redirect destination) Sets this process builder's standard error destination.boolean
Tells whether this process builder merges standard error and standard output.redirectErrorStream
(boolean redirectErrorStream) Sets this process builder'sredirectErrorStream
property.Returns this process builder's standard input source.redirectInput
(File file) Sets this process builder's standard input source to a file.redirectInput
(ProcessBuilder.Redirect source) Sets this process builder's standard input source.Returns this process builder's standard output destination.redirectOutput
(File file) Sets this process builder's standard output destination to a file.redirectOutput
(ProcessBuilder.Redirect destination) Sets this process builder's standard output destination.start()
Starts a new process using the attributes of this process builder.startPipeline
(List<ProcessBuilder> builders) Starts a Process for each ProcessBuilder, creating a pipeline of processes linked by their standard output and standard input streams.
-
Constructor Details
-
ProcessBuilder
Constructs a process builder with the specified operating system program and arguments. This constructor does not make a copy of thecommand
list. Subsequent updates to the list will be reflected in the state of the process builder. It is not checked whethercommand
corresponds to a valid operating system command.- Parameters:
command
- the list containing the program and its arguments
-
ProcessBuilder
Constructs a process builder with the specified operating system program and arguments. This is a convenience constructor that sets the process builder's command to a string list containing the same strings as thecommand
array, in the same order. It is not checked whethercommand
corresponds to a valid operating system command.- Parameters:
command
- a string array containing the program and its arguments
-
-
Method Details
-
command
Sets this process builder's operating system program and arguments. This method does not make a copy of thecommand
list. Subsequent updates to the list will be reflected in the state of the process builder. It is not checked whethercommand
corresponds to a valid operating system command.- Parameters:
command
- the list containing the program and its arguments- Returns:
- this process builder
-
command
Sets this process builder's operating system program and arguments. This is a convenience method that sets the command to a string list containing the same strings as thecommand
array, in the same order. It is not checked whethercommand
corresponds to a valid operating system command.- Parameters:
command
- a string array containing the program and its arguments- Returns:
- this process builder
-
command
-
environment
Returns a string map view of this process builder's environment. Whenever a process builder is created, the environment is initialized to a copy of the current process environment (seeSystem.getenv()
). Subprocesses subsequently started by this object'sstart()
method will use this map as their environment.The returned object may be modified using ordinary
Map
operations. These modifications will be visible to subprocesses started via thestart()
method. TwoProcessBuilder
instances always contain independent process environments, so changes to the returned map will never be reflected in any otherProcessBuilder
instance or the values returned bySystem.getenv
.If the system does not support environment variables, an empty map is returned.
The returned map does not permit null keys or values. Attempting to insert or query the presence of a null key or value will throw a
NullPointerException
. Attempting to query the presence of a key or value which is not of typeString
will throw aClassCastException
.The behavior of the returned map is system-dependent. A system may not allow modifications to environment variables or may forbid certain variable names or values. For this reason, attempts to modify the map may fail with
UnsupportedOperationException
orIllegalArgumentException
if the modification is not permitted by the operating system.Since the external format of environment variable names and values is system-dependent, there may not be a one-to-one mapping between them and Java's Unicode strings. Nevertheless, the map is implemented in such a way that environment variables which are not modified by Java code will have an unmodified native representation in the subprocess.
The returned map and its collection views may not obey the general contract of the
Object.equals(java.lang.Object)
andObject.hashCode()
methods.The returned map is typically case-sensitive on all platforms.
If a security manager exists, its
checkPermission
method is called with aRuntimePermission
("getenv.*")
permission. This may result in aSecurityException
being thrown.When passing information to a Java subprocess, system properties are generally preferred over environment variables.
- Returns:
- this process builder's environment
- Throws:
SecurityException
- if a security manager exists and itscheckPermission
method doesn't allow access to the process environment- See Also:
-
directory
Returns this process builder's working directory. Subprocesses subsequently started by this object'sstart()
method will use this as their working directory. The returned value may benull
-- this means to use the working directory of the current Java process, usually the directory named by the system propertyuser.dir
, as the working directory of the child process.- Returns:
- this process builder's working directory
-
directory
Sets this process builder's working directory. Subprocesses subsequently started by this object'sstart()
method will use this as their working directory. The argument may benull
-- this means to use the working directory of the current Java process, usually the directory named by the system propertyuser.dir
, as the working directory of the child process.- Parameters:
directory
- the new working directory- Returns:
- this process builder
-
redirectInput
Sets this process builder's standard input source. Subprocesses subsequently started by this object'sstart()
method obtain their standard input from this source.If the source is
Redirect.PIPE
(the initial value), then the standard input of a subprocess can be written to using the output stream returned byProcess.getOutputStream()
. If the source is set to any other value, thenProcess.getOutputStream()
will return a null output stream.- Parameters:
source
- the new standard input source- Returns:
- this process builder
- Throws:
IllegalArgumentException
- if the redirect does not correspond to a valid source of data, that is, has typeWRITE
orAPPEND
- Since:
- 1.7
-
redirectOutput
Sets this process builder's standard output destination. Subprocesses subsequently started by this object'sstart()
method send their standard output to this destination.If the destination is
Redirect.PIPE
(the initial value), then the standard output of a subprocess can be read using the input stream returned byProcess.getInputStream()
. If the destination is set to any other value, thenProcess.getInputStream()
will return a null input stream.- Parameters:
destination
- the new standard output destination- Returns:
- this process builder
- Throws:
IllegalArgumentException
- if the redirect does not correspond to a valid destination of data, that is, has typeREAD
- Since:
- 1.7
-
redirectError
Sets this process builder's standard error destination. Subprocesses subsequently started by this object'sstart()
method send their standard error to this destination.If the destination is
Redirect.PIPE
(the initial value), then the error output of a subprocess can be read using the input stream returned byProcess.getErrorStream()
. If the destination is set to any other value, thenProcess.getErrorStream()
will return a null input stream.If the
redirectErrorStream
attribute has been settrue
, then the redirection set by this method has no effect.- Parameters:
destination
- the new standard error destination- Returns:
- this process builder
- Throws:
IllegalArgumentException
- if the redirect does not correspond to a valid destination of data, that is, has typeREAD
- Since:
- 1.7
-
redirectInput
Sets this process builder's standard input source to a file.This is a convenience method. An invocation of the form
redirectInput(file)
behaves in exactly the same way as the invocationredirectInput
(Redirect.from(file))
.- Parameters:
file
- the new standard input source- Returns:
- this process builder
- Since:
- 1.7
-
redirectOutput
Sets this process builder's standard output destination to a file.This is a convenience method. An invocation of the form
redirectOutput(file)
behaves in exactly the same way as the invocationredirectOutput
(Redirect.to(file))
.- Parameters:
file
- the new standard output destination- Returns:
- this process builder
- Since:
- 1.7
-
redirectError
Sets this process builder's standard error destination to a file.This is a convenience method. An invocation of the form
redirectError(file)
behaves in exactly the same way as the invocationredirectError
(Redirect.to(file))
.- Parameters:
file
- the new standard error destination- Returns:
- this process builder
- Since:
- 1.7
-
redirectInput
Returns this process builder's standard input source. Subprocesses subsequently started by this object'sstart()
method obtain their standard input from this source. The initial value isRedirect.PIPE
.- Returns:
- this process builder's standard input source
- Since:
- 1.7
-
redirectOutput
Returns this process builder's standard output destination. Subprocesses subsequently started by this object'sstart()
method redirect their standard output to this destination. The initial value isRedirect.PIPE
.- Returns:
- this process builder's standard output destination
- Since:
- 1.7
-
redirectError
Returns this process builder's standard error destination. Subprocesses subsequently started by this object'sstart()
method redirect their standard error to this destination. The initial value isRedirect.PIPE
.- Returns:
- this process builder's standard error destination
- Since:
- 1.7
-
inheritIO
Sets the source and destination for subprocess standard I/O to be the same as those of the current Java process.This is a convenience method. An invocation of the form
pb.inheritIO()
pb.redirectInput(Redirect.INHERIT) .redirectOutput(Redirect.INHERIT) .redirectError(Redirect.INHERIT)
system()
.- Returns:
- this process builder
- Since:
- 1.7
-
redirectErrorStream
public boolean redirectErrorStream()Tells whether this process builder merges standard error and standard output.If this property is
true
, then any error output generated by subprocesses subsequently started by this object'sstart()
method will be merged with the standard output, so that both can be read using theProcess.getInputStream()
method. This makes it easier to correlate error messages with the corresponding output. The initial value isfalse
.- Returns:
- this process builder's
redirectErrorStream
property
-
redirectErrorStream
Sets this process builder'sredirectErrorStream
property.If this property is
true
, then any error output generated by subprocesses subsequently started by this object'sstart()
method will be merged with the standard output, so that both can be read using theProcess.getInputStream()
method. This makes it easier to correlate error messages with the corresponding output. The initial value isfalse
.- Parameters:
redirectErrorStream
- the new property value- Returns:
- this process builder
-
start
Starts a new process using the attributes of this process builder.The new process will invoke the command and arguments given by
command()
, in a working directory as given bydirectory()
, with a process environment as given byenvironment()
.This method checks that the command is a valid operating system command. Which commands are valid is system-dependent, but at the very least the command must be a non-empty list of non-null strings.
A minimal set of system dependent environment variables may be required to start a process on some operating systems. As a result, the subprocess may inherit additional environment variable settings beyond those in the process builder's
environment()
. The minimal set of system dependent environment variables may override the values provided in the environment.If there is a security manager, its
checkExec
method is called with the first component of this object'scommand
array as its argument. This may result in aSecurityException
being thrown.Starting an operating system process is highly system-dependent. Among the many things that can go wrong are:
- The operating system program file was not found.
- Access to the program file was denied.
- The working directory does not exist.
- Invalid character in command argument, such as NUL.
In such cases an exception will be thrown. The exact nature of the exception is system-dependent, but it will always be a subclass of
IOException
.If the operating system does not support the creation of processes, an
UnsupportedOperationException
will be thrown.Subsequent modifications to this process builder will not affect the returned
Process
.- Implementation Note:
- In the reference implementation, logging of the command, arguments, directory,
stack trace, and process id can be enabled.
The logged information may contain sensitive security information and the potential exposure
of the information should be carefully reviewed.
Logging of the information is enabled when the logging level of the
system logger named
java.lang.ProcessBuilder
isLevel.DEBUG
orLevel.TRACE
. When enabled forLevel.DEBUG
only the process id, directory, command, and stack trace are logged. When enabled forLevel.TRACE
the arguments are included with the process id, directory, command, and stack trace. - Returns:
- a new
Process
object for managing the subprocess - Throws:
NullPointerException
- if an element of the command list is nullIndexOutOfBoundsException
- if the command is an empty list (has size0
)SecurityException
- if a security manager exists and- its
checkExec
method doesn't allow creation of the subprocess, or - the standard input to the subprocess was
redirected from a file
and the security manager's
checkRead
method denies read access to the file, or - the standard output or standard error of the
subprocess was
redirected to a file
and the security manager's
checkWrite
method denies write access to the file
- its
UnsupportedOperationException
- If the operating system does not support the creation of processes.IOException
- if an I/O error occurs- See Also:
-
startPipeline
Starts a Process for each ProcessBuilder, creating a pipeline of processes linked by their standard output and standard input streams. The attributes of each ProcessBuilder are used to start the respective process except that as each process is started, its standard output is directed to the standard input of the next. The redirects for standard input of the first process and standard output of the last process are initialized using the redirect settings of the respective ProcessBuilder. All otherProcessBuilder
redirects should beRedirect.PIPE
.All input and output streams between the intermediate processes are not accessible. The
standard input
of all processes except the first process are null output streams Thestandard output
of all processes except the last process are null input streams.The
redirectErrorStream()
of each ProcessBuilder applies to the respective process. If set totrue
, the error stream is written to the same stream as standard output.If starting any of the processes throws an Exception, all processes are forcibly destroyed.
The
startPipeline
method performs the same checks on each ProcessBuilder as does thestart()
method. Each new process invokes the command and arguments given by the respective process builder'scommand()
, in a working directory as given by itsdirectory()
, with a process environment as given by itsenvironment()
.Each process builder's command is checked to be a valid operating system command. Which commands are valid is system-dependent, but at the very least the command must be a non-empty list of non-null strings.
A minimal set of system dependent environment variables may be required to start a process on some operating systems. As a result, the subprocess may inherit additional environment variable settings beyond those in the process builder's
environment()
. The minimal set of system dependent environment variables may override the values provided in the environment.If there is a security manager, its
checkExec
method is called with the first component of each process builder'scommand
array as its argument. This may result in aSecurityException
being thrown.Starting an operating system process is highly system-dependent. Among the many things that can go wrong are:
- The operating system program file was not found.
- Access to the program file was denied.
- The working directory does not exist.
- Invalid character in command argument, such as NUL.
In such cases an exception will be thrown. The exact nature of the exception is system-dependent, but it will always be a subclass of
IOException
.If the operating system does not support the creation of processes, an
UnsupportedOperationException
will be thrown.Subsequent modifications to any of the specified builders will not affect the returned
Process
.- API Note:
- For example to count the unique imports for all the files in a file hierarchy
on a Unix compatible platform:
String directory = "/home/duke/src"; ProcessBuilder[] builders = { new ProcessBuilder("find", directory, "-type", "f"), new ProcessBuilder("xargs", "grep", "-h", "^import "), new ProcessBuilder("awk", "{print $2;}"), new ProcessBuilder("sort", "-u")}; List<Process> processes = ProcessBuilder.startPipeline( Arrays.asList(builders)); Process last = processes.get(processes.size()-1); try (InputStream is = last.getInputStream(); Reader isr = new InputStreamReader(is); BufferedReader r = new BufferedReader(isr)) { long count = r.lines().count(); }
- Implementation Note:
- In the reference implementation, logging of each process created can be enabled,
see
start()
for details. - Parameters:
builders
- a List of ProcessBuilders- Returns:
- a
List<Process>
es started from the corresponding ProcessBuilder - Throws:
IllegalArgumentException
- any of the redirects except the standard input of the first builder and the standard output of the last builder are notProcessBuilder.Redirect.PIPE
.NullPointerException
- if an element of the command list is null or if an element of the ProcessBuilder list is null or the builders argument is nullIndexOutOfBoundsException
- if the command is an empty list (has size0
)SecurityException
- if a security manager exists and- its
checkExec
method doesn't allow creation of the subprocess, or - the standard input to the subprocess was
redirected from a file
and the security manager's
checkRead
method denies read access to the file, or - the standard output or standard error of the
subprocess was
redirected to a file
and the security manager's
checkWrite
method denies write access to the file
- its
UnsupportedOperationException
- If the operating system does not support the creation of processesIOException
- if an I/O error occurs- Since:
- 9
-