Execute external process from within JVM using Apache Commons Exec library

Executing external command from within JVM often causes problems- be it in terms of the code to write and manage or in the ease of implementation. I had similar requirement in my Major project for my Under Graduate Degree, where in I had to launch a C program from the Java code. I ran into different issues like- the Main thread getting blocked, the GUI freezing, or reading the output streams and so on. Finally I had to give up the idea and stick with launching the external command externally 😛 Had I found the Exec library from Apache Commons then, my work would have been lot easier. Anyways better late then never. I will quickly go through how one can use  Exec library to launch external programs from JVM- Its a wrapper over Java’s ProcessBuilder, Runtime.getRuntime().exe().

Read more