Notes - Java - Do a System Call

Did you ever wonder how to do a System Call (eg. shell or ms-dos[whateverthefucktheycallit]) with Java and get the output (stdout) into a String(s)?

The SHORT version:

import java.lang.*;
import java.io.*;

public class sysCallSimple {

	public static void main(String[] args) {
		
		try {

			BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(
				new InputStreamReader(
					Runtime.getRuntime().
						exec("/bin/ls -a").
							getInputStream()
				)
			);

			while (br.ready()) {
				System.out.println(br.readLine());
			}

		} catch (Exception e) {
			System.out.println("Houston we have uhoh: "+e);
		}

	}

}

The LONG story:

import java.lang.*;
import java.io.*;

public class sysCall {

	public static void main(String[] args) {
	 

	 /* testy
	  * on multiple lines
	  * i am*/
		
		try {

			// You can execute a process and get a Process
			// object back.
			Process myProc =
				Runtime.getRuntime().exec("/bin/ls -a");

			// From the Processs Object you can get an InputStream
			// (InputStream is what you want, not OutputStream,
			// despite the name)
			InputStream is = myProc.getInputStream();

			// Send your InputStream to an InputStreamReader:
			InputStreamReader isr = new InputStreamReader(is);

			// That needs to go to a BufferedReader:
			BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(isr);

			// And now, finally, we can get some strings
			// back:
			while (br.ready()) {
				System.out.println(br.readLine());
			}


			// Other interesting things:
			//
			// the process must be finished before we can
			// determine the exit value:
			myProc.waitFor();
			int myProcExitVal = myProc.exitValue();

			System.out.println("\n\n");
			System.out.println("=== Process Finished ===");
			System.out.println("Exit Value: " + myProcExitVal);


		} catch (IOException e) {

			// I haven't figured out how to trip this yet.
			// Which makes sense. Java doesn't really know
			// if your process failed. That must be determined
			// from the exit value.
			System.out.println("Houston we have uhoh: "+e);
		} catch (InterruptedException e) {
			
			// You need this for that waitFor() diddy.
			System.out.println("Something got interrupted, "+
				"I guess: "+e);
		}

	}

}

There _is_ information to be found about Java system calls on the Internets. But most all of it assumes a background in Java. So it may just tell you to get a Process object. It seems like the Javadocs, most Java Programmers, and people who know _only_ Java don't realize that the programming universe does not revolve around Java.