Overview | Package | Class | Use | Tree | Deprecated | Index | Help
| Java™ Platform Standard Ed. 6
PREV CLASS NEXT CLASS | FRAMES NO FRAMES
SUMMARY: NESTED | FIELD | CONSTR | METHOD | DETAIL: FIELD | CONSTR | METHOD

## java.lang
Class ProcessBuilder

    java.lang.Object
      java.lang.ProcessBuilder

    public final class ProcessBuilder

extends Object

This class is used to create operating system processes.

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.

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 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 the `Process.getInputStream()` and `Process.getErrorStream()` methods. If the value is set to `true`, the standard error is merged with the standard output. This makes it easier to correlate error messages with the corresponding output. In this case, the merged data can be read from the stream returned by `Process.getInputStream()`, while reading from the stream returned by `Process.getErrorStream()` will get an immediate end of file.

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:

>      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"));
>      Process p = pb.start();

To start a process with an explicit set of environment variables, first call `Map.clear()` before adding environment variables.

Since:
  1.5

Constructor Summary
`ProcessBuilder(List<String> command)` Constructs a process builder with the specified operating system program and arguments.
`ProcessBuilder(String... command)` Constructs a process builder with the specified operating system program and arguments.

Method Summary
`List<String>` | `command()` Returns this process builder's operating system program and arguments.
`ProcessBuilder` | `command(List<String> command)` Sets this process builder's operating system program and arguments.
`ProcessBuilder` | `command(String... command)` Sets this process builder's operating system program and arguments.
`File` | `directory()` Returns this process builder's working directory.
`ProcessBuilder` | `directory(File directory)` Sets this process builder's working directory.
`Map<String,String>` | `environment()` Returns a string map view of this process builder's environment.
`boolean` | `redirectErrorStream()` Tells whether this process builder merges standard error and standard output.
`ProcessBuilder` | `redirectErrorStream(boolean redirectErrorStream)` Sets this process builder's `redirectErrorStream` property.
`Process` | `start()` Starts a new process using the attributes of this process builder.

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object
`clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait`

Constructor Detail

### ProcessBuilder

    public ProcessBuilder(List<String> command)

  Constructs a process builder with the specified operating system program and arguments. This constructor does not make a copy of the `command` list. Subsequent updates to the list will be reflected in the state of the process builder. It is not checked whether `command` corresponds to a valid operating system command.

  Parameters:
    `command` - The list containing the program and its arguments
  Throws:
    `NullPointerException` - If the argument is `null`

### ProcessBuilder

    public ProcessBuilder(String... command)

  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 the `command` array, in the same order. It is not checked whether `command` corresponds to a valid operating system command.

  Parameters:
    `command` - A string array containing the program and its arguments

Method Detail

### command

    public ProcessBuilder command(List<String> command)

  Sets this process builder's operating system program and arguments. This method does not make a copy of the `command` list. Subsequent updates to the list will be reflected in the state of the process builder. It is not checked whether `command` corresponds to a valid operating system command.

  Parameters:
    `command` - The list containing the program and its arguments
  Returns:
    This process builder
  Throws:
    `NullPointerException` - If the argument is `null`

### command

    public ProcessBuilder command(String... 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 the `command` array, in the same order. It is not checked whether `command` corresponds to a valid operating system command.

  Parameters:
    `command` - A string array containing the program and its arguments
  Returns:
    This process builder

### command

    public List<String> command()

  Returns this process builder's operating system program and arguments. The returned list is not a copy. Subsequent updates to the list will be reflected in the state of this process builder.

  Returns:
    This process builder's program and its arguments

### environment

    public Map<String,String> 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 (see `System.getenv()`). Subprocesses subsequently started by this object's `start()` 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 the `start()` method. Two `ProcessBuilder` instances always contain independent process environments, so changes to the returned map will never be reflected in any other `ProcessBuilder` instance or the values returned by `System.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 type `String` will throw a `ClassCastException`.

  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` or `IllegalArgumentException` 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)` and `Object.hashCode()` methods.

  The returned map is typically case-sensitive on all platforms.

  If a security manager exists, its `checkPermission` method is called with a ``RuntimePermission`("getenv.*")` permission. This may result in a `SecurityException` 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 its `checkPermission` method doesn't allow access to the process environment
  See Also:
    `Runtime.exec(String[],String[],java.io.File)`, `System.getenv()`

### directory

    public File directory()

  Returns this process builder's working directory. Subprocesses subsequently started by this object's `start()` method will use this as their working directory. The returned value may be `null` -- this means to use the working directory of the current Java process, usually the directory named by the system property `user.dir`, as the working directory of the child process.

  Returns:
    This process builder's working directory

### directory

    public ProcessBuilder directory(File directory)

  Sets this process builder's working directory. Subprocesses subsequently started by this object's `start()` method will use this as their working directory. The argument may be `null` -- this means to use the working directory of the current Java process, usually the directory named by the system property `user.dir`, as the working directory of the child process.

  Parameters:
    `directory` - The new working directory
  Returns:
    This process builder

### 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's `start()` method will be merged with the standard output, so that both can be read using the `Process.getInputStream()` method. This makes it easier to correlate error messages with the corresponding output. The initial value is `false`.

  Returns:
    This process builder's `redirectErrorStream` property

### redirectErrorStream

    public ProcessBuilder redirectErrorStream(boolean redirectErrorStream)

  Sets this process builder's `redirectErrorStream` property.

  If this property is `true`, then any error output generated by subprocesses subsequently started by this object's `start()` method will be merged with the standard output, so that both can be read using the `Process.getInputStream()` method. This makes it easier to correlate error messages with the corresponding output. The initial value is `false`.

  Parameters:
    `redirectErrorStream` - The new property value
  Returns:
    This process builder

### start

    public Process start()
                  throws IOException

  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 by `directory()`, with a process environment as given by `environment()`.

  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.

  If there is a security manager, its `checkExec` method is called with the first component of this object's `command` array as its argument. This may result in a `SecurityException` 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.

  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`.

  Subsequent modifications to this process builder will not affect the returned `Process`.

  Returns:
    A new `Process` object for managing the subprocess
  Throws:
    `NullPointerException` - If an element of the command list is null
    `IndexOutOfBoundsException` - If the command is an empty list (has size `0`)
    `SecurityException` - If a security manager exists and its `checkExec` method doesn't allow creation of the subprocess
    `IOException` - If an I/O error occurs
  See Also:
    `Runtime.exec(String[], String[], java.io.File)`, `SecurityManager.checkExec(String)`

Overview | Package | Class | Use | Tree | Deprecated | Index | Help
| Java™ Platform Standard Ed. 6
PREV CLASS NEXT CLASS | FRAMES NO FRAMES
SUMMARY: NESTED | FIELD | CONSTR | METHOD | DETAIL: FIELD | CONSTR | METHOD

Submit a bug or feature
For further API reference and developer documentation, see Java SE Developer Documentation. That documentation contains more detailed, developer-targeted descriptions, with conceptual overviews, definitions of terms, workarounds, and working code examples.

Copyright © 1993, 2011, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.