Executing UNIX Shell Scripts From a Java Application

 To execute a UNIX shell script, first the shell needs to be executed. This can be done using an object of java runtime class.

 
rtime = Runtime.getRuntime();
Process child = rtime.exec(“/bin/bash”);

Writing the name of the shell script on the shell's stdin stream will execute the script, provided it is in the search path. The code example given below executes a shell script named MyShellScript:

 
BufferedWriter outCommand = new BufferedWriter(new
OutputStreamWriter(child.getOutputStream()));
outCommand.writeLine(“MyShellScript”);
outCommand.flush();

To get the return code from the shell script call:

 
Process.exitValue() function.

In this case:

 
int retCode = child.exitValue();

One thing to note is that, the script executes concurrently in a separate process and not a thread within JVM.

To wait for the process to finish, call Process.waitFor(). In this case:

 
child.waitFor();