Unable to run Shell Script

Question

Hi i am trying to run shell script from following code

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
 public class ScriptTest {
 public static void main(String[] args){
 BufferedReader stdErr=null;
 BufferedReader stdIn=null;
 try{ 
 System.out.println("In Script");
 String[] commands= {"ls"};
 Process process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("/mobilityapps/testScript/testScript.sh");
 stdIn= new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(process.getInputStream())); 
 stdErr = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(process.getErrorStream()));
 String inline= stdIn.readLine();
 String errline =stdErr.readLine();
 System.out.println("*Inline*"+inline);
 System.out.println("*Errline*"+errline);
 while(inline!=null){
 System.out.println(inline);
 inline=stdIn.readLine();
 }
 while(errline!=null){
 System.out.println(errline);
 errline=stdErr.readLine();
 }
 System.out.println("Process Exit Value: "+process.waitFor());
 }catch(Exception excp){
 excp.printStackTrace();
 }
}

}

The script i am trying to call is

CURRDATE=`date '+%d%b%Y'`
TIMESTAMP=`date '+%H:%M'`
BASE_PATH=/mobilityapps/testScript
LOGFILE=${BASE_PATH}/logs_${CURRDATE}_${TIMESTAMP}.log
echo ${CURRDATE} ${TIMESTAMP}>>${LOGFILE}

All both the script and Java program are in the same directory. When i run testScript.sh from PUTTY it runs fine

But when i run from Java program Process Exit Value is 255

Can anyone suggest the changes?

• Andrew Thompson: Runtime..exec Have you considered updating to ProcessBuilder? Need to support 1.4 or before?
• Sohail Khan: i am working with java6
• Sohail Khan: Hi, should i upgrade to ProcessBuilder
• Andrew Thompson: The thing is. Most use of Runtime.exec is by rank amateurs who fail to consume the streams, and hand it multiple arguments in a single String. ProcessBuilder encourages multiple arguments & makes it easier to consume the streams (by offering to merge them). OTOH In your example both output streams are consumed, and there is just 1 argument. ..It is borderline whether it is worth it! Though I just have a vague feeling you are better off using the latter API simply because Oracle would care if they got a bug report about it. ;)
• Sohail Khan: thnx but for your reply but i am unable to comprehend much. Can you please ellaborate as i am new to Java

Answer 1

Try replacing the path

 Runtime.getRuntime().exec("/mobilityapps/testScript/testScript.sh");

with

 Runtime.getRuntime().exec("./mobilityapps/testScript/testScript.sh");

If you just use / at the begining, it means that it's a absolute path. Using '.' indicates that is a relative path.

• Sohail Khan: my file is /mobilityapps/testScript/testScript.sh absolute path whereas i am executing it from /opt/java6/jre/bin
• Bill: do you get any values for your system outs? They may have useful information for debugging.
• Bill: also do you have +x bit (aka execute bit) set for the shell script?