External commands in runtime exec

Im trying to run commands from the Sleuthkit in a java GUI. These commands have no problem running from the konsole as all the paths etc. have been set up, but when I try to run them with the java runtime exec() they wont work. Similarly,i run standard linux commands in this gui aswell and they run without problem.
Any ideas whats weong?
Thanks.

You didn't tell us exactly what you're doing.Its a forensic GUI that runs konsole based commands
and displays the ouput in a JText areaThat tells us nothing useful. By "exactly what you're doing," I mean the Java code and the command it's exec()ing.
>
You didn't tell us what "doesn't work" means.The 'basic' linux commands work fine in the gui, its
just the sleuthkit ones that wont run or return
anything when executed using the runtime exec(). Even
though running these commands in a konsole works
fine. THis means all paths have been set.
Any ideas on a different way to run them or should I
include more than just the command used on the
konsole?That still doesn't tell us what "doesn't work" means.
My previous response still applies.

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-> that calling batches is done by starting the interpreter and the batch as parameter (cmd.exe, /bin/sh,..)
-> that the created process doesn't have an os environment
-> ...
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I realize that's a pat answer, but it's true. Spawing off another program without being able to predict its behavior is dangerous.
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Starting of external processes with Runtime.exec() properly

hi people,
you find a lot about starting external processes with the Runtime class in every forum.
-> that the stdout of the started processes has to be redirected and read
due to os buffer problems
-> that calling batches is done by starting the interpreter and the batch as parameter (cmd.exe, /bin/sh,..)
-> that the created process doesn't have an os environment
-> ...
but what if you don't know anything about the started process.
what if you only want only to start an external process. if you don't want to wait til waitfor() returns and if you don't read the streams of the created processes, the os stdout buffer will overflow immediately an the started process will be blocked.
you can read the stdout of the started process, but what if the process does print nothing to stdout, and your bufferreader.readLine() will block ?
you can do this (read buffer, waitFor()) in an separate thread, but the thread lives til the started process will finish, so maybe you got dozens of senseless thread ?
So, what is an effective and good way to start external programs/processes if you don't know about them.
so i would be grateful for an answer
regards
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http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jspa?threadID=659862&tstart=0
The first four might pass as accidents, but this one is simply idiocy, spamming and general bad manners.

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Hi,
Infact the command passed to the exec() is in the form of a batch file, which contains on of these commands. I can not put all commands in one batch file due to inherent nature of the program.
But my main concern was that, why would it behave like this. If I run the same command for 30 times 1~3 times the same command can not be executed (returns with error code 1, on wiun2k pro) and rest times it works perfectly fine.
Do you see any abnormality in the code.
I ahve used the same sequence of code as in the article suggested by
"masijade". i.e having threads to monitor the process and other threads to read and empty out the input and error streams so that the buffer does not get full.
But I see here the problem is not of process getting hanged, I sense this because my waitFor() returns with error code as 1, had the process hanged it would not have returned , am I making sense?
Regards,
~jaideep

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