Is Runtime.exec() the only way?

Question

i'm trying to run some shell commands from a java program, which would normally take a minute to complete running on a 1.2 GHz processor and using 98% of the processor time. when i make a Runtime.getRuntime.exec() and add a waitFor() call for these processes, the computer doesn't even give the process a 1% share of the processor. So, having the java program waitFor() the process stalls the (java) program, while not including the waitFor() call would make the java program call way too many instances of the shell process. I don't want to use a .wait(time) call because i want to make my code as tight as i can and that still runs the risk of overlapping processes.
So, my question is, how do i call an outside program, give it the resources it needs, and wait until the process finishes to move on to the next step in my java program?
here's the code i'm using, if that helps at all ("params" is a string with a shell command - this is the code that makes the java program hang):
while(?)
     Process proc = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(params);
     proc.waitFor();
}(while this would be the code to make the java program call too many instances of the process):
while(?)
     Runtime.getRuntime().exec(params);
}

Answer 1

Ahh, a good ol' case of RTFM by me - my bad!
thanks for directing me to that article; i think all works now =)
     Process proc = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(params);
     StreamGobbler errorGobbler = new StreamGobbler(proc.getErrorStream(), "ERROR");
     StreamGobbler outputGobbler = new StreamGobbler(proc.getInputStream(), "OUTPUT");
     errorGobbler.start();
     outputGobbler.start();
     int exitVal = proc.waitFor();where StreamGobbler is a class that guy in the article made.
i hope i'm allowed to do this - the article is here: http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-12-2000/jw-1229-traps.html