Launching another prog from java prog

Question

Hi!
I'm striving to format floppy disk from a java prog.
format, like many other commands/applications, sends some messages back to the terminal and waits for user input. I need to handle communication with such programs.
So far it doesn't go smooth - please look at the code below, there must be number of bugs:private static void execute(String command) // command="cmd.exe /c format A:"; (Win2k)
     try {
     String outp_line;
        Process process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(command);
     // put process input in BufferedReader
     BufferedReader normalBR =
          new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(process.getInputStream()));
     // "format A:" on win2k sends to console 2 lines:
     // 1. Insert disk in drive A:
     // 2. and press ENTER
     // but I see only one(first) line. Why?
     while ((outp_line = normalBR.readLine()) != null)
                    System.out.println(outp_line);
     // assign an output stream to the process
     BufferedOutputStream bos = new BufferedOutputStream(process.getOutputStream());
     // assign input from user to BufferedInputStream
     byte[] bytes = new byte[12];
     BufferedInputStream bis = new BufferedInputStream(System.in, 12);
     // read user's input
     bis.read(bytes);
     // write user's input to the process
     bos.write(bytes);
     }catch(IOException ioex){ioex.printStackTrace();}

Answer 1

Don't know about the first thing, but I saw this in the API:
"The Runtime.exec methods may not work well for special processes on certain native platforms, such as native windowing processes, daemon processes, Win16/DOS processes on Microsoft Windows, or shell scripts. The created subprocess does not have its own terminal or console. All its standard io (i.e. stdin, stdout, stderr) operations will be redirected to the parent process through three streams (Process.getOutputStream(), Process.getInputStream(), Process.getErrorStream()). The parent process uses these streams to feed input to and get output from the subprocess. Because some native platforms only provide limited buffer size for standard input and output streams, failure to promptly write the input stream or read the output stream of the subprocess may cause the subprocess to block, and even deadlock."
I'd suggest googling for a workaround.
Re: the second item, I think another thread makes sense. Perhaps a thread that reads all the error output and stores it in a buffer, which could then be queried.