Runtime.exec(command)

Question

hi experts,
I am trying to execute a set of commands from java program
eg: from command prompt
java CommandExecutor c:\winnt\notepad.exe c:\some.exe c:\onemorecommand.exe
and inside the CommandExecutor main method..
public static void main(String []arg)
for(i = 0; i < arg.length; i++)
Runtime.getRuntime().exec(arg(i));
the above code is executing all the command one after the other, but I want to execute the above commands squentially, i.e I want to execute the second command only after finishing the first command and the third after finishing the second and so on depending upon the arguments passed, how can I acheive this...
I have tried to use the Process which is returned by the exec(arg) method but the exitValue() returns same value before execution and after execution.
thanks,
krishna

Answer 1

This is the code I use for this very purpose and it works great. Here you go:
* Wrapper for Runtime.exec
* No console output is generated for the command executed.
* Use <code>process.getOutputStream()</code> to write data out that will be used as
* input to the process. Don't forget to include <code>\n</code> <code>\r</code>
* characters the process is expecting.
* Use <code>process.getInputStream</code> to get the data the process squirts out to
* stdout.
* It is recommended to wrap this call into a seperate thread as to not lock up the
* main AWT event processing thread. (generally seperate threads are needed for both
* the STDOUT and STDIN to avoid deadlock)
* @param theCommand fully qualified #.exe or *.com command for windows etc.
* @see   exec, shell, command, cmd, forDOS, forNT
public static Process exec( String theCommand, boolean wait )
     Process process;
     try
          process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec( theCommand );
     catch ( IOException theException )
          return null;
     if ( wait )
          try
               process.waitFor();
          catch ( InterruptedException theInterruptedException )
     return process;
}