Runtime.exec() - using cp and files with spaces on unix

Question

I'm using the Runtime.exec method to copy files in a unix environment. This works fine until there is a file where the name has spaces in it. I've read the article on the pitfalls of using runtime and how it breaks a string on white spaces and this is what is happening. I've also found another topic that was having the same problem, but they were using /usr/bin/dos2unix. I've tried putting quotes around the filename, but it still breaks on the first space. Any suggestions on how to get around this or another way of doing this would be greatly appreciated.
An example of the os command string is:
/usr/bin/cp /tmp/file with space.doc /docs
Thanks!

Answer 1

Hi!
Well I dont have any Sun machine right here to try this but in windows It works great.
Have you tried something like this ?
import java.io.*;
public class OSCopy {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        try {
            String space = " ";
            String copycmd = "E:\\cp.cmd";
            String source = "E:\\File with space.txt";
            String destination = "E:\\tmp";
            String cmd = copycmd + space + "\"" + source + "\"" + space + destination;
            System.out.println("cmd: " + cmd);
            Runtime runtime = Runtime.getRuntime();
            Process copy = runtime.exec( cmd );
            BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader( new InputStreamReader( copy.getInputStream()) );
            String line = null;
            while( (line = reader.readLine()) != null ) {
                System.out.println( line );
        catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
cp.cmd is a simple dos copy command
copy %1 %2
*/good luck!