Strange behaviour of Runtime.getRuntime().exec(command)

Question

hello guys,
i wrote a program which executes some commands in commandline (actually tried multiple stuff.)
what did i try?
open "cmd.exe" manually (administrator)
type "echo %PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE%" and hit enter, which returns me
"AMD64"
type "java -version" and hit enter, which returns me:
"java version "1.6.0_10-beta"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_10-beta-b25)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 11.0-b12, mixed mode)"
type "reg query "HKLM\SOFTWARE\7-zip"" returns me:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\7-zip
Path REG_SZ C:\Program Files\7-Zip\
i wrote two functions to execute an command
1) simply calls exec and reads errin and stdout from the process started:
public static String execute(String command) {
          String result = "";
          try {
               // Execute a command
               Process child = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(command);
               // Read from an input stream
               InputStream in = child.getInputStream();
               int c;
               while ((c = in.read()) != -1) {
                    result += ((char) c);
               in.close();
               in = child.getErrorStream();
               while ((c = in.read()) != -1) {
                    result += ((char) c);
               in.close();
          } catch (IOException e) {
          return result;
     }the second function allows me to send multiple commands to the cmd
public static String exec(String[] commands) {
          String line;
          String result = "";
          OutputStream stdin = null;
          InputStream stderr = null;
          InputStream stdout = null;
          // launch EXE and grab stdin/stdout and stderr
          try {
               Process process;
               process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("cmd.exe");
               stdin = process.getOutputStream();
               stderr = process.getErrorStream();
               stdout = process.getInputStream();
               // "write" the parms into stdin
               for (int i = 0; i < commands.length; i++) {
                    line = commands[i] + "\n";
                    stdin.write(line.getBytes());
                    stdin.flush();
               stdin.close();
               // clean up if any output in stdout
               BufferedReader brCleanUp = new BufferedReader(
                         new InputStreamReader(stdout));
               while ((line = brCleanUp.readLine()) != null) {
                    result += line + "\n";
               brCleanUp.close();
               // clean up if any output in stderr
               brCleanUp = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(stderr));
               while ((line = brCleanUp.readLine()) != null) {
                    result += "ERR: " + line + "\n";
               brCleanUp.close();
          } catch (IOException e) {
               // TODO Auto-generated catch block
               e.printStackTrace();
          return result;
     }so i try to execute the commands from above (yes, i am using \\ and \" in java)
(1) "echo %PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE%"
(2) "java -version"
(3) "reg query "HKLM\SOFTWARE\7-zip""
the first function returns me (note that ALL results are different from the stuff above!):
(1) "" <-- empty ?!
(2) java version "1.6.0_11"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_11-b03)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 11.0-b16, mixed mode, sharing)
(3) ERROR: The system was unable to find the specified registry key or value.
the second function returns me:
(1) x86 <-- huh? i have AMD64
(2) java version "1.6.0_11"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_11-b03)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 11.0-b16, mixed mode, sharing)
(3) ERROR: The system was unable to find the specified registry key or value.
horray! in this version the java version is correct! processor architecture is not empty but totally incorrect and the reg query is still err.
any help is wellcome
note: i only put stuff here, which returns me strange behaviour, most things are working correct with my functions (using the Runtime.getRuntime().exec(command); code)
note2: "reg query "HKLM\HARDWARE\DESCRIPTION\System\CentralProcessor\0" /t REG_SZ" IS working, so why are "some" queries result in ERR, while they are working if typed by hand in cmd.exe?

Answer 1

ok, i exported a jar file and execute it from cmd:
java -jar myjar.jar
now the output is:
(1) "" if called by version 1, possible to retrieve by version 2 (no clue why!)
(2) "java version "1.6.0_10-beta"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_10-beta-b25)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 11.0-b12, mixed mode)"
(3) C:\Program Files\7-Zip\
so all three problems are gone! (but its a hard way, as i need both functions and parse a lot of text... :/ )
thanks for the tip, that eclipse changes variables (i really did not knew this one...)