java shell for executing/coordinating processes?

Question

I know about using Runtime.exec, you pass it a native program to run + arguments. If it\'s a regular program, you can run it directly. If it\'s a shell script, you have to r

Answer 1

You've always been able to handle streams with Runtime.exec

e.g.

String cmd = "ls -al";
    Runtime run = Runtime.getRuntime();
    Process pr = run.exec(cmd);
    pr.waitFor();
    BufferedReader buf = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(pr.getInputStream()));
    String line = "";
    while ((line=buf.readLine())!=null) {
        System.out.println(line);
    }

However, if you want to put shell characters such as pipe and redirect in there you'd have to write your own command line parser which links up the streams. As far as I know there hasn't one been written. That being said, could you just invoke bash from Java with a -c "ls | sort" for example and then read the input. Hmm time to do some testing.