how to change the name of a Java application process?

Question

When executing a Java application the process name given to it is usually java.exe or javaw.exe. But how can I make it be called by the name of my application?

Answer 1

These methods are suited for servers with a lot of java processes running, and where you need a quick way of finding the correct jvm (not using jps.) For applications, I suppose launch4j or another wrapper is the way to go.

On unix, If you are launching from a shell sript (at least for bash and possibly for other decent shells) you can use:

exec -a goodname java ...

to launch java and pass "goodname" as the 0th argument, which will be shown as the process name in ps etc.

A perhaps better alternative (that seems to work also for top) is to create a symlink: ln -s /usr/bin/java /usr/local/bin/kallekula.

Shortcuts in windows won't do the trick, but windows vista/7 supports symlinks using mklink. That may work, but I haven't tested. I am not sure if exec -a also works with cygwin bash on Windows.

Answer 2

Check out launch4j, it is an executable wrapper that allows you to assign executable names.

Answer 3

Unless you launch Java via JNI in your own custom built executable, the process name will always be java.exe.

There are several java launchers/wrappers that can generate this executable for you.

• Launch4j, looks to be the most recent and up to date
• JSmooth
• install4J, commercial, more than you need

Answer 4

If you're using the Sun JDK, you can also use the "jps" command line tool to get a detailed list of Java processes running on the box.

Answer 5

This is specific to Windows.
I was facing the same issue where I have to kill the specific java program using taskkill. When I run the java program, tasklist was showing the same program with Image name set as java.exe. But killing it using taskkill /F java.exe will stop all other java applications other than intended one which is not required.

So I run the same java program using:

start "MyProgramName" java java-program..

Here start command will open a new window and run the java program with window's title set to MyProgramName.

Now to kil this java-program use the following taskkill command:

taskkill /fi "MyProgramName"

Your Java program will be killed only. Rest will be unaffected.

Answer 6

Assuming that what you are really after is a way to terminate the correct the correct process later on, then an alternative solution is this:

Run ps -ef | grep java and you should get a listing that looks something like this:

 mruser    7518  7505  4 11:37 pts/3    00:00:00 /usr/bin/java -classpath MRD3030_Linked.jar peralex.MyApp

Then pkill -f peralex.MyApp will kill the correct process.

Answer 7

Not all flavors of exec support the -a flag. If yours doesn't, the argv0 program does something similar.

Answer 8

You can do this with an LD_PRELOAD shim: https://github.com/airlift/procname

The shim simply calls the Linux-specific prctl() when the process starts:

static void __attribute__ ((constructor)) procname_init()
{
   prctl(PR_SET_NAME, "myname");
}

The call has to happen on the main thread, so it isn't possible to do this from Java or even with a JVMTI agent, since those happen on a different thread.