Running exe file with arguments from java program and sending output to text file

Question

I want to run a exe file that accepts a mp3 file as an argument and redirects the output to a text file.

I am using the below command from command prompt and its running fine and making a log.txt file in my binary folder however I am unable to do so by java.

    C:\Users\Desktop\binary>codegen.exe kalimba.mp3 > log.txt

I have tried the ProcessBuilder class however cannot see the log.txt made in the binary folder

 File f = new File("C:/Users/Desktop/binary");
ProcessBuilder pb = new ProcessBuilder("cmd", "/c","start","codegen.exe", "kalimba.mp3", "log.txt");
pb.directory(f);

Any idea what I might be doing wrong?

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13991007/execute-external-program-in-java — Christophe Roussy, Feb 14 '14 at 14:57

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 14 '14 at 14:59

2

You should use ProcessBuilder itself to redirect the output to a file. Specifically, the redirectOutput(File) method:

final File outFile = new File(...);
pb.redirectOutput(outFile);

The redirection using > (in cmd as well as with Unix shells) is handled by the command interpreter/shell.

answered Feb 14 '14 at 14:59

fge

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Actually I have to run it in JDK version 6 and that doesnt have the redirectOutputMethod as its newly added. – Wanderer Feb 15 '14 at 08:35
You should have mentioned that in the question ;) – fge Feb 15 '14 at 09:40
Yea forgot. Thank you all for helping :) – Wanderer Feb 15 '14 at 12:10

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:25

I would suggest using Apache's Commons Exec as an alternative. It's very intuitive and easy to work with, plus it's friendly with different platforms.

Take a look a the Tutorial and see if it suits your needs. If so, take a look at this Question about how to capture the output stream of the resulting Process from the command.

If using ProcessBuilder is a requirement, take a look at the example on ProcessBuilder's Documentation Page. It shows exactly what you want.

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 15 '14 at 08:37

I finally managed to get it done :)

  ProcessBuilder pb = new ProcessBuilder("C:/Users/Desktop/binary/codegen.exe", "C:/Users/Desktop/binary/Kalimba.mp3");

Process process = pb.start();
BufferedReader stdInput = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(process .getInputStream())); 
FileHandler fh = new FileHandler("D:/log.txt");
Logger logger = Logger.getLogger("global");
logger.addHandler(fh);
SimpleFormatter formatter = new SimpleFormatter();
fh.setFormatter(formatter);
String line = null;
while ((line = stdInput.readLine()) != null) {
    logger.log(Level.INFO, line);
}
System.out.println("Logging Completed...");

Running exe file with arguments from java program and sending output to text file

3 Answers3