Java - executing command in UNIX environment

Question

When I am trying to run a command in UNIX environment using

Runtime.getRuntime().exec("/bin/ksh -c \"ls -al\"")

That works as if the flags were discarded i.e. as if the command line interpreted this as "the first string until space counts". However, running this

Runtime.getRuntime().exec(new String[]{"/bin/ksh", "-c",  "ls -al"});

works as expected... Why??

Ross Drew · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-10 16:58:42Z

3

Double quoted strings are a shell feature and Runtime.exec() does not invoke a shell to parse the command.

answered Jan 10, 2014 at 16:58

Ross Drew

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2 Comments

Bober02 Over a year ago

Ah.. if I run this command manually from shell, it works fine, but because Runtime is not a shell it does not parse the command the same way?

Ross Drew Over a year ago

exactly, it doesn't deal with the double quoted strings, that's the point of the array argument.

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