Package: libcommons-exec-java (1.3-1)

Java library to reliably execute external processes from within the JVM

Executing external processes from Java is a well-known problem area. It is inherently platform dependent and requires the developer to know and test for platform specific behaviors, for example using cmd.exe on Windows or limited buffer sizes causing deadlocks. The JRE support for this is very limited, albeit better with the new Java SE 1.5 ProcessBuilder class.

Reliably executing external processes can also require knowledge of the environment variables before or after the command is executed. In J2SE 1.1-1.4 there is no support for this, since the method, System.getenv(), for retrieving environment variables is deprecated.

There are currently several different libraries that for their own purposes have implemented frameworks around Runtime.exec() to handle the various issues outlined above. The commons-exec package aims at coordinating and learning from these initiatives to create and maintain a simple, reusable and well-tested package.