Cant create process: IOException

[Prabh]

Hello all,
I'm trying to run a cmd from WINXP from Runtime.exec.
I'm trying to open a file, "a.txt" in notepad.

The run fails with error:
"java.io.IOException: CreateProcess: "notepad a.txt" error=2"

The command used: "notepad a.txt"

The setup of the command I know is fine, because a command, "notepad"
alone works fine and brings up a notepad. Its when I pass some
arguments to notepad that it fails.

I tried quite a few permutations of the command:

notepad a.txt
notepad\ a\.txt
notepad\ a.txt
"notepad a.txt"
'notepad a.txt'

You get the general idea, but it doesnt work in any of these cases and
bombs.
A plain-vanilla notepad works fine.
Could someone please tell me what I'm doing wrong.

Thanks for your time,
Prab

 

[Christophe Vanfleteren]

Hello all,
I'm trying to run a cmd from WINXP from Runtime.exec.
I'm trying to open a file, "a.txt" in notepad.

The run fails with error:
"java.io.IOException: CreateProcess: "notepad a.txt" error=2"

The command used: "notepad a.txt"

The setup of the command I know is fine, because a command, "notepad"
alone works fine and brings up a notepad. Its when I pass some
arguments to notepad that it fails.

I tried quite a few permutations of the command:

notepad a.txt
notepad\ a\.txt
notepad\ a.txt
"notepad a.txt"
'notepad a.txt'

You get the general idea, but it doesnt work in any of these cases and
bombs.
A plain-vanilla notepad works fine.
Could someone please tell me what I'm doing wrong.

Thanks for your time,
Prab

You need to pass a.txt as an argument.

Look at http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/api/java/lang/Runtime.html for
the appropiate methods.

http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-12-2000/jw-1229-traps.html is also a
good resource on runtime.exec()

 

[Roedy Green]

notepad a.txt
notepad\ a\.txt

are you talking about an exec ?

Your problem has likely nothing to do with exec, but your lack of
understanding of how Java deals with \ in string literals.

See http://mindprod.com/jgloss/literals.html

One of my pet peeves is the way Java programmers don't make a clear
distinction between constants and literals.

See http://mindprod.com/jgloss/constant.html

 

[Roedy Green]

Runtime.exec.

see http://mindprod.com/jgloss/exec.html
for the usual gotchas.