jdk/src/share/classes/java/lang/Process.java

/*
 * Copyright 1995-2007 Sun Microsystems, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.
 * DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER.
 *
 * This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
 * under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 only, as
 * published by the Free Software Foundation.  Sun designates this
 * particular file as subject to the "Classpath" exception as provided
 * by Sun in the LICENSE file that accompanied this code.
 *
 * This code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
 * ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
 * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License
 * version 2 for more details (a copy is included in the LICENSE file that
 * accompanied this code).
 *
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License version
 * 2 along with this work; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
 * Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.
 *
 * Please contact Sun Microsystems, Inc., 4150 Network Circle, Santa Clara,
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package java.lang;

import java.io.*;

/**
 * The {@link ProcessBuilder#start()} and
 * {@link Runtime#exec(String[],String[],File) Runtime.exec}
 * methods create a native process and return an instance of a
 * subclass of {@code Process} that can be used to control the process
 * and obtain information about it.  The class {@code Process}
 * provides methods for performing input from the process, performing
 * output to the process, waiting for the process to complete,
 * checking the exit status of the process, and destroying (killing)
 * the process.
 *
 * <p>The methods that create processes may not work well for special
 * processes on certain native platforms, such as native windowing
 * processes, daemon processes, Win16/DOS processes on Microsoft
 * Windows, or shell scripts.  The created subprocess does not have
 * its own terminal or console.  All its standard I/O (i.e. stdin,
 * stdout, stderr) operations will be redirected to the parent process
 * through three streams
 * ({@link #getOutputStream()},
 * {@link #getInputStream()},
 * {@link #getErrorStream()}).
 * The parent process uses these streams to feed input to and get output
 * from the subprocess.  Because some native platforms only provide
 * limited buffer size for standard input and output streams, failure
 * to promptly write the input stream or read the output stream of
 * the subprocess may cause the subprocess to block, and even deadlock.
 *
 * <p>The subprocess is not killed when there are no more references to
 * the {@code Process} object, but rather the subprocess
 * continues executing asynchronously.
 *
 * <p>There is no requirement that a process represented by a {@code
 * Process} object execute asynchronously or concurrently with respect
 * to the Java process that owns the {@code Process} object.
 *
 * @author  unascribed
 * @see     ProcessBuilder
 * @since   JDK1.0
 */
public abstract class Process {
    /**
     * Returns the output stream connected to the normal input of the
     * subprocess.  Output to the stream is piped into the standard
     * input stream of the process represented by this {@code Process}
     * object.
     *
     * <p>Implementation note: It is a good idea for the returned
     * output stream to be buffered.
     *
     * @return the output stream connected to the normal input of the
     *         subprocess
     */
    abstract public OutputStream getOutputStream();

    /**
     * Returns the input stream connected to the normal output of the
     * subprocess.  The stream obtains data piped from the standard
     * output stream of the process represented by this {@code
     * Process} object.
     *
     * <p>Implementation note: It is a good idea for the returned
     * input stream to be buffered.
     *
     * @return the input stream connected to the normal output of the
     *         subprocess
     * @see ProcessBuilder#redirectErrorStream()
     */
    abstract public InputStream getInputStream();

    /**
     * Returns the input stream connected to the error output stream of
     * the subprocess.  The stream obtains data piped from the error
     * output stream of the process represented by this {@code Process}
     * object.
     *
     * <p>Implementation note: It is a good idea for the returned
     * input stream to be buffered.
     *
     * @return the input stream connected to the error output stream of
     *         the subprocess
     * @see ProcessBuilder#redirectErrorStream()
     */
    abstract public InputStream getErrorStream();

    /**
     * Causes the current thread to wait, if necessary, until the
     * process represented by this {@code Process} object has
     * terminated.  This method returns immediately if the subprocess
     * has already terminated.  If the subprocess has not yet
     * terminated, the calling thread will be blocked until the
     * subprocess exits.
     *
     * @return the exit value of the subprocess represented by this
     *         {@code Process} object.  By convention, the value
     *         {@code 0} indicates normal termination.
     * @throws InterruptedException if the current thread is
     *         {@linkplain Thread#interrupt() interrupted} by another
     *         thread while it is waiting, then the wait is ended and
     *         an {@link InterruptedException} is thrown.
     */
    abstract public int waitFor() throws InterruptedException;

    /**
     * Returns the exit value for the subprocess.
     *
     * @return the exit value of the subprocess represented by this
     *         {@code Process} object.  By convention, the value
     *         {@code 0} indicates normal termination.
     * @throws IllegalThreadStateException if the subprocess represented
     *         by this {@code Process} object has not yet terminated
     */
    abstract public int exitValue();

    /**
     * Kills the subprocess. The subprocess represented by this
     * {@code Process} object is forcibly terminated.
     */
    abstract public void destroy();
}