process.waitFor() never returns

Process process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("tasklist");
BufferedReader reader = 
    new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(process.getInputStream()));
process.waitFor();

Solution 1:

There are many reasons that waitFor() doesn't return.

But it usually boils down to the fact that the executed command doesn't quit.

This, again, can have many reasons.

One common reason is that the process produces some output and you don't read from the appropriate streams. This means that the process is blocked as soon as the buffer is full and waits for your process to continue reading. Your process in turn waits for the other process to finish (which it won't because it waits for your process, ...). This is a classical deadlock situation.

You need to continually read from the processes input stream to ensure that it doesn't block.

There's a nice article that explains all the pitfalls of Runtime.exec() and shows ways around them called "When Runtime.exec() won't" (yes, the article is from 2000, but the content still applies!)

Solution 2:

It appears you are not reading the output before waiting for it to finish. This is fine only if the output doesn't fill the buffer. If it does, it will wait until you read the output, catch-22.

Perhaps you have some errors which you are not reading. This would case the application to stop and waitFor to wait forever. A simple way around this is to re-direct the errors to the regular output.

ProcessBuilder pb = new ProcessBuilder("tasklist");
pb.redirectErrorStream(true);
Process process = pb.start();
BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(process.getInputStream()));
String line;
while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null)
    System.out.println("tasklist: " + line);
process.waitFor();

Solution 3:

Also from Java doc:

java.lang

Class Process

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.

Fail to clear the buffer of input stream (which pipes to the output stream of subprocess) from Process may lead to a subprocess blocking.

Try this:

Process process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("tasklist");
BufferedReader reader =
new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(process.getInputStream()));
while ((reader.readLine()) != null) {}
process.waitFor();

Solution 4:

I would like to add something to the previous answers but since I don't have the rep to comment, I will just add an answer. This is directed towards android users which are programming in Java.

Per the post from RollingBoy, this code almost worked for me:

Process process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("tasklist");
BufferedReader reader =
new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(process.getInputStream()));
while ((reader.readLine()) != null) {}
process.waitFor();

In my case, the waitFor() was not releasing because I was executing a statement with no return ("ip adddr flush eth0"). An easy way to fix this is to simply ensure you always return something in your statement. For me, that meant executing the following: "ip adddr flush eth0 && echo done". You can read the buffer all day, but if there is nothing ever returned, your thread will never release its wait.

Hope that helps someone!