How to add a timeout value when using Java's Runtime.exec()?

Question

I have a method I am using to execute a command on the local host. I\'d like to add a timeout parameter to the method so that if the command being called doesn\'t finish in

Answer 1

For everybody using the executor framework: you are all forgetting to shutdown the executor. So change it to the following:

ExecutorService service = Executors.newSingleThreadExecutor();
try {
    Future ft = service.submit(call);
    try {
        int exitVal = ft.get(2000L, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);
        return exitVal;
    } catch (TimeoutException to) {
        p.destroy();
        throw to;
    }
}
finally {
    service.shutdown();
}

If you don't your program will keep an active non-daemon thread, ensuring your program will never exit until you call System.exit