java native Process timeout

Question

At the moment I execute a native process using the following:

java.lang.Process process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(command); 
int returnCode = process.waitF         


        

Answer 1

All other responses are correct but it can be made more robust and efficient using FutureTask.

For example,

private static final ExecutorService THREAD_POOL 
    = Executors.newCachedThreadPool();

private static  T timedCall(Callable c, long timeout, TimeUnit timeUnit)
    throws InterruptedException, ExecutionException, TimeoutException
{
    FutureTask task = new FutureTask(c);
    THREAD_POOL.execute(task);
    return task.get(timeout, timeUnit);
}

final java.lang.Process[] process = new Process[1];
try {
    int returnCode = timedCall(new Callable() {
        public Integer call() throws Exception {
            process[0] = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(command); 
            return process[0].waitFor();
        }
    }, timeout, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
} catch (TimeoutException e) {
    process[0].destroy();
    // Handle timeout here
}

If you do this repeatedly, the thread pool is more efficient because it caches the threads.