Using Quotes within getRuntime().exec

Question

I\'d like to invoke bash using a string as input. Something like:

sh -l -c \"./foo\"

I\'d like to do this from Java. Unfortunately, when I

Answer 1

Use this:

Runtime.getRuntime().exec(new String[] {"sh", "-l", "-c", "./foo"});

Main point: don't put the double quotes in. That's only used when writing a command-line in the shell!

e.g., echo "Hello, world!" (as typed in the shell) gets translated to:

Runtime.getRuntime().exec(new String[] {"echo", "Hello, world!"});

(Just forget for the moment that the shell normally has a builtin for echo, and is calling /bin/echo instead. :-))