How can a Java program get its own process ID?

Question

How do I get the id of my Java process?

I know there are several platform-dependent hacks, but I would prefer a more generic solution.

Answer 1

There exists no platform-independent way that can be guaranteed to work in all jvm implementations. ManagementFactory.getRuntimeMXBean().getName() looks like the best (closest) solution, and typically includes the PID. It's short, and probably works in every implementation in wide use.

On linux+windows it returns a value like 12345@hostname (12345 being the process id). Beware though that according to the docs, there are no guarantees about this value:

Returns the name representing the running Java virtual machine. The returned name string can be any arbitrary string and a Java virtual machine implementation can choose to embed platform-specific useful information in the returned name string. Each running virtual machine could have a different name.

In Java 9 the new process API can be used:

long pid = ProcessHandle.current().pid();