Get subprocess id in Java

Question

I\'m creating subprocesses in this way:

String command = new String(\"some_program\");

Process p = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(command);

How

Answer 1

There is still no public API for this (see http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=4244896) but there are workarounds.

A first workaround would be to use an external program like ps and to call it using Runtime.exec() to get the pid :)

Another one is based on the fact that the java.lang.Process class is abstract and that you actually get a concrete subclass depending on your platform. On Linux, you'll get a java.lang.UnixProcess which has a private field int pid. Using reflection, you can easily get the value of this field:

Field f = p.getClass().getDeclaredField("pid");
f.setAccessible(true);
System.out.println( f.get( p ) );