Gradle Exec task not exiting

Question

I am new to Gradle and I am using a small task to start/stop local tomcat server.

My gradle task:

task startTomcat(type: Exec){
    workingDir ENV[\         


        

Answer 1

To immediately exit after the external process started I used:

task startServer(type:Exec) {
  ProcessBuilder pb = new ProcessBuilder("cmd","/c","start.bat")
  pb.directory(new File("workingFolder"))
  pb.start();
}

Answer 2

Since you're running on Windows, you've likely encountered this bug: Process execution hangs on Windows if child processes are still alive. Unfortunately I don't have a simpler workaround to suggest.

Answer 3

Thanks Peter for the input. Here is the solution that worked for me using ProcessBuilder:

/* Configuration for tomcat */
task catalinaConfig {
    ext.binDir = ENV['CATALINA_HOME'] + "\\bin"
}

task startTomcat << {   
    println "Tomcat path: " + catalinaConfig.binDir 
    ProcessBuilder pb = new ProcessBuilder(["cmd", "/c", "catalina.bat", "start"]);
    pb.directory(new File(catalinaConfig.binDir));

    println "Starting tomcat now ... "
    Process proc = pb.start();
    proc.waitFor();
    println "Tomcat is coming up now ... " + proc.exitValue()
}

task stopTomcat << {    
    println "Tomcat path: " + catalinaConfig.binDir 
    ProcessBuilder pb1 = new ProcessBuilder(["cmd", "/c", "catalina.bat", "stop"]);
    pb1.directory(new File(catalinaConfig.binDir));

    println "Stopping tomcat now ... "
    Process proc1 = pb1.start();
    proc1.waitFor();
}