How do I get rid of Java child processes when my Java app exits/crashes?
I launch a child process in Java as follows: final String[] cmd = {"<childProcessName>"}; Process process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(cmd); It now runs in the background. All good and fine. If my program now crashes (it is still in dev :-)) the child process still seems to hang around. How can I make it automatically end when the parent Java process dies? If it helps, I'm using Mac OS X 10.5 VonC As you said, addShutdownHook is the way to go. BUT: There's no real guarantee that your shutdown hooks are executed if the program terminates. Someone could kill the Java process and in that case your