Java – How to run Windows bat file

By mkyong | Updated: January 3, 2019

Viewed: 8,883 (+60 pv/w)

Tags: bat file external command java

In Java, we can use ProcessBuilder to run a Windows batch file like this :

	ProcessBuilder processBuilder = 
		new ProcessBuilder("C:\\Users\\mkyong\\hello.bat");

//or 

	ProcessBuilder processBuilder = new ProcessBuilder();
	processBuilder.command("cmd", "/c", "hello.bat");
	File dir = new File("C:\\Users\\mkyong\\");
	processBuilder.directory(dir);

Alternatively, Runtime.getRuntime().exec like this :

	Process process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(
		"cmd /c hello.bat", null, new File("C:\\Users\\mkyong\\"));

1. Java Example

1.1 A simple bat file.

@echo off
echo Hello World

1.2 Java example to read above bat file and display the output.

package com.mkyong.concurrency;

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;

public class JavaRunBatFile {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        ProcessBuilder processBuilder = new ProcessBuilder("C:\\Users\\mkyong\\hello.bat");
       
		//Process process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(
        //            "cmd /c hello.bat", null, new File("C:\\Users\\mkyong\\"));
					
        try {

            Process process = processBuilder.start();

            StringBuilder output = new StringBuilder();

            BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(
                    new InputStreamReader(process.getInputStream()));

            String line;
            while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
                output.append(line + "\n");
            }

            int exitVal = process.waitFor();
            if (exitVal == 0) {
                System.out.println(output);
                System.exit(0);
            } else {
                //abnormal...
            }

        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } catch (InterruptedException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

    }

}

Output

Hello World

References

1. Wikipedia – Batch file
2. Java ProcessBuilder examples