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wkhtmltopdf called from java getting hanged

We are the using the following code to generate PDFs using wkhtmltopdf
public class SystemUtils{
public String executeCommand(String... command) {
Process process = null;
try {
// Using redirectErrorStream as true. Otherwise we have to read both process.getInputStream() and
// process.getErrorStream() in order to not exhaust the stream buffer.
process = new ProcessBuilder(command).redirectErrorStream(true).start();
process.waitFor();
StringBuilder outputBuilder = new StringBuilder();
try(BufferedReader stdError = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(process.getInputStream()))) {
String line;
while ((line = stdError.readLine()) != null) {
outputBuilder.append(line).append(StringConstants.CARRIAGE_RETURN);
}
}
return outputBuilder.toString();
} catch (IOException | InterruptedException e) {
String exceptionMsg = "Error while executing command '"+command+"' : ";
LOGGER.error(exceptionMsg, e);
throw new AppException(exceptionMsg, e);
} finally {
if(process != null){
process.destroy();
}
}
}
public static void main(String[] args){
SystemUtils systemUtils = new SystemUtils();
String[] array = {"wkhtmltopdf", "/home/pgullapalli/Desktop/testsimilar1.html", "/home/pgullapalli/Desktop/test.pdf"};
systemUtils.executeCommand(array);
}
}
This works absolutely fine for smaller size files. But when we try to process a larger file, it is indefinitely waiting without any response. I am not sure what is going wrong? Can someone please suggest?

I moved process.waitFor() before the return statement and it started working. This probably could be happening as the output buffer has filled and we are not reading from it. After moving the process.waitFor after the stream reading, things are working fine.

Joining a thread / process in Java after some time - Java

I have the following method, which executes a command as a process and returns the ouput:
public String execute(String command) {
StringBuffer output = new StringBuffer();
Process p;
try {
p = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(command);
BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(p.getInputStream()));
String line = "";
while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
output.append(line + "\n");
}
} catch (Exception e) {
logger.error(e.getMessage());
}
return output.toString();
}
This code is great whenever the command returns, however for continuing running processes such as top this may never return. The code does not need to keep running continuously. It only needs to capture a snapshot, or it could time out after some time, such as 3 seconds. How can I accomplish that?

Process has a method waitFor. It can be used to force a timeout. For example:
if ((p = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(execPath)) != null) && !p.waitFor(TIMEOUT_CONSTANT, TimeUnit.SECONDS)) {
p.destroyForcibly();
}

Java Process Builder

I have a project where program has to open notepad file and after entering text and saving that notepad file program should display number of words in that file and it should delete the entered content in the file.
iam getting this error Error not derjava.lang.NullPointerException after running the program.
though after entering some text in Mytext.txt and saving it?
my question is why BufferedReader is reading empty file even though iam saving the file with some content.
Appreciate the help..
public class Notepad_Example {
public static void main(String[] jfb) {
try {
ProcessBuilder proc = new ProcessBuilder("notepad.exe", "C:\\Java Projects\\Reverse String\\src\\Mytext.txt");
proc.start();
BufferedReader br;
String s;
br = new BufferedReader(new FileReader("C:\\Java Projects\\Reverse String\\src\\Mytext.txt"));
s = br.readLine();
char c[] = new char[s.length()];
int j = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < s.length(); i++) {
if (s.charAt(i) != ' ') {
c[i] = s.charAt(i);
} else {
j++;
}
}
System.out.println("number of words are " + (j + 1));
br.close();
} catch (Exception hj) {
System.out.println("Error not der" + hj);
}
try {
FileWriter fw = new FileWriter("C:\\Java Projects\\Reverse String\\src\\Mytext.txt");
fw.close();
} catch (Exception hj) {
System.out.println("Error not der" + hj);
}
}
}

The issue you are having is here:
ProcessBuilder proc=new ProcessBuilder("notepad.exe","C:\\Java Projects\\Reverse String\\src\\Mytext.txt");
proc.start();
proc.start() is returning the freshly started process. You'll have to give the user the chance to edit and save the file and close the editor before you can read from that file. That is you have to wait for that process to finish before you can start using the results (the saved file) of that process.
So do instead something like this:
Process process = proc.start();
int result = process.waitFor();
if (result == 0) {
// Do your rest here
} else {
// give error message as the process did not finish without error.
}
Some further remarks:
The rest of your code also appears to have some issues.
You are only reading one line of that file. What if the user is using new lines?
The exception handling is not very good, at the very least print the stack trace of the exception which will give you further hints of where an exception was occuring
If you are using Java 7, read on try with resources; if you are using Java 6, add finally blocks to make sure your resources (the streams) are getting closed.

When you run proc.start(); it is not going to block and waitfor the process to end, it will continue running.
You will need to call the proc.waitFor() method, to block until it has finished.

NOTE
we have had some weird behaviour when using the process builder...
we used to start the process with a
new ProcessBuilder("notepad.exe", "C:\\Java Projects\\Reverse String\\src\\Mytext.txt");
but that started to fail wen we upgraded to Win7 and Java7 - we we not sure where this problem really originated, but we changed out Code like this:
String[] cmd = new String[]{"notepad.exe", "C:\\Java Projects\\Reverse String\\src\\Mytext.txt"};
new ProcessBuilder(cmd);
and since then it worked correct!

Strange behaviour of readline in Java/Scala

I got a very strange problem. I am trying to read the result of a command I am executing. The code never reaches the println-Statement. It is just "hanging up" the program, if the end of the output is reached. No failure and no exception.
My project is a mix of Scala and Java. So it doesn't matter in which language the solution is. I tried in both. The encoding of my project is Cp1252.
Here is my code
var fileScript = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(PathOfScript)
var isr:InputStreamReader = new InputStreamReader(fileScript.getInputStream())
var in = new BufferedReader(isr)
var line:String = ""
try {
while ({line = in.readLine(); line!= null}) {
println("line: "+line)
}
println("OUTSIDE !!!");
in.close();
}

That's strange... my Java version works just fine:
InputStreamReader isr = new InputStreamReader(new FileInputStream("c:\\anyfile"));
BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(isr);
String line = "";
try {
while ((line = in.readLine()) != null) {
System.out.println("line: "+line);
}
System.out.println("OUTSIDE !!!");
in.close();
} catch (Exception ex) {
ex.printStackTrace();
}
I think that the problem is in fileScript: if it gives a stream and doesn't close it, you'll never get a null in the while loop. Check that part. Try with a regular file (like I did in my example). If it works, the problem is surely in the fileScript object.

Java Runtime.exec() asynchronous output

I'd like to get the output from a long running shell command as it is available instead of waiting for the command to complete. My code is run in a new thread
Process proc = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("/opt/bin/longRunning");
InputStream in = proc.getInputStream();
int c;
while((c = in.read()) != -1) {
MyStaticClass.stringBuilder.append(c);
}
The problem with this is that my program in /opt/bin/longRunning has to complete before the InputStream gets assigned and read. Is there any good way to do this asynchronously? My goal is that an ajax request will return the current value MyStaticClass.stringBuilder.toString()
every second or so.
I'm stuck on Java 5, fyi.
Thanks!
W

Try with Apache Common Exec. It has the ability to asynchronously execute a process and then "pump" the output to a thread. Check the Javadoc for more info

Runtime.getRuntime().exec does not wait for the command to terminate, so you should be getting the output straight away. Maybe the output is being buffered because the command knows it is writing to a pipe rather than a terminal?

Put the reading in a new thread:
new Thread() {
public void run() {
InputStream in = proc.getInputStream();
int c;
while((c = in.read()) != -1) {
MyStaticClass.stringBuilder.append(c);
}
}
}.start();

Did you write the program you're calling? If so try flushing your output after writing. The text could be stuck in a buffer and not getting to your java program.
I use this code to do this and it works:
Runtime runtime = Runtime.getRuntime();
Process proc = runtime.exec(command);
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(proc.getInputStream()));
while (true) {
// enter a loop where we read what the program has to say and wait for it to finish
// read all the program has to say
while (br.ready()) {
String line = br.readLine();
System.out.println("CMD: " + line);
}
try {
int exitCode = proc.exitValue();
System.out.println("exit code: " + exitCode);
// if we get here then the process finished executing
break;
} catch (IllegalThreadStateException ex) {
// ignore
}
// wait 200ms and try again
Thread.sleep(200);
}

Try :
try {
Process p = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("/opt/bin/longRunning");
BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(
new InputStreamReader(p.getInputStream()));
String line = null;
while ((line = in.readLine()) != null) {
System.out.println(line); }