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virtual machine object cannot find or load Main class

so i have problem where i am trying to open a file through my own written virtual machine object in java but the problem is that the virtual machine is not running and causing an error.
Error: Could not find or load main class C:\Users\dell\Trace\Main.java
we also tried modifying the CLASSPATH & PATH with no success
below is the code of the main
import com.sun.jdi.Bootstrap;
import com.sun.jdi.connect.*;
import java.util.Map;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Iterator;
import java.io.PrintWriter;
import java.io.FileWriter;
import java.io.IOException;
public class Trace {
// Running remote VM
private final VirtualMachine vm;
// Thread transferring remote error stream to our error stream
private Thread errThread = null;
// Thread transferring remote output stream to our output stream
private Thread outThread = null;
// Mode for tracing the Trace program (default= 0 off)
private int debugTraceMode = 0;
// Do we want to watch assignments to fields
private boolean watchFields = false;
// Class patterns for which we don't want events
private String[] excludes = {"java.*", "javax.*", "sun.*",
"com.sun.*"};
/**
* main
*/
public static void main(String[] args) {
new Trace(args);
}
/**
* Parse the command line arguments.
* Launch target VM.
* Generate the trace.
*/
Trace(String[] args) {
PrintWriter writer = new PrintWriter(System.out);
int inx;
for (inx = 0; inx < args.length; ++inx) {
String arg = args[inx];
if (arg.charAt(0) != '-') {
break;
}
if (arg.equals("-output")) {
try {
writer = new PrintWriter(new FileWriter(args[++inx]));
} catch (IOException exc) {
System.err.println("Cannot open output file: " + args[inx]
+ " - " + exc);
System.exit(1);
}
} else if (arg.equals("-all")) {
excludes = new String[0];
} else if (arg.equals("-fields")) {
watchFields = true;
} else if (arg.equals("-dbgtrace")) {
debugTraceMode = Integer.parseInt(args[++inx]);
} else if (arg.equals("-help")) {
usage();
System.exit(0);
} else {
System.err.println("No option: " + arg);
usage();
System.exit(1);
}
}
if (inx >= args.length) {
System.err.println("<class> missing");
usage();
System.exit(1);
}
StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
sb.append(args[inx]);
for (++inx; inx < args.length; ++inx) {
sb.append(' ');
sb.append(args[inx]);
}
vm = launchTarget(sb.toString());
generateTrace(writer);
}
/**
* Generate the trace.
* Enable events, start thread to display events,
* start threads to forward remote error and output streams,
* resume the remote VM, wait for the final event, and shutdown.
*/
void generateTrace(PrintWriter writer) {
vm.setDebugTraceMode(debugTraceMode);
EventThread eventThread = new EventThread(vm, excludes, writer);
eventThread.setEventRequests(watchFields);
eventThread.start();
redirectOutput();
vm.resume();
// Shutdown begins when event thread terminates
try {
eventThread.join();
errThread.join(); // Make sure output is forwarded
outThread.join(); // before we exit
} catch (InterruptedException exc) {
// we don't interrupt
}
writer.close();
}
/**
* Launch target VM.
* Forward target's output and error.
*/
VirtualMachine launchTarget(String mainArgs) {
LaunchingConnector connector = findLaunchingConnector();
Map arguments = connectorArguments(connector, mainArgs);
try {
return connector.launch(arguments);
} catch (IOException exc) {
throw new Error("Unable to launch target VM: " + exc);
} catch (IllegalConnectorArgumentsException exc) {
throw new Error("Internal error: " + exc);
} catch (VMStartException exc) {
throw new Error("Target VM failed to initialize: " +
exc.getMessage());
}
}
void redirectOutput() {
Process process = vm.process();
// Copy target's output and error to our output and error.
errThread = new StreamRedirectThread("error reader",
process.getErrorStream(),
System.err);
outThread = new StreamRedirectThread("output reader",
process.getInputStream(),
System.out);
errThread.start();
outThread.start();
}
/**
* Find a com.sun.jdi.CommandLineLaunch connector
*/
LaunchingConnector findLaunchingConnector() {
List connectors = Bootstrap.virtualMachineManager().allConnectors();
Iterator iter = connectors.iterator();
while (iter.hasNext()) {
Connector connector = (Connector)iter.next();
if (connector.name().equals("com.sun.jdi.CommandLineLaunch")) {
return (LaunchingConnector)connector;
}
}
throw new Error("No launching connector");
}
/**
* Return the launching connector's arguments.
*/
Map connectorArguments(LaunchingConnector connector, String mainArgs) {
Map arguments = connector.defaultArguments();
Connector.Argument mainArg =
(Connector.Argument)arguments.get("main");
if (mainArg == null) {
throw new Error("Bad launching connector");
}
mainArg.setValue(mainArgs);
if (watchFields) {
// We need a VM that supports watchpoints
Connector.Argument optionArg =
(Connector.Argument)arguments.get("options");
if (optionArg == null) {
throw new Error("Bad launching connector");
}
optionArg.setValue("-classic");
}
return arguments;
}
/**
* Print command line usage help
*/
void usage() {
System.err.println("Usage: java Trace <options> <class> <args>");
System.err.println("<options> are:");
System.err.println(
" -output <filename> Output trace to <filename>");
System.err.println(
" -all Include system classes in output");
System.err.println(
" -help Print this help message");
System.err.println("<class> is the program to trace");
System.err.println("<args> are the arguments to <class>");
}
}

Watchservice not being triggered [duplicate]

This code works fine in Linux but not in Windows 7: to get file contents update I have to click on the output file. Where is the trick?
I am using Windows 7 prof, NetBeans IDE 8.0 RC1 (Build 201402242200) updated to version NetBeans 8.0 Patch 1.1, JDK 1.8
package watchfilethreadmod;
import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.RandomAccessFile;
import java.nio.file.Files;
import static java.nio.file.LinkOption.NOFOLLOW_LINKS;
import java.nio.file.Path;
import java.nio.file.Paths;
import static java.nio.file.StandardWatchEventKinds.*;
import java.nio.file.WatchEvent;
import java.nio.file.WatchKey;
import java.nio.file.WatchService;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.logging.Level;
import java.util.logging.Logger;
public class WatchFileThreadMod {
static class WatchFile {
String fileName;
long lastFilePos;
RandomAccessFile file;
public WatchFile(String _fileName, RandomAccessFile _file) {
fileName = _fileName;
lastFilePos = 0;
file = _file;
}
}
public static void shutDownListener(Thread thread) {
Thread thr = thread;
if (thr != null) {
thr.interrupt();
}
}
private static class MyWatchQueueReader implements Runnable {
/**
* the watchService that is passed in from above
*/
private WatchService myWatcher;
public ArrayList<WatchFile> threadFileToWatch;
public String dirPath;
public MyWatchQueueReader(String _dirPath, WatchService myWatcher, ArrayList<WatchFile> _threadFileToWatch) {
this.myWatcher = myWatcher;
this.threadFileToWatch = _threadFileToWatch;
this.dirPath = _dirPath;
}
private void openFile(WatchFile obj) {
try {
System.out.println("Open file "+obj.fileName);
obj.file = new RandomAccessFile(dirPath + "/" + obj.fileName, "r");
} catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
obj.file = null;
System.out.println("filename " + obj.fileName + " non trovato");
}
obj.lastFilePos = 0;
}
private void process(WatchEvent evt) {
String thisLine;
ArrayList<WatchFile> auxList = threadFileToWatch;
for (WatchFile obj : auxList) {
if (obj.fileName.equals(evt.context().toString())) {
if (obj.file == null) {
openFile(obj);
}
try {
obj.file.seek(obj.lastFilePos);
} catch (IOException e) {
System.err.println("Seek error: " + e);
}
try {
thisLine = obj.file.readLine();
if ((thisLine == null)&&(evt.kind() == ENTRY_MODIFY)) {
System.out.printf("---> thisLine == null received %s event for file: %s\n",
evt.kind(), evt.context());
obj.file.close();
System.out.println("Close file "+obj.fileName);
openFile(obj);
thisLine = obj.file.readLine();
}
while (thisLine != null) { // while loop begins here
if (thisLine.length() > 0) {
if (thisLine.substring(thisLine.length() - 1).equals("*")) {
obj.lastFilePos = obj.file.getFilePointer();
System.out.println(obj.fileName + ": " + thisLine);
}
}
thisLine = obj.file.readLine();
} // end while
} // end try
catch (IOException e) {
System.err.println("Error: " + e);
}
}
}
}
/**
* In order to implement a file watcher, we loop forever ensuring
* requesting to take the next item from the file watchers queue.
*/
#Override
public void run() {
try {
// get the first event before looping
WatchKey key = myWatcher.take();
while (key != null) {
// we have a polled event, now we traverse it and
// receive all the states from it
for (WatchEvent event : key.pollEvents()) {
WatchEvent.Kind eventType = event.kind();
if (eventType == OVERFLOW) {
continue;
}
process(event);
}
key.reset();
key = myWatcher.take();
}
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
ArrayList<WatchFile> auxList = threadFileToWatch;
for (WatchFile obj : auxList) {
if (obj.file != null) {
try {
obj.file.close();
System.out.println("chiusura file " + obj.fileName);
} catch (IOException ex) {
System.out.println("errore in chiusura file");
Logger.getLogger(WatchFileThreadMod.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
}
}
}
//e.printStackTrace();
}
System.out.println("Stopping thread");
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
// get the directory we want to watch, using the Paths singleton class
//Path toWatch = Paths.get(DIRECTORY_TO_WATCH);
ArrayList<WatchFile> fileToWatch = new ArrayList<>();
String filename;
RandomAccessFile file;
fileToWatch.add(new WatchFile("EURUSD.rlt", new RandomAccessFile(args[0] + "/EURUSD.rlt", "r")));
filename = "EURCHF2.rlt";
try {
file = new RandomAccessFile(args[0] + "/" + filename, "r");
} catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
file = null;
System.out.println("filename " + filename + " non trovato");
}
fileToWatch.add(new WatchFile(filename, file));
fileToWatch = fileToWatch;
Path toWatch = Paths.get(args[0]);
if (toWatch == null) {
throw new UnsupportedOperationException("Directory not found");
}
// Sanity check - Check if path is a folder
try {
Boolean isFolder = (Boolean) Files.getAttribute(toWatch,
"basic:isDirectory", NOFOLLOW_LINKS);
if (!isFolder) {
throw new IllegalArgumentException("Path: " + toWatch + " is not a folder");
}
} catch (IOException ioe) {
// Folder does not exists
ioe.printStackTrace();
}
// make a new watch service that we can register interest in
// directories and files with.
WatchService myWatcher = toWatch.getFileSystem().newWatchService();
// start the file watcher thread below
MyWatchQueueReader fileWatcher = new MyWatchQueueReader(args[0], myWatcher, fileToWatch);
Thread processingThread = new Thread(fileWatcher, "FileWatcher");
processingThread.start();
toWatch.register(myWatcher, ENTRY_CREATE, ENTRY_MODIFY);
}
}
Edit: reduced code as requested.
Edit 2: file path
Edit 3: Metatrader code I am using to write data
#property strict
int file_handle;
string InpFileName = _Symbol + ".rlt"; // File name
input string InpDirectoryName = "Data"; // Folder name
int OnInit()
{
ResetLastError();
file_handle = FileOpen(InpDirectoryName + "//" + InpFileName, FILE_SHARE_READ|FILE_WRITE|FILE_TXT|FILE_ANSI);
if(file_handle == INVALID_HANDLE) {
PrintFormat("Failed to open %s file, Error code = %d", InpFileName, GetLastError());
ExpertRemove();
}
return INIT_SUCCEEDED;
}
void OnTick()
{
// file_handle = FileOpen(InpDirectoryName + "//" + InpFileName, FILE_SHARE_READ|FILE_WRITE|FILE_TXT|FILE_ANSI);
// Datetime), Bid, Volume
// string s = FileRead()
string s = TimeToStr(TimeGMT()) + "|" + Bid + "|" + Volume[0];
FileWriteString(file_handle, s + "|*\r\n");
FileFlush(file_handle);
//FileClose(file_handle);
}
void OnDeinit(const int reason)
{
FileClose(file_handle);
}
Edit 4: Screencast to better show my issue: data updates only when I click on the output file
Watch Service does not update

First of all, a premise : I'm answering this question primarily for future users of WatchService, which (like me) could experience this problem (i.e. on some systems events are signaled way after they occur).
The problem is that the implementation of this feature in Java is native, so it is platform-dependant (take a look at https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/nio/file/WatchService.html, under the section 'platform dependencies').
In particular, on Windows 7 (and MacOSX afaict) the implementation uses polling to retrieve the changes from the filesystem, so you can't rely on the 'liveliness' of notifications from a WatchService. The notifications will eventually be signaled, but there are no guarantees on when it will happen.
I don't have a rigorous solution to this problem, but after a lot of trial and error I can describe what works for me :
First, when writing to a file that is registered (i.e. 'watched'), I try to flush the content every time I can and update the 'last modified' attribute on the file, e.g. :
try (FileWriter writer = new FileWriter(outputFile)) {
writer.write("The string to write");
outputFile.setLastModified(System.currentTimeMillis());
writer.flush();
}
Second, I try to 'trigger' the refresh from code (I know it's not good code, but in this case, I'm just happy it works 99% of the time)
Thread.sleep(2000);
// in case I've just created a file and I'm watching the ENTRY_CREATE event on outputDir
outputDir.list();
or (if watching ENTRY_MODIFY on a particular file in outputDir)
Thread.sleep(2000);
outputFile.length();
In both cases, a sleep call simply 'gives the time' to the mechanism underlying the WatchService to trigger, even though 2 seconds are probably a lot more than it is needed.

Probably missing quotes on file path.

Watchservice in windows 7 does not work

This code works fine in Linux but not in Windows 7: to get file contents update I have to click on the output file. Where is the trick?
I am using Windows 7 prof, NetBeans IDE 8.0 RC1 (Build 201402242200) updated to version NetBeans 8.0 Patch 1.1, JDK 1.8
package watchfilethreadmod;
import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.RandomAccessFile;
import java.nio.file.Files;
import static java.nio.file.LinkOption.NOFOLLOW_LINKS;
import java.nio.file.Path;
import java.nio.file.Paths;
import static java.nio.file.StandardWatchEventKinds.*;
import java.nio.file.WatchEvent;
import java.nio.file.WatchKey;
import java.nio.file.WatchService;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.logging.Level;
import java.util.logging.Logger;
public class WatchFileThreadMod {
static class WatchFile {
String fileName;
long lastFilePos;
RandomAccessFile file;
public WatchFile(String _fileName, RandomAccessFile _file) {
fileName = _fileName;
lastFilePos = 0;
file = _file;
}
}
public static void shutDownListener(Thread thread) {
Thread thr = thread;
if (thr != null) {
thr.interrupt();
}
}
private static class MyWatchQueueReader implements Runnable {
/**
* the watchService that is passed in from above
*/
private WatchService myWatcher;
public ArrayList<WatchFile> threadFileToWatch;
public String dirPath;
public MyWatchQueueReader(String _dirPath, WatchService myWatcher, ArrayList<WatchFile> _threadFileToWatch) {
this.myWatcher = myWatcher;
this.threadFileToWatch = _threadFileToWatch;
this.dirPath = _dirPath;
}
private void openFile(WatchFile obj) {
try {
System.out.println("Open file "+obj.fileName);
obj.file = new RandomAccessFile(dirPath + "/" + obj.fileName, "r");
} catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
obj.file = null;
System.out.println("filename " + obj.fileName + " non trovato");
}
obj.lastFilePos = 0;
}
private void process(WatchEvent evt) {
String thisLine;
ArrayList<WatchFile> auxList = threadFileToWatch;
for (WatchFile obj : auxList) {
if (obj.fileName.equals(evt.context().toString())) {
if (obj.file == null) {
openFile(obj);
}
try {
obj.file.seek(obj.lastFilePos);
} catch (IOException e) {
System.err.println("Seek error: " + e);
}
try {
thisLine = obj.file.readLine();
if ((thisLine == null)&&(evt.kind() == ENTRY_MODIFY)) {
System.out.printf("---> thisLine == null received %s event for file: %s\n",
evt.kind(), evt.context());
obj.file.close();
System.out.println("Close file "+obj.fileName);
openFile(obj);
thisLine = obj.file.readLine();
}
while (thisLine != null) { // while loop begins here
if (thisLine.length() > 0) {
if (thisLine.substring(thisLine.length() - 1).equals("*")) {
obj.lastFilePos = obj.file.getFilePointer();
System.out.println(obj.fileName + ": " + thisLine);
}
}
thisLine = obj.file.readLine();
} // end while
} // end try
catch (IOException e) {
System.err.println("Error: " + e);
}
}
}
}
/**
* In order to implement a file watcher, we loop forever ensuring
* requesting to take the next item from the file watchers queue.
*/
#Override
public void run() {
try {
// get the first event before looping
WatchKey key = myWatcher.take();
while (key != null) {
// we have a polled event, now we traverse it and
// receive all the states from it
for (WatchEvent event : key.pollEvents()) {
WatchEvent.Kind eventType = event.kind();
if (eventType == OVERFLOW) {
continue;
}
process(event);
}
key.reset();
key = myWatcher.take();
}
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
ArrayList<WatchFile> auxList = threadFileToWatch;
for (WatchFile obj : auxList) {
if (obj.file != null) {
try {
obj.file.close();
System.out.println("chiusura file " + obj.fileName);
} catch (IOException ex) {
System.out.println("errore in chiusura file");
Logger.getLogger(WatchFileThreadMod.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
}
}
}
//e.printStackTrace();
}
System.out.println("Stopping thread");
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
// get the directory we want to watch, using the Paths singleton class
//Path toWatch = Paths.get(DIRECTORY_TO_WATCH);
ArrayList<WatchFile> fileToWatch = new ArrayList<>();
String filename;
RandomAccessFile file;
fileToWatch.add(new WatchFile("EURUSD.rlt", new RandomAccessFile(args[0] + "/EURUSD.rlt", "r")));
filename = "EURCHF2.rlt";
try {
file = new RandomAccessFile(args[0] + "/" + filename, "r");
} catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
file = null;
System.out.println("filename " + filename + " non trovato");
}
fileToWatch.add(new WatchFile(filename, file));
fileToWatch = fileToWatch;
Path toWatch = Paths.get(args[0]);
if (toWatch == null) {
throw new UnsupportedOperationException("Directory not found");
}
// Sanity check - Check if path is a folder
try {
Boolean isFolder = (Boolean) Files.getAttribute(toWatch,
"basic:isDirectory", NOFOLLOW_LINKS);
if (!isFolder) {
throw new IllegalArgumentException("Path: " + toWatch + " is not a folder");
}
} catch (IOException ioe) {
// Folder does not exists
ioe.printStackTrace();
}
// make a new watch service that we can register interest in
// directories and files with.
WatchService myWatcher = toWatch.getFileSystem().newWatchService();
// start the file watcher thread below
MyWatchQueueReader fileWatcher = new MyWatchQueueReader(args[0], myWatcher, fileToWatch);
Thread processingThread = new Thread(fileWatcher, "FileWatcher");
processingThread.start();
toWatch.register(myWatcher, ENTRY_CREATE, ENTRY_MODIFY);
}
}
Edit: reduced code as requested.
Edit 2: file path
Edit 3: Metatrader code I am using to write data
#property strict
int file_handle;
string InpFileName = _Symbol + ".rlt"; // File name
input string InpDirectoryName = "Data"; // Folder name
int OnInit()
{
ResetLastError();
file_handle = FileOpen(InpDirectoryName + "//" + InpFileName, FILE_SHARE_READ|FILE_WRITE|FILE_TXT|FILE_ANSI);
if(file_handle == INVALID_HANDLE) {
PrintFormat("Failed to open %s file, Error code = %d", InpFileName, GetLastError());
ExpertRemove();
}
return INIT_SUCCEEDED;
}
void OnTick()
{
// file_handle = FileOpen(InpDirectoryName + "//" + InpFileName, FILE_SHARE_READ|FILE_WRITE|FILE_TXT|FILE_ANSI);
// Datetime), Bid, Volume
// string s = FileRead()
string s = TimeToStr(TimeGMT()) + "|" + Bid + "|" + Volume[0];
FileWriteString(file_handle, s + "|*\r\n");
FileFlush(file_handle);
//FileClose(file_handle);
}
void OnDeinit(const int reason)
{
FileClose(file_handle);
}
Edit 4: Screencast to better show my issue: data updates only when I click on the output file
Watch Service does not update

First of all, a premise : I'm answering this question primarily for future users of WatchService, which (like me) could experience this problem (i.e. on some systems events are signaled way after they occur).
The problem is that the implementation of this feature in Java is native, so it is platform-dependant (take a look at https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/nio/file/WatchService.html, under the section 'platform dependencies').
In particular, on Windows 7 (and MacOSX afaict) the implementation uses polling to retrieve the changes from the filesystem, so you can't rely on the 'liveliness' of notifications from a WatchService. The notifications will eventually be signaled, but there are no guarantees on when it will happen.
I don't have a rigorous solution to this problem, but after a lot of trial and error I can describe what works for me :
First, when writing to a file that is registered (i.e. 'watched'), I try to flush the content every time I can and update the 'last modified' attribute on the file, e.g. :
try (FileWriter writer = new FileWriter(outputFile)) {
writer.write("The string to write");
outputFile.setLastModified(System.currentTimeMillis());
writer.flush();
}
Second, I try to 'trigger' the refresh from code (I know it's not good code, but in this case, I'm just happy it works 99% of the time)
Thread.sleep(2000);
// in case I've just created a file and I'm watching the ENTRY_CREATE event on outputDir
outputDir.list();
or (if watching ENTRY_MODIFY on a particular file in outputDir)
Thread.sleep(2000);
outputFile.length();
In both cases, a sleep call simply 'gives the time' to the mechanism underlying the WatchService to trigger, even though 2 seconds are probably a lot more than it is needed.

Probably missing quotes on file path.

Load a class with arguments within the same project

Alright, i'm trying to Xbootclasspath a jar from within my project. Currently I have to load my application through command-line with the follow command:
java -Xbootclasspath/p:canvas.jar -jar application.jar
This works perfectly fine but I want to do this without having to enter command line, is there I way I can Xbootclasspath from within the jar?
Thanks.

The most clear solution is to have two main classes.
Your first class, named Boot or similar, will be the outside entry point into the application, as set in the jar's manifest. This class will form the necessary runtime command to start your actual main class (named Application or similar), with the Xboot parameter.
public class Boot {
public static void main(String[] args) {
String location = Boot.class.getProtectionDomain().getCodeSource().getLocation().getPath();
location = URLDecoder.decode(location, "UTF-8").replaceAll("\\\\", "/");
String app = Application.class.getCanonicalName();
String flags = "-Xbootclasspath/p:canvas.jar";
boolean windows = System.getProperty("os.name").contains("Win");
StringBuilder command = new StringBuilder(64);
if (windows) {
command.append("javaw");
} else {
command.append("java");
}
command.append(' ').append(flags).append(' ');
command.append('"').append(location).append('"');
// append any necessary external libraries here
for (String arg : args) {
command.append(' ').append('"').append(arg).append('"');
}
Process application = null;
Runtime runtime = Runtime.getRuntime();
if (windows) {
application = runtime.exec(command.toString());
} else {
application = runtime.exec(new String[]{ "/bin/sh", "-c", command.toString() });
}
// wire command line output to Boot to output it correctly
BufferedReader strerr = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(application.getErrorStream()));
BufferedReader strin = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(application.getInputStream()));
while (isRunning(application)) {
String err = null;
while ((err = strerr.readLine()) != null) {
System.err.println(err);
}
String in = null;
while ((in = strin.readLine()) != null) {
System.out.println(in);
}
try {
Thread.sleep(50);
} catch (InterruptedException ignored) {
}
}
}
private static boolean isRunning(Process process) {
try {
process.exitValue();
} catch (IllegalThreadStateException e) {
return true;
}
return false;
}
}
And your Application class runs your actual program:
public class Application {
public static void main(String[] args) {
// display user-interface, etc
}
}

Feels yucky, but could you do a Runtime.exec that calls to java with the provided options and a new parameter (along with some conditional code that looks for that) to prevent a recursive loop of spawning new processes?

Small class to allow a java program to auto-update itself

The goal is to have a simple Java class start a jar main-class. When the main-class finishes, it can be queried if it would like to be reloaded. By this method it can hot-update itself and re-run itself.
The Launcher is to load the jar via a URLClassloader and then unload/re-load the changed jar. The jar can be changed by a modification to Launcher, or by a provided dos/unix script that is called to swap the new jar into place of the old jar.
The entire program is below. Tested and it seems to work without a hitch.
java Launcher -jar [path_to_jar] -run [yourbatchfile] [-runonce]? optional]
1) Launcher looks for the "Main-Class" attribute in your jarfile so that it does not need to be giventhe actual class to run.
2) It will call 'public static void main(String[] args)' and pass it the remaining arguments that you provided on the command line
3) When your program finishes, the Launcher will call your programs method 'public static boolean reload()' and if the result is 'true' this will trigger a reload.
4) If you specified -runonce, then the program will never reload.
5) If you specified -run [batchfile] then the batchfile will run before reloading.
I hope this is helpful to some people.
Happy coding!
import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.lang.ProcessBuilder.Redirect;
import java.lang.reflect.Method;
import java.net.URL;
import java.net.URLClassLoader;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicBoolean;
import java.util.jar.Attributes;
import java.util.jar.Manifest;
public class Launcher {
public static void main(String[] args) {
new Launcher().run(new ArrayList<>(Arrays.asList(args)));
}
private void run(List<String> list) {
final String jar = removeArgPairOrNull("-jar", list);
final boolean runonce = removeArgSingle("-runonce", list);
final String batchfile = removeArgPairOrNull("-run", list);
if (jar == null) {
System.out.println("Please add -jar [jarfile]");
System.out.println("All other arguments will be passed to the jar main class.");
System.out.println("To prevent reloading, add the argument to -runonce");
System.out.println("To provide another program that runs before a reload, add -run [file]");
}
boolean reload;
do {
reload = launch(list.toArray(new String[0]), new String(jar), new String(batchfile), new Boolean(runonce));
System.out.println("Launcher: reload is: " + reload);
gc();
if (reload && batchfile != null) {
try {
System.err.println("Launcher: will attempt to reload jar: " + jar);
runBatchFile(batchfile);
} catch (IOException | InterruptedException ex) {
ex.printStackTrace(System.err);
System.err.println("Launcher: reload batchfile had exception:" + ex);
reload = false;
}
}
} while (reload);
}
private boolean launch(String[] args, String jar, String batchfile, boolean runonce) {
Class<?> clazz = null;
URLClassLoader urlClassLoader = null;
boolean reload = false;
try {
urlClassLoader = new URLClassLoader(new URL[]{new File(jar).toURI().toURL()});
String mainClass = findMainClass(urlClassLoader);
clazz = Class.forName(mainClass, true, urlClassLoader);
Method main = clazz.getMethod("main", String[].class);
System.err.println("Launcher: have method: " + main);
Method reloadMethod;
if (runonce) {
// invoke main method using reflection.
main.invoke(null, (Object) args);
} else {
// find main and reload methods and invoke using reflection.
reloadMethod = clazz.getMethod("reload");
main.invoke(null, (Object) args);
System.err.println("Launcher: invoked: " + main);
reload = (Boolean) reloadMethod.invoke(null, new Object[0]);
}
} catch (final Exception ex) {
ex.printStackTrace(System.err);
System.err.println("Launcher: can not launch and reload this class:" + ex);
System.err.println("> " + clazz);
reload = false;
} finally {
if (urlClassLoader != null) {
try {
urlClassLoader.close();
} catch (IOException ex) {
ex.printStackTrace(System.err);
System.err.println("Launcher: error closing classloader: " + ex);
}
}
}
return reload ? true : false;
}
private static String findMainClass(URLClassLoader urlClassLoader) throws IOException {
URL url = urlClassLoader.findResource("META-INF/MANIFEST.MF");
Manifest manifest = new Manifest(url.openStream());
Attributes attr = manifest.getMainAttributes();
return attr.getValue("Main-Class");
}
private static void runBatchFile(String batchfile) throws IOException, InterruptedException {
System.out.println("Launcher: executng batchfile: " + batchfile);
ProcessBuilder pb = new ProcessBuilder("cmd", "/C", batchfile);
pb.redirectErrorStream(true);
pb.redirectInput(Redirect.INHERIT);
pb.redirectOutput(Redirect.INHERIT);
Process p = pb.start();
p.waitFor();
}
private static String removeArgPairOrNull(String arg, List<String> list) {
if (list.contains(arg)) {
int index = list.indexOf(arg);
list.remove(index);
return list.remove(index);
}
return null;
}
private static boolean removeArgSingle(String arg, List<String> list) {
if (list.contains(arg)) {
list.remove(list.indexOf(arg));
return true;
}
return false;
}
private void gc() {
for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
byte[] bytes = new byte[1024];
Arrays.fill(bytes, (byte) 1);
bytes = null;
System.gc();
System.runFinalization();
}
}
}

After debugging, I determined the original difficulty was that the Launcher was not isolating the UrlClassloader.
By putting the part of the program that starts the classloader in a seperate method, I was able to allow all the system to determine that no more references existed.
After reworking the code, it all works now :)