Process method not executing desired program

Question

public class test2 {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        try {
            // print a message
            System.out.println("Executing VLC.exe");
            Process process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("C:\\Program Files\\VideoLAN\\VLC\\vlc.exe");
            // print another message
            System.out.println("VLC should now open.");
        } catch (Exception ex) {
            ex.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

Here is the error:

Cannot run program "C:\Program": CreateProcess error=2, The system cannot find the file specified
at java.lang.ProcessBuilder.start(Unknown Source)   at
 java.lang.Runtime.exec(Unknown Source)     at
 java.lang.Runtime.exec(Unknown Source)     at
 java.lang.Runtime.exec(Unknown Source)     at test2.main(test2.java:21)
Caused by: java.io.IOException: CreateProcess error=2, The system
 cannot find the file specified     at java.lang.ProcessImpl.create(Native
 Method)    at java.lang.ProcessImpl.<init>(Unknown Source)     at
 java.lang.ProcessImpl.start(Unknown Source)    ... 5 more***

But this program runs notepad.exe and associated text files rather easily. So can it only run programs in Win32?

user2837260 · Accepted Answer · 2013-10-06 10:22:23Z

2

enter image description here

here is the pic with the dos ...

answered Oct 6, 2013 at 10:22

user2837260

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3 Comments

Ali Hashemi Over a year ago

how about running cmd /c start "C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe" and cmd /c start C:\Program^ Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe in cmd?

Ali Hashemi Over a year ago

Actually, a command like cmd /c start C:\"Program Files"\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe has to work. The double quotations force escaping the white space in "Program Files". Tested just now!

user2837260 Over a year ago

but i got it working by appending the original one to new String[]{ "C:\\Program Files\\VideoLAN\\VLC\\vlc.exe","\""}

Ali Hashemi · Accepted Answer · 2013-10-06 09:59:28Z

1

This problem is because of the white space in "Program Files".

You can avoid any problems like this by using the Runtime#exec that takes a String[]:

Runtime.getRuntime().exec(new String[] {"cmd", "/c", "start", "C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe"});

That way you don't have to worry about quoting the file names. However, you still have to worry about quoting \ in the file names.

answered Oct 6, 2013 at 9:59

Ali Hashemi

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4 Comments

user2837260 Over a year ago

"cmd", "/c", "start" what is the purpose of this?

user2837260 Over a year ago

and eclipse is still giving me the invalid sequence character error

user2837260 Over a year ago

after i changed it back to "\\" , it opened a new dos window with the directory as my byte code directory

Ali Hashemi Over a year ago

try cmd /c start C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe in cmd and tell me what's the output, first.

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