Linux commands from Java

Question

Is it possbile to execute linux commands with java? I am trying to create a web servlet to allow ftp users to change their passwords without ssh login access. I would like to execute the next commands:

# adduser -s /sbin/nologin clientA -d /home/mainclient/clientA
# passwd clientA
# cd /home/mainclient; chgrp -R mainclient clientA
# cd /home/mainclient/clientA; chmod 770 .

thanks in advanced for the feedback.

Answer 1

Check out http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/api/java/lang/ProcessBuilder.html

However, doing what you are talking about is way outside spec, and I wouldnt reccommend it. To get it to work you are going to either run your app server as root, or use some other mechanism to give the user the app server is running as permission to execute these privileged commands. One small screw-up somewhere and you are "owned".

Answer 2

Use: Runtime.getRuntim().exec("Command"); where Command is the command string you want to execute.

Answer 3

The java RunTime object has exec methods to run commands in a separate process

http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/api/java/lang/Runtime.html

Answer 4

have a look at java.lang.Runtime

Answer 5

If you invoke those commands from Java, make sure to pack multiple commands to a single shell-script. This will make invocation much easier.