A Java program that runs an external "java myprog < input.txt > output.txt"

Question

I want to write a Java program that runs an external "java myprog < input.txt > output.txt" command. The eventual goal is to run this command on two different programs and compare their output similarity from their respective output files.

I think I've read just about every relevant article about using ProcessBuilder to run an external program, and the few entries about handling user input in that external program, but I still can't get things working. From what I have read, I think the best approach is to not run the exact command above, but instead read the input.txt file and feed it byte-by-byte into the Process object, then collect the output and write it to output.txt ... I am 100% open to other options.

I put together the code below based on my readings. It seems to correctly feed input from input.txt into myprog, but when I try to print the external program's output to the console to verify, the program hangs at the point where (surprise) user input is expected in myprog.

I get the same issues with and without the redirectErrorStream(true) line.

I really want this to be in Java since I plan to share the source code with the people whose program outputs I will compare, and they are primarily only familiar with Java.

import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;

public class test7 {

    public static void main(String args[]) {

        try {
            // WANT: "java myprog < input.txt > output.txt"
            String inputFile = "input.txt";
            String outputFile = "output.txt";

            ProcessBuilder pb = new ProcessBuilder("java","myprog");
            pb.redirectErrorStream(true); // merge stdout, stderr of process
            Process p = pb.start();

            // write input to the running program
            OutputStream pos = p.getOutputStream();
            InputStream fis = new FileInputStream(inputFile);
            int read = 0;
            while ( (read = fis.read()) != -1) {
                pos.write(read);
            }
            fis.close();

            // get output of running program
            InputStreamReader isr = new  InputStreamReader(p.getInputStream());
            BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(isr);

            // HANGS HERE WHEN USER INPUT REQUIRED
            String lineRead;
            while ((lineRead = br.readLine()) != null) {
                System.out.println(lineRead);
            }

        }
        catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace(); 
        }
    } // end main

}

Here is the content of myprog.java:

import java.io.*;

public class myprog {

    public static void main(String args[]) throws IOException {

        System.out.println("Hello world!");
        System.out.println("Enter something:");

        BufferedReader cin = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));

        // the readLine() command causes ProcessBuilder to hang
        cin.readLine();
    }   
}

And the input.txt file is just

p

The output.txt file should be

Hello world!
Enter something:

Answer 1

I wonder if your problem is partly to do with not using separate threads for reading input and writing output. For instance:

   public static void main(String args[]) {

      try {
         // WANT: "java myprog < input.txt > output.txt"
         String inputFile = "input.txt";
         String outputFile = "output.txt";

         // my ProcessBuilder Strings will be different from yours
         ProcessBuilder pb = new ProcessBuilder("java", "-cp", ".;bin;",
               "yr12.m04.a.MyProg");
         pb.redirectErrorStream(true); 
         Process p = pb.start();

         final OutputStream pos = p.getOutputStream();
         final PrintWriter pw = new PrintWriter(pos);
         final InputStream fis = new FileInputStream(inputFile);
         final BufferedReader fileBr = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(fis));

         InputStreamReader isr = new InputStreamReader(p.getInputStream());
         final BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(isr);

         new Thread(new Runnable() {
            public void run() {
               String lineRead;
               try {
                  while ((lineRead = br.readLine()) != null) {
                     System.out.println(lineRead);
                  }
               } catch (IOException e) {
                  e.printStackTrace();
               } finally {
                  if (br != null) {
                     try {
                        br.close();
                     } catch (IOException e) {
                        e.printStackTrace();
                     }
                  }
               }
            }
         }).start();

         new Thread(new Runnable() {
            public void run() {
               try {
                  String lineRead;
                  while ((lineRead = fileBr.readLine()) != null) {
                     pw.println(lineRead);
                  }
               } catch (IOException e) {
                  e.printStackTrace();
               } finally {
                  if (pw != null) {
                     pw.close();
                  }
                  if (fileBr != null) {
                     try {
                        fileBr.close();
                     } catch (IOException e) {
                        e.printStackTrace();
                     }
                  }
               }
            }
         }).start();

      } catch (IOException e) {
         e.printStackTrace();
      }
   } // end main