Piping Input using Java using command line

Question

public class ReadInput {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
    BufferedReader input = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));
        String x = null;  
        while( (x = input.readLine()) != null ) {    
            System.out.println(x); 
        }    
    }
}  

I am able to run this code from the command line by typing 'java ReadInput < input.txt' but not by typing the input directly like 'java ReadInput hello'. When I type 'java ReadInput hello' I seem to get stuck in an infinite loop for some reason. Shouldn't it just work in the same way as typing 'java ReadInput < input.txt' but instead just reprint 'hello'?

Answer 1

Arguments given on the program's command line don't go to System.in, they go in the args array. You could use something like echo hello | java ReadInput to run the program, or you could modify the program to to look at its args array and treat it as input. (If you use the latter option, you'd probably want to fall back to reading from System.in if there's nothing in args.)