execute external command / application from java

Question

I'm looking for a package to support reliably executing external processes from Java. My criteria:

• Abstract over OS. So if I want to run 'foo', it will look for 'foo.bat', 'foo.exe' under windows and 'foo' under other OSs (or, have a way of passing a map of os->command)
• Being able to execute Java classes by simply giving the class name and arguments (so the package locates the java command, copies jvm flags and then executes)
• Process stdout and stderr properly
• Watchdog / Monitoring capabilities

I've looked at commons-exec but it looks like it answers only 3 & 4. Ant has support for execution but looks like an overkill to use it for this purpose only.

Answer 1

You will likely have to go with 'commons-exec' and then roll up your sleeves and write some code.

Those are pretty specific requirements.