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How to Run Shell Tools From Kotlin Script?

Published on
4 min read
How to Run Shell Tools From Kotlin Script? image

To run shell tools from a Kotlin script, you can use the ProcessBuilder class in Kotlin's standard library. Here's a brief explanation of how you can achieve it:

  1. Import the necessary classes:

import java.io.BufferedReader import java.io.InputStreamReader

  1. Create a ProcessBuilder object and specify the desired shell command:

val processBuilder = ProcessBuilder("your_shell_command", "argument1", "argument2")

Replace "your_shell_command" with the shell command you want to execute and "argument1", "argument2" with any arguments required by the command.

  1. Redirect the standard output and error streams:

processBuilder.redirectErrorStream(true)

Setting redirectErrorStream to true merges the standard error stream with the standard output stream.

  1. Start the process and wait for it to finish:

val process = processBuilder.start() process.waitFor()

  1. Read the output of the process:

val reader = BufferedReader(InputStreamReader(process.inputStream)) var line: String? while (reader.readLine().also { line = it } != null) { // Process each line of output println(line) } reader.close()

This code snippet reads each line of output from the process and prints it to the console. You can modify this part to process the output as per your requirements.

That's it! You can now run shell tools from Kotlin scripts using the ProcessBuilder class.

How to execute shell commands in Kotlin?

To execute shell commands in Kotlin, you can use the ProcessBuilder class, which is available in the Java standard library.

Here is an example of how to execute a shell command in Kotlin:

import java.io.BufferedReader import java.io.InputStreamReader

fun main() { val command = "ls" // Replace with your desired shell command

val process = ProcessBuilder(command.split(" "))
    .redirectOutput(ProcessBuilder.Redirect.PIPE)
    .redirectError(ProcessBuilder.Redirect.PIPE)
    .start()

val output = process.inputStream.bufferedReader().use(BufferedReader::readText)

println(output)

}

In this example, the ProcessBuilder is created with the desired shell command as a string. The command is split into individual arguments using the split function. The standard output and error streams of the process are redirected to be captured.

The start method is called to start the process, and then you can read the output of the process using the inputStream and bufferedReader classes.

Finally, the output is printed to the console.

Note that this example uses Unix-like shell commands, so if you're using Windows commands, you'll need to adapt the code accordingly.

What is the equivalent of piping shell commands in Kotlin?

In Kotlin, you can achieve a similar functionality to piping shell commands by using the ProcessBuilder class from the java.lang package. The ProcessBuilder allows you to create and manage external processes and interact with them.

Here's an example of how you can pipe shell commands using ProcessBuilder:

import java.lang.ProcessBuilder

fun main() { val command1 = listOf("ls", "/path/to/directory") // First command val command2 = listOf("grep", "keyword") // Second command

val process1 = ProcessBuilder(command1)
    .redirectOutput(ProcessBuilder.Redirect.PIPE) // Redirect output of command1

val process2 = ProcessBuilder(command2)
    .redirectInput(ProcessBuilder.Redirect.PIPE) // Redirect input from command2

val commands = listOf(process1, process2)
val pipeline = ProcessBuilder.command(commands)

val process = pipeline.start() // Start the pipeline

val output = process.inputStream.bufferedReader().readText()
println(output) // Print the output

}

In this example, the command1 executes the ls /path/to/directory command, and the command2 executes the grep keyword command. The output of command1 is redirected to the input of command2 using redirectOutput() and redirectInput() methods of ProcessBuilder. Finally, the output of the pipeline is read from the resulting process's input stream and printed.

Note that this is just a basic example, and you can extend it to handle more complex shell command pipelines as per your needs.

In Kotlin, there are multiple ways to handle shell command output. Here are some recommended approaches:

  1. Using ProcessBuilder and Process:

val command = "ls -l" val process = ProcessBuilder(*command.split(" ").toTypedArray()) .redirectOutput(ProcessBuilder.Redirect.PIPE) .start()

val output = process.inputStream.bufferedReader().readText() println(output)

  1. Using Java's Runtime:

import java.lang.ProcessBuilder import java.io.BufferedReader import java.io.InputStreamReader

val command = "ls -l" val process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(command)

val output = BufferedReader(InputStreamReader(process.inputStream)).readText() println(output)

  1. Using Apache Commons Exec library:

import org.apache.commons.exec.CommandLine import org.apache.commons.exec.DefaultExecutor import org.apache.commons.exec.PumpStreamHandler

val command = CommandLine.parse("ls -l") val executor = DefaultExecutor() val outputStream = ByteArrayOutputStream() executor.streamHandler = PumpStreamHandler(outputStream)

executor.execute(command)

val output = outputStream.toString() println(output)

Note that these approaches handle the shell command output differently, and you can choose the one that suits your needs the best.