CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javaeclipseant
Hamza Khan Niazi
Hamza Khan Niazi

Reputation: 49

Purpose of DebugPlugin.exec()

I am trying to understand what exactly the DebugPlugin.exec(String[] cmdLine, File workingDirectory) method does.

I first encountered this method in the article How to write an Eclipse debugger.

Plug-in: core, Package: pda.launching, Class: PDALaunchDelegate, Method: launch

commandList.add(file.getLocation().toOSString()); 
int requestPort = -1;
int eventPort = -1;
if (mode.equals(ILaunchManager.DEBUG_MODE)) {
    requestPort = findFreePort();
    eventPort = findFreePort();
    if (requestPort == -1 || eventPort == -1) {
        abort("Unable to find free port", null);
    }
    commandList.add("-debug");
    commandList.add("" + requestPort );
    commandList.add("" + eventPort );
} 
String[] commandLine = (String[]) 
commandList.toArray(new String[commandList.size()]);
Process process = DebugPlugin.exec(commandLine, null);
IProcess p = DebugPlugin.newProcess(launch, process, path);
if (mode.equals(ILaunchManager.DEBUG_MODE)) {
    IDebugTarget target = new PDADebugTarget(launch,p,requestPort,eventPort );
    launch.addDebugTarget(target);
}

Now, I have seen the method again going through the AntLaunchDelegate class in an Ant Plugin. What I don't get is commandline. Is it set of instructions that are executed? I have already looked into the DebugPlugin API, but I don't fully comprehend it.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 165

Answers (1)

greg-449
greg-449

Reputation: 111216

All this method does is call the Java Runtime.getRuntime().exec method which runs a program. The method adds a bit of processing on any errors that occur.

The first entry in the string array is the full path of the program to be executed, the rest of the array is arguments to be passed to the program.

So the array

new String[] {"/bin/ls", "-l"};

would specify that the /bin/ls command is to be run with the argument -l.

Upvotes: 1

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