Question

Hi all
i m trying to write a java program to open an application on a mac, wait in the background until the user closes the application, then the java program performs another task. is there a way to know when the user has closed the application started by java?

thanks

Answer 1

is there a way to know when the user has closed the application started by java?

Sure, here’s how:

1. Use ProcessBuilder or Runtime.exec to get hold of a Process.
2. Start the process by doing process.start().
3. Then call proccess.waitFor() to block until the external program terminates.

This should work fine on Mac and Windows systems.

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Example:

ProcessBuilder pb = new ProcessBuilder("/usr/bin/emacs");

Process proc = pb.start();     // start external program

proc.waitFor();                // wait for it to terminate

performAnotherTask();