Java: passing linux shell commands

borgy_t · 04-19-2005, 03:12 AM

i have a question... programtically, how do i pass linux commands from a java program that is running on windows to a linux box running samba? all i have to do is to clear files in my folder there.

jonaskoelker · 04-19-2005, 03:32 AM

well, afaik Samba, it's just a file/print server; that is, you get to transfer files and print jobs (but not much more).

If you insist on using samba, you could transfer a shell script and program the recieving end to run it. However, this poses a security question: how do you make sure that only you can run code (through your programs) and no one else can?

alternatively, log in remotely via ssh and run commands through that--I think java will happily give you a triplet of streams (std(in|out|err)).

borgy_t · 04-19-2005, 03:40 AM

my apologies, i haven't elaborated very well on my problem.

what i need to do is clean the /home folder of all users of the linux box who are offline, using my java program which is running on windows.

i was thinkin of using Runtime.exec to pass the commands but is this possible?

jonaskoelker · 04-19-2005, 03:50 AM

No; Runtime.exec will only run commands locally. What you can do is run an ssh client (google PuTTY) locally, which will then log in to your GNU/linux box and run commands from there--which of course requires you to have sshd running on it.

Anyhew, that's how I'd do it.

As for cleaning the /home/.../, I assume you know what you want to do and how to do it (if not, feel free to ask).

--Jonas