Member Avatar for Temmu

how does one call a windows (dos-like) command from within java?

such as net stop spooler

can one capture the resulting text (such as, spooler stopping, or error such and such)

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As noted, Java can start OS commands. For a practical, robust solution prefer ProcessBuilder (it handles argument lists, environment and redirection). For your example , you can run net stop spooler directly or via cmd /c if you need shell features (redirection, pipes, or built‑ins).

Example pattern (read the process output to capture the text and avoid blocking):

ProcessBuilder pb = new ProcessBuilder("net", "stop", "spooler");
pb.redirectErrorStream(true); // merge stderr into stdout
Process p = pb.start();

StringBuilder output = new StringBuilder();
try (BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(p.getInputStream()))) {
    String line;
    while ((line = br.readLine()) != null) {
        output.append(line).append(System.lineSeparator());
    }
}
int exitCode = p.waitFor();
// output.toString() now contains the combined output; check exitCode for success

Notes and cautions: read the process streams (or use redirectErrorStream(true)) to prevent deadlocks; parse the captured text rather than relying only on exit codes. net stop spooler generally requires administrative rights — run the JVM elevated or the command will fail. Be mindful of platform encoding (command output may use a system code page), and do not build command lines from untrusted input to avoid injection.

For the API details and edge cases, see the Java ProcessBuilder documentation: ProcessBuilder (Java SE 8).

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Member Avatar for NormR1

See the Process and Runtime classes for that.

Member Avatar for Temmu

ok

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