Interface Tool

All Known Subinterfaces:
DocumentationTool, JavaCompiler 
public interface Tool

Common interface for tools that can be invoked from a program. A tool is traditionally a command line program such as a compiler. The set of tools available with a platform is defined by the vendor.

Tools can be located using ServiceLoader.load(Class).

Since:
1.6

Method Summary

All Methods Instance Methods Abstract Methods Default Methods
Modifier and Type Method Description
Set<SourceVersion> getSourceVersions()

Returns the source versions of the Java™ programming language supported by this tool.
default String name()

Returns the name of this tool, or an empty string if no name is provided.
int run​(InputStream in, OutputStream out, OutputStream err, String... arguments)

Run the tool with the given I/O channels and arguments.

Method Detail

name

default String name()

Returns the name of this tool, or an empty string if no name is provided.

API Note:
It is recommended that the name be the same as would be used on the command line: for example, "javac", "jar", "jlink".
Implementation Note:
This implementation returns an empty string.
Returns:
the name of this tool
Since:
9

run

int run​(InputStream in,
        OutputStream out,
        OutputStream err,
        String... arguments)

Run the tool with the given I/O channels and arguments. By convention a tool returns 0 for success and nonzero for errors. Any diagnostics generated will be written to either out or err in some unspecified format.

Parameters:
in - "standard" input; use System.in if null
out - "standard" output; use System.out if null
err - "standard" error; use System.err if null
arguments - arguments to pass to the tool
Returns:
0 for success; nonzero otherwise
Throws:
NullPointerException - if the array of arguments contains any null elements.

getSourceVersions

Set<SourceVersion> getSourceVersions()

Returns the source versions of the Java™ programming language supported by this tool.

Returns:
a set of supported source versions