[Advanced-java] Java apps and doing OS stuff

[Nikolaos Giannopoulos]

We use bourne shell scripts (on Linux and Solaris) to do things like:

+ pre-process commands and launch our java app
  --> e.g. user can simply type:  ./seahorse start

+ OS specific pre|post-installation during installs and upgrades
  --> recursive copying a directory + retaining permissions, etc....

To have our app run on Win NT/2000/XP we would have to convert our shell
scripts to use dos batch files but we are finding that we are missing things
like:

+ getting the current dir (into a script var)
+ conditional processing on (non-)existence of a directory
+ choice command

So the question is short of writing C code for different platforms what are
the options for communicating with a Java app in Win NT/2000/XP, Solaris,
and Linux?

It would be nice if everything was (a) all Java or something cross-platform
and (b) had input of a scripting form (as its easier to change and typically
easier to maintain)

Any ideas?

Thanks,

--Nikolaos