Executing External Processes From Groovy - Improved

I've started using an exec method as shown below to run sub processes from groovy. If you run the standard exec like:

   def torun = "ls -l "
   proc = torun.execute()
   proc.waitFor()

This will hang on UNIX systems if these programs generate more STDOUT data than the buffer can handle. Better to handle this yourself with the following:

#!/usr/bin/env groovy

void execute(def command )  {

 println "Running command : " + command
        ProcessBuilder  pb = new ProcessBuilder("/bin/sh", "-c", command) 
        pb.redirectErrorStream(true)
        def process = pb.start()
        def output = process.inputStream
        output.each() { // Throw away stdout in this example, could return it at the end. 
        }
        process.waitFor()
        println "Done executing command , return value : " + process.exitValue()
        process.destroy()
        process = null
        pb = null
        System.gc()

}

execute("ls -l /usr/bin ")

NOTE From: http://jira.codehaus.org/browse/GROOVY-2620

A Better solution is :

StringWriter stringWriterOutput = new StringWriter()
StringWriter stringWriterError = new StringWriter()
Process proc = command.execute()
stringWriterOutput << proc.in
stringWriterError << proc.err
proc.waitFor()