Run svn command from Java using Commons exec

In a project I will need to marshal a Subversion log into Java. First step was getting Java to talk to a subversion repository. There are many options for doing this. Two of these are using a SVN API like SVNKit or invoking the command line svn executable.

Lets say you decide on the second option, invoking the svn binary, how would you do it? Easiest way is to use the Apache Commons Exec library. In listing below I use Exec and the Guava API in a Java 1.7 source level. Of course, this is not a ‘reusable’ solution, for example, the arguments to the two implemented commands are fixed. But, that is all I need right now.

Example use: new Command().log(“some/repo/somewhere”);

Expand.java

package com.octodecillion.svn;

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.charset.Charset;
import java.util.Properties;

import org.apache.commons.exec.CommandLine;
import org.apache.commons.exec.DefaultExecutor;
import org.apache.commons.exec.ExecuteException;
import org.apache.commons.exec.PumpStreamHandler;

import com.google.common.base.Preconditions;
import com.google.common.io.Resources;

/**
 * Invoke SVN commands from Java.
 * Just log and list for now.
 * <p>
 * Requires the command line SVN executable.
 * These are specified in svn.properties file in class path.
 *
 * Note: Thread safety has not been tested.
 *
 * @author j.betancourt
 *
 */
public class Command {

    /**
     * Constructor.
     * @throws IOException
     */
    public Command() throws IOException {
        try(BufferedReader is = 
             (Resources.asCharSource(Resources.getResource("svn.properties"),
			Charset.defaultCharset())).openBufferedStream()
            ){

            Properties props = new Properties();
            props.load(is);
            commandLineClientLocation = props.getProperty("commandLineClientLocation",
				DEFAULT_SVN_PROGRAM_LOCATION);
            commandLineClientFileName = props.getProperty("commandLineClientFileName", 
				DEFAULT_SVN_EXE);
        }
    }

    /**
     * @see http://svnbook.red-bean.com/en/1.4/svn.ref.svn.c.log.html
     *
     * @param url
     * @return
     * @throws IOException
     * @throws ExecuteException
     * @since Nov 18, 2014
     */
    public String log(String url) throws ExecuteException, IOException {
        Preconditions.checkNotNull(url, "url param is null");
        CommandLine cmdLine = createCmdLine()
                .addArgument("log")
                .addArgument("--stop-on-copy")
                .addArgument("--verbose")
                .addArgument("--xml")
                .addArgument(url);

        return executeCommand(cmdLine);
    }

    /**
     * @see http://svnbook.red-bean.com/en/1.4/svn.ref.svn.c.list.html
     * @param baseURL
     * @return
     * @throws IOException
     * @throws ExecuteException
     * @since Nov 19, 2014
     */
    public String list(String url) throws ExecuteException,IOException {
        Preconditions.checkNotNull(url, "url param is null");
        CommandLine cmdLine = createCmdLine()
                .addArgument("list")
                .addArgument("--xml")
                .addArgument(url);
        return executeCommand(cmdLine);
    }

    private CommandLine createCmdLine() {
        return CommandLine.parse(commandLineClientFileName);
    }

    /**
     * Execute command line at working directory.
     * @param cmdLine
     * @return String that captured the error and standard output streams
     * @throws ExecuteException
     * @throws IOException
     * @since 2014-11-20
     */
    private String executeCommand(CommandLine cmdLine) 
		throws ExecuteException,IOException {
        DefaultExecutor exec = new DefaultExecutor();
        exec.setWorkingDirectory(new File(commandLineClientLocation));

        String str ="";
        try(ByteArrayOutputStream outputStream = 
              new ByteArrayOutputStream()){

            exec.setStreamHandler(new PumpStreamHandler(outputStream));
            exec.execute(cmdLine);
            str =  outputStream.toString();
        }

        return str;
    }

    private static final String DEFAULT_SVN_EXE = "svn.exe";
    private static final String DEFAULT_SVN_PROGRAM_LOCATION = 
		"\\Program Files\\CollabNet\\Subversion Client";

    private String commandLineClientLocation = DEFAULT_SVN_PROGRAM_LOCATION;
    private String commandLineClientFileName = DEFAULT_SVN_EXE;
}

Further reading

Guava

Apache Commons Exec

SVNkit

Calling SVN commands from a java program

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.