'Possible causes of java.io.IOException: CreateProcess error=5

What kind of problem(s) could cause Java's ProcessBuilder.start method to return an IOException with a note saying error=5?

Specifically, we've seen a remote customer system running some Java code along the lines of...

ProcessBuilder pb = new ProcessBuilder(cmdArray);
pb.redirectErrorStream(true);
Process p = pb.start();

...throw exceptions like this...

java.io.IOException: CreateProcess: C:\example\example.exe argument1 argument2 error=5
at java.lang.ProcessImpl.create(Native Method)
at java.lang.ProcessImpl.<init>(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.ProcessImpl.start(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.ProcessBuilder.start(Unknown Source)
at example_code_above

We have confirmed that the command noted in the exception, "C:\example\example.exe argument1 argument2" can be run successfully by hand via cmd.exe, so we are confident the command itself is not broken.

javawindows


Solution 1:[1]

error=5 means one of:

1) file is not executable
2) file is not accessible

EDIT: wont throw exception
3) the command (example.exe) exits with exit code 5

Solution 2:[2]

Alexandr is correct, it's Windows security that's not allowing that process to run, but that powershell command didn't work for me. here's what I did:

  • Open up Windows explorer, and navigate to example.exe
  • Right click on it and choose "Properties"
  • Go to the "Security" tab and click the "Edit" button
  • Select your username in the top box and in the bottom one give "Full Control" or at least "Read & Execute"
  • Click OK to get rid of these boxes

Now your user can execute that program. Yay!

Solution 3:[3]

Sometimes this happens because the path you put in code is not correct. For windows put "\\" as a path separator instead of "\" For example change path to "C:\\example\\example.exe"

Solution 4:[4]

I have the same exception because of Windows UAC.

This can happen even if your account has administrator privileges.

To be able to run such command I had to use powershell to elevate privileges.

powershell start-process 'start.bat' -Verb RunAs

Sources

This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Overflow and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Source: Stack Overflow

Solution Source
Solution 1
Solution 2 Ryan Shillington
Solution 3 Bo Persson
Solution 4 Alexandr

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