How to use Java to run a command through Mac OS Terminal

I am a high school student working on a project that will convert the video from a YouTube link into an MP3 and download it. However, the way that the video form YouTube is downloaded and converted is through the Mac OS terminal by using YouTube-dl.

This is what I put into the terminal:

youtube-dl -f bestvideo+bestaudio \"ytsearch:{https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5X-Mrc2l1d0}\"

This works in terminal, but when I try to use:

Runtime.getRuntime().exec("cd /Users/poppa/Desktop/IA Vids");

and there's an error saying "No such file or directory"

Another Problem that I am having is running the code that is inputted into the Terminal from Java. I'm using IntelliJ IDEA if that helps. Thank You!

You have a space in the directory path. Try putting double quotes around like this:

Runtime.getRuntime().exec("cd \"/Users/zeidakel/Desktop/IA Vids\"");

Also note that executing cd command from JVM may have no effect on current user dir when (for example) creating files with new File("path")

If cd means change directory (and isn't the name of an executable), then it almost certainly won't take effect, even if it is executed correctly. The process spawned by exec() will have a working directory, and it can be changed -- but that change will only affect the spawned process.

In addition, having spaces in arguments to exec() is inherently problematic. exec() is not a shell, and you won't be able to protect the string from being split at the spaces by using shell mechanisms like quotes. Instead, you need to split the command into arguments yourself, knowing where the splits should be, and then use the form of exec() that takes a String[] as input. That is, split the arguments into an array of strings yourself, rather than relying on exec() to do it for you (wrongly).

Runtime.exec() is fraught with difficulties, and needs very careful handling. I've written extensively about this subject here:

http://kevinboone.me/exec.html