* * * * *

         Notes on obtaining a process ID from Java on Mac OS Big Sur

There's a tool I use at work to manually test the code we work on. It's a
graphical tool written in Java, and it allows us to configure the data for a
test. It then runs another process that starts everything up, and then runs
another tool to inject a SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) message into the
code being tested. It then opens the output file from the SIP injection tool
to display the results. This tool doesn't work quite right on Belial, the
annoying Mac Laptop [1].

Problem one—the output file has, as part of its name, the process ID
(Identifier) of the SIP injection tool. And it seems there is no easy way to
get said process ID from within Java. The other issue, also related to
process IDs, is it attempts to stop the process that starts everything up.
That fails, because again, there is no easy way to get a process ID from
within Java.

There is code that attempts to get a process ID:

-----[ Java ]-----
process = pb.start();
if (process.getClass().getName().equals("java.lang.UNIXProcess"))
{
 try
 {
   Field f = process.getClass().getDeclaredField("pid");
   f.setAccessible(true);
   sippPid = f.getInt(process);
 }
 catch (Throwable e)
 {
 }
}
-----[ END OF LINE ]-----

This horrible bit of code does work under Linux, and it works on older
versions of Mac OS-X. But Belial is a more modern version of Mac OS-X, on the
new Apple M1 architecture. Here, sippPid is always 0.

Sigh.

[1] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2022/02/17.1

Email author at [email protected]

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