[java] How can I restart a Java application?

Although this question is old and answered, I've stumbled across a problem with some of the solutions and decided to add my suggestion into the mix.

The problem with some of the solutions is that they build a single command string. This creates issues when some parameters contain spaces, especially java.home.

For example, on windows, the line

final String javaBin = System.getProperty("java.home") + File.separator + "bin" + File.separator + "java";

Might return something like this:C:\Program Files\Java\jre7\bin\java

This string has to be wrapped in quotes or escaped due to the space in Program Files. Not a huge problem, but somewhat annoying and error prone, especially in cross platform applications.

Therefore my solution builds the command as an array of commands:

public static void restart(String[] args) {

        ArrayList<String> commands = new ArrayList<String>(4 + jvmArgs.size() + args.length);
        List<String> jvmArgs = ManagementFactory.getRuntimeMXBean().getInputArguments();

        // Java
        commands.add(System.getProperty("java.home") + File.separator + "bin" + File.separator + "java");

        // Jvm arguments
        for (String jvmArg : jvmArgs) {
            commands.add(jvmArg);
        }

        // Classpath
        commands.add("-cp");
        commands.add(ManagementFactory.getRuntimeMXBean().getClassPath());

        // Class to be executed
        commands.add(BGAgent.class.getName());

        // Command line arguments
        for (String arg : args) {
            commands.add(arg);
        }

        File workingDir = null; // Null working dir means that the child uses the same working directory

        String[] env = null; // Null env means that the child uses the same environment

        String[] commandArray = new String[commands.size()];
        commandArray = commands.toArray(commandArray);

        try {
            Runtime.getRuntime().exec(commandArray, env, workingDir);
            System.exit(0);
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }