Running soffice process in java hangs only in MacOS

[awidesky]

Trying to make simple document converter with Java by executing a soffice process.
But suddenly simple code like this hangs and does not prints anything.

ProcessBuilder pb = new ProcessBuilder(List.of("/opt/homebrew/bin/soffice", "--help"));
Process p = pb.directory(new File(sdir)).inheritIO().start();
System.out.println("errcode : " + p.waitFor()); //The process never ends!

Executing other commands(like “echo hello”) works, running “/opt/homebrew/bin/soffice --help” directly in shell works, running this code in Windows also works.
Also, since this code worked a few months ago, so I suspect it might be a problem of newer version.

My environment is openjdk 17.0.13 and LibreOffice 24.8.2.1 (0f794b6e29741098670a3b95d60478a65d05ef13) in MacOS Sonoma 14.6.1.
Is there anyone having same issue?

[fpy]

@awidesky

with Java by executing

from an IDE or directly ?

@awidesky

never ends!

what does ps say ?

[awidesky]

@fpy

from an IDE or directly ?

Both have same result(endless hang)

@fpy

what does ps say ?

zsh % ps  xao pid,ppid,stat,comm | grep eclipse
98281     1 S    /Applications/Eclipse.app/Contents/MacOS/eclipse
zsh % ps  xao pid,ppid,stat,comm | grep 38708  
38708 98281 S    /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/temurin-17.jdk/Contents/Home/bin/java
38709 38708 S    /bin/sh
zsh % ps  xao pid,ppid,stat,comm | grep soffice
38710 38709 R    /Applications/LibreOffice.app/Contents/MacOS/soffice

It seems the process is considered running, as a child of /bin/sh(who’s child of java from eclipse).

[awidesky]

Interestingly, modifying command to List.of("zsh", "-c", "/opt/homebrew/bin/soffice", "--help") does not change output of ps. It still says that soffice process is child of /bin/sh

[fpy]

@awidesky

ps xao pid,ppid,stat,comm

add ,cputime,args

@awidesky

child

yep, it’s a wrapper : How do I edit "soffice script" on Mac OS X? - #2 by oweng

[awidesky]

@fpy

add ,cputime,args

zsh % ps  xao pid,ppid,stat,cputime,args,comm | grep -e soffice
39343 39342 S      0:00.00 /bin/sh /opt/homebrew/bin/soffice --help                         /bin/sh
39344 39343 R      1:23.51 /Applications/LibreOffice.app/Contents/MacOS/soffice --help      /Applications/LibreOffice.app/Contents/MacOS/soffice

[fpy]

@awidesky

1:23.51

huh ?

depending how deep you wanna dive into the fun :

• skip the wrapper and call directly /Applications/LibreOffice.app/Contents/MacOS/soffice (make sure it’s a binary)
• just go with pb.start()
• try --safe-mode , --headless …
• last (before a full build :)), something like A shell one-liner to attach GDB to a running process, print backtrace and detach - Stack Overflow

[awidesky]

@fpy

huh ?

I don’t get it. Is that mean something more than just the soffice process has been running for 1 and a half minutes?

@fpy

• skip the wrapper and call directly /Applications/LibreOffice.app/Contents/MacOS/soffice (make sure it’s a binary)
• just go with pb.start()
• try --safe-mode , --headless …

Tried them all but sadly there was no difference.
Will try to downgrade the libreoffice through homebrew, and I’ll try attatching GDB if that doesn’t work.

Edit : Tried 24.2.7 (libreoffice-still — Homebrew Formulae) but no good.

[egautier]

I am also experiencing this. This issue started happening for us with openjdk 17.0.12 and it is specific to running soffice.

I don’t have a solution that involves staying on openjdk 17.0.12+. Good luck!

[awidesky]

Thanks for the information! Never thought it’s the problem of the java itself.
Just like you said, in Adoptium jdk 17.0.13 it didn’t work, but in version 21 it did.

[awidesky]

It seems in Adoptium jdk the issue starts from 17.0.13.
In my Temurin-17.0.12+7 (build 17.0.12+7) soffice command does work. But in 17.0.13 it doesn’t.

I digged a bit and found a jdk bug report about this.
It says affects versions are 21, 23, 24. So I’m not sure if jdk17u maintainer will care for it.
But since I can’t write comment on the bug report, I guess we’ll just have to wait.

[awidesky]

https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8343285
Yay! they found the bug effects jdk17 too.