Running Windows commandline from Java as an Administrator - Creating a .manifest file

Question

I am running Windows 7 Pro and working on a Java application in Eclipse. I need Eclipse to send user-specified commands (such as 'chkdsk C:') to the command prompt and then output to the console in Eclipse whatever the command prompt would have printed. I have the sending commands working and the receiving text back. However, when I to run chkdsk I need to have admin privileges for the command session. I see from the thread here:

Java: run as administrator

that one way to do this is through a .manifest file. However, I am having trouble understanding how to create a manifest file for Java:

Does the .manifest file just go into the Eclipse workspace with the .CLASS files? If I put it there will it run automatically to start my program in admin mode whenever I run the program?

The link given from the above thread:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb756929.aspx

seems to be Visual-Studio specific, will there example code work for a Java program .manifest file? Do I need to create the .manifest file in Visual Studio or is it just a text file?

Also, the name of the manifest file is yourProgram.exe.manifest ... Java as I understand it doesn't create executables of the .exe variety does it? Should the manifest file be named as above or does it need a name like yourProgram.CLASS.manifest?

Thank you for any help!

Causey

As described by Luke Woodward, Java manifest (.MF) and Windows style manifest (.manifest) are two different files. Usually, we create an EXE launcher for the jar. EXE launcher like Launch4J can embed into EXE a Window style manifest. See the link #259228 – Corroboree

Answer 1

The application manifest described here, and the Java manifest file (in the JAR file at META-INF/MANIFEST.MF), are two completely separate concepts that share only a name. There's nothing in META-INF/MANIFEST.MF that will help a Java executable gain elevation.

Besides, its the JVM that needs the elevation, not the class files. Putting the .manifest file with all your class files will not achieve anything.

If I had to do something like this, my preferred approach would be to use a program such as elevate.exe to call CHKDSK. elevate.exe can be found at this blog article linked to in the question you've mentioned. I haven't tested elevate.exe, and the author originally wrote it for Windows Vista, so I don't know how well it works on Windows 7.

It seems that CHKDSK is the only part of your app that requires elevation. If so, it would make sense from a security point-of-view not to have the whole app elevated all of the time when most of the time it can manage without.

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