JLS Sec 20.16.6 reads

Given an array of strings cmdarray, representing the
tokens of a command line, and an array of strings envp,
representing an "environment" that defines system
properties, this method creates a new process in which
to execute the specified command and returns a Process
object (§20.15) representing the new process.

    envp is the operating system specific environment strings,
    and not system properties. The following piece of code:

String[] env = { "foo=bar", "bar=foo" };
Runtime.getRuntime().exec("ls", env);

    sets the "char *envp[]" of main() in the "ls" program.

    One user tried to exec a java program instead of "ls" and
    excepted his Java program to be able to get at envp values
    via System.getProperty(), which is what a reading of the
    spec seems to imply (see part 2 of evaluation in bug
    4061350). Since Runtime.exec can exec arbitrary programs
    which don't care or know about "system properties", the JLS
    is wrong, and what the code does is correct.

anand.palaniswamy@Eng 1997-08-26