Java SE 6 introduced Java Compiler API (javax.tools) which provides a common interface (javax.tools.Tool) for tools that can be invoked from a program. It would be good to add remote method invocation tools (rmic, rmiregistry, rmid, serialver) to the set of tools available with JDK (http://java.sun.com/javase/6/docs/technotes/tools/index.html#rmi).