Summary

The system resources used to manage and communicate with processes are limited, when no longer needed, the resources should be closed and released.

Problem

The java.lang.Process api and implementation documentation do not describe the responsibilities for closing and releasing the resources used by streams and processes.

Solution

The Process documentation should recommend how to close and release resources used by Process and the streams used to communicate with the process. It should describe the implementation fallback to prevent resource leaks if the streams are not closed and are no longer referenced.

Specification

TBD: Javadoc updates to Process and its methods for input, error, and output streams and input, error, and output readers and writers.