# Cannot run gradlew.bat from project sub folder

**URL:** <https://discuss.gradle.org/t/cannot-run-gradlew-bat-from-project-sub-folder/43012>\
**Category:** Help/Discuss\
**Created:** [May 27, 2022, 5:26am UTC](https://discuss.gradle.org/t/cannot-run-gradlew-bat-from-project-sub-folder/43012 "2022-05-27T05:26:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Shabar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Shabar](https://discuss.gradle.org/u/Shabar)\
**Post date:** [May 27, 2022, 5:26am UTC](https://discuss.gradle.org/t/cannot-run-gradlew-bat-from-project-sub-folder/43012/1 "2022-05-27T05:26:59Z")

</div>

I have below project struture

```gradle
MyProject
    projA
    projB
        build.gradle
gradlew.bat
build.gradle
gradlew
settings.gradle

```

I have below task in `MyProject/projB/build.gradle`

```gradle
def process;
task bootRunStartDaemon() {
    doFirst {

        println("Starting application it profile")

        ProcessBuilder builder = new ProcessBuilder("./gradlew.bat", "bootRun", "--args='--spring.profiles.active=it'")
        builder.redirectErrorStream(true)
        builder.directory(projectDir)
        process = builder.start()
        InputStream stdout = process.getInputStream()
        BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(stdout))

        def line
        while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
            println line
            if (line.contains('Started MyApplication ')) {
                println "App is ready to receive traffic"
                break;
            }
        }
    }
}

```

However when I run `> gradlew bootRunStartDaemon` from the root directory I get below error

```gradle
Caused by: org.gradle.api.UncheckedIOException: java.io.IOException: Cannot run program "./gradlew.bat" (in directory "MyProject\projB"): CreateProcess error=2, The system cannot find the file specified
        at org.gradle.internal.UncheckedException.throwAsUncheckedException(UncheckedException.java:62)

```

I have below in `settings.gradle`

```gradle
....
rootProject.name = "MyProject"
include "projA", "projB"

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Vampire](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/gradle/user_avatar/discuss.gradle.org/vampire/32/9082_2.png) [@Vampire](https://discuss.gradle.org/u/Vampire)\
**Post date:** [May 27, 2022, 7:41am UTC](https://discuss.gradle.org/t/cannot-run-gradlew-bat-from-project-sub-folder/43012/2 "2022-05-27T07:41:54Z")

</div>

There are various issues like  
why do you use `ProcessBuilder` instead of an `Exec` task, or a `GradleBuild` task, or the `GradleRunner` from the tooling API, or actually just invoke the `bootRun` task,  
or that the executable is `gradlew.bat`, not `./gradlew.bat`, the `./` syntax is a Bash-specific thing,  
or that I’m not sure whether you can start a `.bat` file using `ProcessBuilder`.  
The main problem though is, that you set the CWD for the process to the `projectDir` of the subproject instead of `rootProject.projectDir` and in the project dir of the subproject you don’t have a `gradlew.bat` as the error tells you.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Shabar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Shabar](https://discuss.gradle.org/u/Shabar)\
**Post date:** [May 27, 2022, 12:35pm UTC](https://discuss.gradle.org/t/cannot-run-gradlew-bat-from-project-sub-folder/43012/3 "2022-05-27T12:35:48Z")

</div>

@Vampire The reason why I took this approach was, I wanted to start-up the app before running api integration tests in Jenkins. (e.g. `task integrationTest(type: Test, dependsOn: bootRunStartDaemon`)  
I tried with `bootRun` and the issue I had was, it start-up the app and never move to the tests task.

So as you correctly mentioned my integration tests are in submodule ans gradlew.bat file is not accessible from there. That was the issues I wanted to solve.  
The reason why I was using `./gradlew.bat` to go to the root folder from sub module and access `gradlew.bat`

Somehow I manged to do this by adding the complete path as below.

```gradle
ProcessBuilder builder = new ProcessBuilder(projectDir.toString().replace("projB","") + gradleCommand, "bootRun", "--args='--spring.profiles.active=it'")

```

But not sure whther there is a better way.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Vampire](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/gradle/user_avatar/discuss.gradle.org/vampire/32/9082_2.png) [@Vampire](https://discuss.gradle.org/u/Vampire)\
**Post date:** [May 27, 2022, 4:12pm UTC](https://discuss.gradle.org/t/cannot-run-gradlew-bat-from-project-sub-folder/43012/4 "2022-05-27T16:12:47Z")

</div>

> `./gradlew.bat` to go to the root folder

Thast does not go to the root folder.  
You set with `builder.directory(projectDir)` the project dir of the subproject as working directory.  
And `./gradlew.bat` is the `gradlew.bat` in the current working directory.  
What you meant to do is `../gradlew.bat`.  
Or probably better and easier use `builder.directory(rootProject.projectDir)` to have the working directory in the root projects directory.

Btw. the idiomatic way to start such a server is to use a shared build service.  
There you can properly start up a server and when it is no longer needed, shut it down orderly.  
See here for more information: [Shared Build Services](https://docs.gradle.org/current/userguide/build_services.html)