How to read Android properties with Java

Question

I use 'adb shell getprop' in the terminal. What interfaces can I use in Android JAVA to get the same information?

I have tried several things like:

Properties sysProps = System.getProperties();

But I don't think these are the same properties I am looking for? Specifically, I want to find values that will return similar to the following:

adb shell getprop | grep dolby

The shell 'grep dolby' command returns this:

[audio.dolby.ds2.enabled]: [true] 
[dolby.audio.sink.info]: [headset] 
[dolby.ds.dialogenhancer.state]: [on] 
[dolby.ds.graphiceq.state]: [off] 
[dolby.ds.hpvirtualizer.state]: [off] 
[dolby.ds.intelligenteq.preset]: [Off] 
[dolby.ds.intelligenteq.state]: [off] 
[dolby.ds.platform]: [qcom] 
[dolby.ds.profile.name]: [Movie] 
[dolby.ds.spkvirtualizer.state]: [off] 
[dolby.ds.state]: [off] 
[dolby.ds.volumeleveler.state]: [on] 

But I want to access this information in Android JAVA code.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

I cleaned up TMont's solution and made it more generic (added parameter for propertyName):

import android.util.Log;
import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;

public class SystemProperties {

    private static String GETPROP_EXECUTABLE_PATH = "/system/bin/getprop";
    private static String TAG = "MyApp";

    public static String read(String propName) {
        Process process = null;
        BufferedReader bufferedReader = null;

        try {
            process = new ProcessBuilder().command(GETPROP_EXECUTABLE_PATH, propName).redirectErrorStream(true).start();
            bufferedReader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(process.getInputStream()));
            String line = bufferedReader.readLine();
            if (line == null){
                line = ""; //prop not set
            }
            Log.i(TAG,"read System Property: " + propName + "=" + line);
            return line;
        } catch (Exception e) {
            Log.e(TAG,"Failed to read System Property " + propName,e);
            return "";
        } finally{
            if (bufferedReader != null){
                try {
                    bufferedReader.close();
                } catch (IOException e) {}
            }
            if (process != null){
                process.destroy();
            }
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

In case someone wanted to know my solution... with George's help I ended up using this:

private String propReader() {
        Process process = null;
        try {
            process = new ProcessBuilder().command("/system/bin/getprop")
                    .redirectErrorStream(true).start();
        } catch (IOException e) {
            // TODO Auto-generated catch block
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

        InputStream in = process.getInputStream();

        BufferedReader bufferedReader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(process.getInputStream()));

        StringBuilder log = new StringBuilder();
        String line;
        try {
            while ((line = bufferedReader.readLine()) != null) {
                if (line.contains("dolby"))
                    log.append(line + "\n");
            }
        } catch (IOException e) {
            // TODO Auto-generated catch block
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

        System.out.println(in);

        process.destroy();
        return log.toString();
    }

Answer 3

System.getProperties() does not return the same properties as getprop.

To get getprop properties, try executing getprop using Runtime.exec() and reading its standard output.

Answer 4

There actually is a system side implementation of the getprop call. It is called Systemproperties.get() and can be found here . For users, that work on system code inside the AOSP, or do want to take the risk of using reflect , this is the way to go.

Answer 5

For getting the system properties using reflection, try the below code snippet with your required property name.

public String getSerialNumber() {
        String serialNumber;

        try {
            Class<?> c = Class.forName("android.os.SystemProperties");
            Method get = c.getMethod("get", String.class);

            serialNumber = (String) get.invoke(c, "ril.serialnumber");

            if (serialNumber.equals(""))
                serialNumber = (String) get.invoke(c, "ro.serialno");
            if (serialNumber.equals(""))
                serialNumber = (String) get.invoke(c, "ro.boot.serialno");
            if (serialNumber.equals(""))
                serialNumber = (String) get.invoke(c, "ro.kernel.androidboot.serialno");
            // If none of the methods above worked
            if (serialNumber.equals("")) {
                serialNumber = Build.SERIAL;
            }
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
            serialNumber = "";
        }

        return serialNumber;
    }