Java startup wrapper

An apparatus and method for shielding the end user from the complexities of initiating a Java program process in a command line interface shell to a computer operating system. The apparatus includes a command template to be applied to the Java program process, a module to implement the command template, and a module to execute the Java program process. The method includes the steps of instantiating a command line interface wrapper object, determining a requested Java class, calling a run method of a command template class to instantiate a JVM object; calling a main method of the requested Java class to execute within the JVM, and completing execution of the requested Java class. The apparatus and method allow a user to issue a command through a command line interface shell that then runs a Java program without the user having to manually start and initialize a JVM.