From: Simon Krahnke <overlord@...>
Date: 2008-04-24T21:35:03+09:00
Subject: Re: Executing systems commands

* John Maclean <jayeola@gmail.com> (12:19) schrieb:

> #why does this work?
> k.each do |x|
>   p system("which #{x}")
> end
>
> # and this work
> k.each do |x|
>   p system("whereis #{x}")
> end

which and whereis are real programs

> # but this doesn't
> k.each do |x|
>   p system("type -p #{x}")
> end

whereas type is a shell builtin. On my system the standard shell is dash,
which doesn't recognize the -p switch.

NB: system just returns true or false, the output of the command is not
passed to ruby. Use %x for that.

mfg,                  simon .... l