From: "ara.t.howard" <ara.t.howard@...>
Date: 2008-08-02T04:59:58+09:00
Subject: Re: Capturing shell command output and success?


On Aug 1, 2008, at 1:32 PM, Kyle Schmitt wrote:

> I know shell commands have beaten to death on this list, but searching
> the archives I couldn't quite find what I was looking for.
>
> I want a way to capture the output of the shell command, and the
> success or failure of it.
>
> Of course I've used system("") and %x, and I have been successful in
> getting the return code using @?, although something about it rubs me
> the wrong way.  Not the least of which is that standard error isn't
> captured by anything.
>
> In the case of what I'm doing now, I'd like to shell out to tar, have
> an error returned to me if tar doesn't complete successfully, AND have
> the output of tar for parsing.
>
> Is there a clean mechanism to do this?
>
> Thanks
> --Kyle

simplest and most portable:

gem install systemu

status, stdout, stderr = systemu command

a @ http://codeforpeople.com/
--
we can deny everything, except that we have the possibility of being  
better. simply reflect on that.
h.h. the 14th dalai lama