From: ptkwt@...1.aracnet.com (Phil Tomson)
Date: 2002-01-22T14:51:30+09:00
Subject: Re: Windows ruby(cygwin version) Command Expansion

In article <3c4ccf40_3@news1.prserv.net>, Songsu Yun <soyun@ibm.net> wrote:
>It might be a known problem, but I could not find anything on this in the
>news group.
>Why does command expansion not work in cygwin version of Windows ruby ?
>I get "command not found: dir" message when I use `dir`.
>I downloaded version 1.6.5 from www.pragmaticprogrammer.com
>It works OK in mswin32 version.
>Thanks in advance
>
>

'dir' is built into the DOS command shell and is not a separate .exe file.
You can either do:
system("cmd.exe /c dir") #on NT|2000
or
system("command.com /c dir") #on Win95|988|ME

OR I prefer to redefine 'system' on Windows, like this:

if RUBY_PLATFORM =~ /win/i
   require 'Win32API'

   def system(command)
     Win32API.new("crtdll", "system", ['P'], 'L').Call(command)
   end
end

That way you don't have to figure out if you're running on NT or 98.

Phil