From: Phil Romero <pdromero@...>
Date: 2009-08-23T11:13:03+09:00
Subject: Re: Checking if a specific Unix/Linux command exists


   Since you're using the command line, why not use 'which port'?  it 
should return the path to the port command (i.e., /use/local/bin/port).  
You can always do a regex search for the success case of typing the port 
command on a line by itself as well, if this seems like too 
shell-dependent a solution.


On Sat, Aug 22, 2009 19:00, Hunt Jon wrote:
> I want to check if a command "port" is installed on Mac.
>
> Here is what I have now:
>
>  File.open("test.txt", "w+") do |f|
>    if system("port > /dev/null 2>&1")
>      f.puts %x(port installed)
>    else
>      f.puts "No MacPorts command was found."
>    end
>  end
>
> I tried to check if the command "port" exists and if the command is 
> found,
> it executes the command with the argument. Otherwise,
> it just prints the string "No MacPorts found"...
>
> When running the script, it stalls. Possibly because
> "port" command goes to interactive mode. I prevented
> the output by using "/dev/null", but it seems that the command
> is still running, but not output is shown.
>
> I was also playing with %x(). But I cannot find a solution.
>
> Jon