From: Robert Klemme <shortcutter@...>
Date: 2009-11-27T23:41:25+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby byte access to disk sectors like dd does

2009/11/27 Bill Kelly <billk@cts.com>:
>
> From: "Gary Hasson" <gary@oax.net>
>>
>> I have been unable to find any reference to Ruby methods that provide
>> raw disk access the way dd does. I frequently use the Linux utility
>> program, dd, and would like to be able to do the same type of byte-level
>> and sector-level access to the hard drive with Ruby. (What I am looking
>> for is not file access.) Are there Ruby methods to provide this
>> capability (other than having Ruby access dd)?
>
> [i think my previous post didn't make it to the list]
>
> dd if=/dev/hdb bs=512 count=1 | hexdump -C
>
> ...should be equivalent to...
>
> ruby -e 'File.open("/dev/hdb", "rb") {|io| print(io.read(512))}' | hexdump
> -C

Just a small remark: when using #read for reading I would prefer to
also use #write for writing.  It is more symmetric and It may actually
be that #print does a bit more in light of i18n support in Ruby 1.9.
So that would be

ruby -e 'File.open("/dev/hdb", "rb") {|io|
$stdout.write(io.read(512))}' | hexdump -C

The more fun solution would of course be to code the hex dumping in
Ruby also. :-)

Kind regards

robert

-- 
remember.guy do |as, often| as.you_can - without end
http://blog.rubybestpractices.com/