From: Tim Hammerquist <tim@...>
Date: 2002-07-02T09:10:35+09:00
Subject: Re: Question: ruby vs. ksh

David Douthitt graced us by uttering:

[ HTML-bloat snipped ]

[ snip ]
> Why should I use (or when should I use) ruby over ksh?
> (Yes, I mean it :-)

ruby is not a shell, though there is undoubtedly at least 1 or 2 ruby
shell projects in progress right now.

As far as using ruby for admin tasks, I've been using Ruby for 99% of my
admin tasks since approx. 1 month after learning Ruby, and it's several
times more graceful than ksh or any shell language for most tasks, IMHO.

> PS: How do I do mkdir -p in ruby?

Hmm.  TMTOWTDI:

# 1)

system('mkdir -p foo/bar')

# 2)

'foo/bar'.split('/').each do |dir|
  Dir::mkdir(dir)
end

# 3)
require "ftools"            # standard library
File::mkpath('foo/bar')

HTH
Tim Hammerquist
-- 
Note that by displacing from "I got confused" to "It got confused", the
programmer is not avoiding responsibility, but rather getting some analytical
distance in order to be able to consider the bug dispassionately.
    -- Jargon File 4.3.1