From: Mark Wilson <mwilson13@...>
Date: 2003-09-01T09:17:25+09:00
Subject: Re: `echo %!(*`


On Sunday, August 31, 2003, at 07:46 PM, Tom Felker wrote:

> oldName = "02_Ship_At_Sea_(Instrumental).ogg"
> tags = Hash.new
> `vorbiscomment #{oldName}`.each_line do |line|
> 	key, value = line.split("=", 2)
> 	tags[key.downcase] = value
> end
> # ...use tags to formulate proper filename and rename
>
> # Errors:
> sh: -c: line 1: syntax error near unexpected token `('
> sh: -c: line 1: `vorbiscomment 02_Ship_At_Sea_(Instrumental).ogg'
> ....
>
> If you use system, you can pass the arguments in an array, and the 
> shell
> isn't used, so you can have arguments that the shell would barf on.
>
> system("echo !@#$%^&") == ""
> system("echo", "!@#$%^&") == "!@#$%^&")
>
> I need a backtick method that works the same way.  Having popen work
> that way would be nice.  As it is, I think it's only possible with
> popen("-"), having the child exec in such a way as to not interpolate
> the arguments, and reading from that.
> [snip]

Your error is a shell syntax error, and not a Ruby error. Unix shells 
don't recognize unescaped parentheses within file names.

Change the line

oldName = "02_Ship_At_Sea_(Instrumental).ogg"

to oldName = "02_Ship_At_Sea_\(Instrumental\).ogg"