From: Shashank Date <sdate@...>
Date: 2003-09-01T10:46:59+09:00
Subject: Re: `echo %!(*`


"Mark J. Reed" <markjreed@mail.com> wrote in message
> On Sun, Aug 31, 2003 at 06:00:34PM -0500, Shashank Date wrote:
> > I am not sure that I understand what you mean by "bypassing the shell",
>
> It's simple.  When you execute `some command` (or the equivalent
> using %x), what Ruby actually executes is your command interpreter
> ("shell" in Unix-speak), passing it the string between `...`
> to execute.  It's up to the shell to split up the command into
> words, handle wildcard expansion (at least on UNIX; the command
> interpreter on Windows leaves that latter duty up to the individual
> commands), etc.

[excellent explanation snipped]

Thanks a lot for sharing your insight. I have used Unix quite
a  lot in the past, but somehow missed this basic understanding.

-- shanko