From: "Mark J. Reed" <markjreed@...>
Date: 2003-11-25T01:42:10+09:00
Subject: Re: redirect stdout

On Mon, Nov 24, 2003 at 03:49:21PM +0000, Reimer Behrends wrote:
> T. Onoma (transami@runbox.com) wrote:
> >  I need to temporarily redirect standard output to nowhere. Not sure
> >  how to do.
> 
> Assuming you run some *IX:
> 
> 	STDOUT.reopen "/dev/null", "w"
> 
> will redirect the standard output (including not just Ruby output,
> but even the output of subprocesses) to /dev/null.

But it also loses the original STDOUT, and M Onoma did say that the
redirection was to be temporary.  You can accomplish that by saving
the original value and restoring it later, like this:

	old_stdout = STDOUT.dup
	STDOUT.reopen( PLATFORM =~ /mswin/ ? "NUL" : "/dev/null" )
	. . .
	STDOUT.reopen(old_stdout)

Or, if you aren't invoking any processes external to ruby, you can leave
STDOUT alone and just change $stdout:

	$stdout = File.open( PLATFORM =~ /mswin/ ? "NUL" : "/dev/null" )
	. . .
	$stdout = STDOUT

-Mark