From: "Mark J. Reed" <markjreed@...>
Date: 2004-01-31T14:29:51+09:00
Subject: Re: regex bug?

On Sat, Jan 31, 2004 at 01:07:42PM +0900, Zach Dennis wrote:
> key = "file"
> attrib = "\\Applications\\4Dapp\\Chess\\"
> command = "xcopy [file] /y /s /e i:\\source\\"
> command.gsub!( /\[#{key}\]/ , "#{attrib}" )
> puts command
> => "xcopy \\ApplicationsDapp\\Chess\\ /y /s /e i:\\source\\"

As others have said, '\4' in a gsub string is special.  To get around
this you need yet another backslash in front of it, which of course
means two more backslashes between the double quotes:

        attrib = "\\Applications\\\\4Dapp\\Chess\\"

You can safely double all backslashes in gsub strings, so you might just
want to make it special-processing-proof automatically with some
preparatory munging of your own:

        attrib = "\\Applications\\4Dapp\\Chess\\".gsub(/\\/, '\\\\\\')

Just as a side note, if you're going to be making literal strings with
backslashes, single quotes cut down on the number of doublings required:

        attrib = '\Applications\4Dapp\Chess\\'.gsub(/\\/, '\\\\\\')

-Mark