The GetoptLong class allows you to parse command line options similarly to the GNU getopt_long() C library call. Note, however, that GetoptLong is a pure Ruby implementation.
GetoptLong allows for POSIX-style options like --file as well as single letter options like -f
The empty option -- (two minus symbols) is used to end option processing. This can be particularly important if options have optional arguments.
Here is a simple example of usage:
require 'getoptlong' opts = GetoptLong.new( [ '--help', '-h', GetoptLong::NO_ARGUMENT ], [ '--repeat', '-n', GetoptLong::REQUIRED_ARGUMENT ], [ '--name', GetoptLong::OPTIONAL_ARGUMENT ] ) dir = nil name = nil repetitions = 1 opts.each do |opt, arg| case opt when '--help' puts <<-EOF hello [OPTION] ... DIR -h, --help: show help --repeat x, -n x: repeat x times --name [name]: greet user by name, if name not supplied default is John DIR: The directory in which to issue the greeting. EOF when '--repeat' repetitions = arg.to_i when '--name' if arg == '' name = 'John' else name = arg end end end if ARGV.length != 1 puts "Missing dir argument (try --help)" exit 0 end dir = ARGV.shift Dir.chdir(dir) for i in (1..repetitions) print "Hello" if name print ", #{name}" end puts end
Example command line:
hello -n 6 --name -- /tmp
This class implements a pretty printing algorithm. It finds line breaks and nice indentations for grouped structure.
By default, the class assumes that primitive elements are strings and each byte in the strings have single column in width. But it can be used for other situations by giving suitable arguments for some methods:
newline object and space generation block for PrettyPrint.new
optional width argument for PrettyPrint#text
There are several candidate uses:
text formatting using proportional fonts
multibyte characters which has columns different to number of bytes
non-string formatting
Box based formatting?
Other (better) model/algorithm?
Report any bugs at bugs.ruby-lang.org
Christian Lindig, Strictly Pretty, March 2000, www.st.cs.uni-sb.de/~lindig/papers/#pretty
Philip Wadler, A prettier printer, March 1998, homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/wadler/topics/language-design.html#prettier
Tanaka Akira <akr@fsij.org>
Resolv is a thread-aware DNS resolver library written in Ruby. Resolv can handle multiple DNS requests concurrently without blocking the entire Ruby interpreter.
See also resolv-replace.rb to replace the libc resolver with Resolv.
Resolv can look up various DNS resources using the DNS module directly.
Examples:
p Resolv.getaddress "www.ruby-lang.org" p Resolv.getname "210.251.121.214" Resolv::DNS.open do |dns| ress = dns.getresources "www.ruby-lang.org", Resolv::DNS::Resource::IN::A p ress.map { |r| r.address } ress = dns.getresources "ruby-lang.org", Resolv::DNS::Resource::IN::MX p ress.map { |r| [r.exchange.to_s, r.preference] } end
NIS is not supported.
/etc/nsswitch.conf is not supported.
SortedSet implements a Set that guarantees that its elements are yielded in sorted order (according to the return values of their <=> methods) when iterating over them.
All elements that are added to a SortedSet must respond to the <=> method for comparison.
Also, all elements must be mutually comparable: el1 <=> el2 must not return nil for any elements el1 and el2, else an ArgumentError will be raised when iterating over the SortedSet.
require "set" set = SortedSet.new([2, 1, 5, 6, 4, 5, 3, 3, 3]) ary = [] set.each do |obj| ary << obj end p ary # => [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] set2 = SortedSet.new([1, 2, "3"]) set2.each { |obj| } # => raises ArgumentError: comparison of Fixnum with String failed
Weak Reference class that allows a referenced object to be garbage-collected.
A WeakRef may be used exactly like the object it references.
Usage:
foo = Object.new # create a new object instance p foo.to_s # original's class foo = WeakRef.new(foo) # reassign foo with WeakRef instance p foo.to_s # should be same class GC.start # start the garbage collector p foo.to_s # should raise exception (recycled)
With help from WeakRef, we can implement our own rudimentary WeakHash class.
We will call it WeakHash, since it’s really just a Hash except all of it’s keys and values can be garbage collected.
require 'weakref' class WeakHash < Hash def []= key, obj super WeakRef.new(key), WeakRef.new(obj) end end
This is just a simple implementation, we’ve opened the Hash class and changed Hash#store to create a new WeakRef object with key and obj parameters before passing them as our key-value pair to the hash.
With this you will have to limit your self to String keys, otherwise you will get an ArgumentError because WeakRef cannot create a finalizer for a Symbol. Symbols are immutable and cannot be garbage collected.
Let’s see it in action:
omg = "lol" c = WeakHash.new c['foo'] = "bar" c['baz'] = Object.new c['qux'] = omg puts c.inspect #=> {"foo"=>"bar", "baz"=>#<Object:0x007f4ddfc6cb48>, "qux"=>"lol"} # Now run the garbage collector GC.start c['foo'] #=> nil c['baz'] #=> nil c['qux'] #=> nil omg #=> "lol" puts c.inspect #=> WeakRef::RefError: Invalid Reference - probably recycled
You can see the local variable omg stayed, although its reference in our hash object was garbage collected, along with the rest of the keys and values. Also, when we tried to inspect our hash, we got a WeakRef::RefError. This is because these objects were also garbage collected.
Raised when attempting to divide an integer by 0.
42 / 0 #=> ZeroDivisionError: divided by 0
Note that only division by an exact 0 will raise the exception:
42 / 0.0 #=> Float::INFINITY 42 / -0.0 #=> -Float::INFINITY 0 / 0.0 #=> NaN
Raised when attempting to convert special float values (in particular infinite or NaN) to numerical classes which don’t support them.
Float::INFINITY.to_r #=> FloatDomainError: Infinity
Threads are the Ruby implementation for a concurrent programming model.
Programs that require multiple threads of execution are a perfect candidate for Ruby’s Thread class.
For example, we can create a new thread separate from the main thread’s execution using ::new.
thr = Thread.new { puts "Whats the big deal" }
Then we are able to pause the execution of the main thread and allow our new thread to finish, using join:
thr.join #=> "Whats the big deal"
If we don’t call thr.join before the main thread terminates, then all other threads including thr will be killed.
Alternatively, you can use an array for handling multiple threads at once, like in the following example:
threads = [] threads << Thread.new { puts "Whats the big deal" } threads << Thread.new { 3.times { puts "Threads are fun!" } }
After creating a few threads we wait for them all to finish consecutively.
threads.each { |thr| thr.join }
Thread initialization In order to create new threads, Ruby provides ::new, ::start, and ::fork. A block must be provided with each of these methods, otherwise a ThreadError will be raised.
When subclassing the Thread class, the initialize method of your subclass will be ignored by ::start and ::fork. Otherwise, be sure to call super in your initialize method.
Thread termination For terminating threads, Ruby provides a variety of ways to do this.
The class method ::kill, is meant to exit a given thread:
thr = Thread.new { ... }
Thread.kill(thr) # sends exit() to thr
Alternatively, you can use the instance method exit, or any of its aliases kill or terminate.
thr.exit
Thread status Ruby provides a few instance methods for querying the state of a given thread. To get a string with the current thread’s state use status
thr = Thread.new { sleep } thr.status # => "sleep" thr.exit thr.status # => false
You can also use alive? to tell if the thread is running or sleeping, and stop? if the thread is dead or sleeping.
Thread variables and scope Since threads are created with blocks, the same rules apply to other Ruby blocks for variable scope. Any local variables created within this block are accessible to only this thread.
Each fiber has its own bucket for Thread#[] storage. When you set a new fiber-local it is only accessible within this Fiber. To illustrate:
Thread.new { Thread.current[:foo] = "bar" Fiber.new { p Thread.current[:foo] # => nil }.resume }.join
This example uses [] for getting and []= for setting fiber-locals, you can also use keys to list the fiber-locals for a given thread and key? to check if a fiber-local exists.
When it comes to thread-locals, they are accessible within the entire scope of the thread. Given the following example:
Thread.new{ Thread.current.thread_variable_set(:foo, 1) p Thread.current.thread_variable_get(:foo) # => 1 Fiber.new{ Thread.current.thread_variable_set(:foo, 2) p Thread.current.thread_variable_get(:foo) # => 2 }.resume p Thread.current.thread_variable_get(:foo) # => 2 }.join
You can see that the thread-local :foo carried over into the fiber and was changed to 2 by the end of the thread.
This example makes use of thread_variable_set to create new thread-locals, and thread_variable_get to reference them.
There is also thread_variables to list all thread-locals, and thread_variable? to check if a given thread-local exists.
Exception handling Any thread can raise an exception using the raise instance method, which operates similarly to Kernel#raise.
However, it’s important to note that an exception that occurs in any thread except the main thread depends on abort_on_exception. This option is false by default, meaning that any unhandled exception will cause the thread to terminate silently when waited on by either join or value. You can change this default by either abort_on_exception= true or setting $DEBUG to true.
With the addition of the class method ::handle_interrupt, you can now handle exceptions asynchronously with threads.
Ruby provides a few ways to support scheduling threads in your program.
The first way is by using the class method ::stop, to put the current running thread to sleep and schedule the execution of another thread.
Once a thread is asleep, you can use the instance method wakeup to mark your thread as eligible for scheduling.
You can also try ::pass, which attempts to pass execution to another thread but is dependent on the OS whether a running thread will switch or not. The same goes for priority, which lets you hint to the thread scheduler which threads you want to take precedence when passing execution. This method is also dependent on the OS and may be ignored on some platforms.
Raised when Ruby can’t yield as requested.
A typical scenario is attempting to yield when no block is given:
def call_block yield 42 end call_block
raises the exception:
LocalJumpError: no block given (yield)
A more subtle example:
def get_me_a_return Proc.new { return 42 } end get_me_a_return.call
raises the exception:
LocalJumpError: unexpected return
ThreadGroup provides a means of keeping track of a number of threads as a group.
A given Thread object can only belong to one ThreadGroup at a time; adding a thread to a new group will remove it from any previous group.
Newly created threads belong to the same group as the thread from which they were created.
Raised when throw is called with a tag which does not have corresponding catch block.
throw "foo", "bar"
raises the exception:
UncaughtThrowError: uncaught throw "foo"
newton.rb
Solves the nonlinear algebraic equation system f = 0 by Newton’s method. This program is not dependent on BigDecimal.
To call:
n = nlsolve(f,x)
where n is the number of iterations required,
x is the initial value vector
f is an Object which is used to compute the values of the equations to be solved.
It must provide the following methods:
returns the values of all functions at x
returns 0.0
returns 1.0
returns 2.0
returns 10.0
returns the convergence criterion (epsilon value) used to determine whether two values are considered equal. If |a-b| < epsilon, the two values are considered equal.
On exit, x is the solution vector.
This module provides a framework for message digest libraries.
You may want to look at OpenSSL::Digest as it supports more algorithms.
A cryptographic hash function is a procedure that takes data and returns a fixed bit string: the hash value, also known as digest. Hash functions are also called one-way functions, it is easy to compute a digest from a message, but it is infeasible to generate a message from a digest.
require 'digest' # Compute a complete digest Digest::SHA256.digest 'message' #=> "\xABS\n\x13\xE4Y..." sha256 = Digest::SHA256.new sha256.digest 'message' #=> "\xABS\n\x13\xE4Y..." # Other encoding formats Digest::SHA256.hexdigest 'message' #=> "ab530a13e459..." Digest::SHA256.base64digest 'message' #=> "q1MKE+RZFJgr..." # Compute digest by chunks md5 = Digest::MD5.new md5.update 'message1' md5 << 'message2' # << is an alias for update md5.hexdigest #=> "94af09c09bb9..." # Compute digest for a file sha256 = Digest::SHA256.file 'testfile' sha256.hexdigest
Additionally digests can be encoded in “bubble babble” format as a sequence of consonants and vowels which is more recognizable and comparable than a hexadecimal digest.
require 'digest/bubblebabble' Digest::SHA256.bubblebabble 'message' #=> "xopoh-fedac-fenyh-..."
See the bubble babble specification at web.mit.edu/kenta/www/one/bubblebabble/spec/jrtrjwzi/draft-huima-01.txt.
Digest algorithms Different digest algorithms (or hash functions) are available:
See FIPS PUB 198 The Keyed-Hash Message Authentication Code (HMAC).
As Digest::RMD160. See homes.esat.kuleuven.be/~bosselae/ripemd160.html.
SHA1
See FIPS 180 Secure Hash Standard.
See FIPS 180 Secure Hash Standard which defines the following algorithms:
SHA512
SHA384
SHA256
The latest versions of the FIPS publications can be found here: csrc.nist.gov/publications/PubsFIPS.html.
Psych is a YAML parser and emitter. Psych leverages libyaml [Home page: pyyaml.org/wiki/LibYAML] or [HG repo: bitbucket.org/xi/libyaml] for its YAML parsing and emitting capabilities. In addition to wrapping libyaml, Psych also knows how to serialize and de-serialize most Ruby objects to and from the YAML format.
# Parse some YAML Psych.load("--- foo") # => "foo" # Emit some YAML Psych.dump("foo") # => "--- foo\n...\n" { :a => 'b'}.to_yaml # => "---\n:a: b\n"
Got more time on your hands? Keep on reading!
Psych provides a range of interfaces for parsing a YAML document ranging from low level to high level, depending on your parsing needs. At the lowest level, is an event based parser. Mid level is access to the raw YAML AST, and at the highest level is the ability to unmarshal YAML to Ruby objects.
Psych provides a range of interfaces ranging from low to high level for producing YAML documents. Very similar to the YAML parsing interfaces, Psych provides at the lowest level, an event based system, mid-level is building a YAML AST, and the highest level is converting a Ruby object straight to a YAML document.
The high level YAML parser provided by Psych simply takes YAML as input and returns a Ruby data structure. For information on using the high level parser see Psych.load
Psych.load("--- a") # => 'a' Psych.load("---\n - a\n - b") # => ['a', 'b']
Psych.load_file("database.yml")
Exception handling begin # The second argument changes only the exception contents Psych.parse("--- `", "file.txt") rescue Psych::SyntaxError => ex ex.file # => 'file.txt' ex.message # => "(file.txt): found character that cannot start any token" end
The high level emitter has the easiest interface. Psych simply takes a Ruby data structure and converts it to a YAML document. See Psych.dump for more information on dumping a Ruby data structure.
# Dump an array, get back a YAML string Psych.dump(['a', 'b']) # => "---\n- a\n- b\n" # Dump an array to an IO object Psych.dump(['a', 'b'], StringIO.new) # => #<StringIO:0x000001009d0890> # Dump an array with indentation set Psych.dump(['a', ['b']], :indentation => 3) # => "---\n- a\n- - b\n" # Dump an array to an IO with indentation set Psych.dump(['a', ['b']], StringIO.new, :indentation => 3)
Currently there is no direct API for dumping Ruby structure to file:
File.open('database.yml', 'w') do |file| file.write(Psych.dump(['a', 'b'])) end
Psych provides access to an AST produced from parsing a YAML document. This tree is built using the Psych::Parser and Psych::TreeBuilder. The AST can be examined and manipulated freely. Please see Psych::parse_stream, Psych::Nodes, and Psych::Nodes::Node for more information on dealing with YAML syntax trees.
# Returns Psych::Nodes::Stream Psych.parse_stream("---\n - a\n - b") # Returns Psych::Nodes::Document Psych.parse("---\n - a\n - b")
# Returns Psych::Nodes::Stream Psych.parse_stream(File.read('database.yml')) # Returns Psych::Nodes::Document Psych.parse_file('database.yml')
Exception handling begin # The second argument changes only the exception contents Psych.parse("--- `", "file.txt") rescue Psych::SyntaxError => ex ex.file # => 'file.txt' ex.message # => "(file.txt): found character that cannot start any token" end
At the mid level is building an AST. This AST is exactly the same as the AST used when parsing a YAML document. Users can build an AST by hand and the AST knows how to emit itself as a YAML document. See Psych::Nodes, Psych::Nodes::Node, and Psych::TreeBuilder for more information on building a YAML AST.
# We need Psych::Nodes::Stream (not Psych::Nodes::Document) stream = Psych.parse_stream("---\n - a\n - b") stream.to_yaml # => "---\n- a\n- b\n"
# We need Psych::Nodes::Stream (not Psych::Nodes::Document) stream = Psych.parse_stream(File.read('database.yml')) File.open('database.yml', 'w') do |file| file.write(stream.to_yaml) end
The lowest level parser should be used when the YAML input is already known, and the developer does not want to pay the price of building an AST or automatic detection and conversion to Ruby objects. See Psych::Parser for more information on using the event based parser.
Psych::Nodes::Stream structure parser = Psych::Parser.new(TreeBuilder.new) # => #<Psych::Parser> parser = Psych.parser # it's an alias for the above parser.parse("---\n - a\n - b") # => #<Psych::Parser> parser.handler # => #<Psych::TreeBuilder> parser.handler.root # => #<Psych::Nodes::Stream>
parser = Psych::Parser.new(Psych::Handlers::Recorder.new) parser.parse("---\n - a\n - b") parser.events # => [list of [event, args] lists] # event is one of: Psych::Handler::EVENTS # args are the arguments passed to the event
The lowest level emitter is an event based system. Events are sent to a Psych::Emitter object. That object knows how to convert the events to a YAML document. This interface should be used when document format is known in advance or speed is a concern. See Psych::Emitter for more information.
Psych.parser.parse("--- a") # => #<Psych::Parser> parser.handler.first # => #<Psych::Nodes::Stream> parser.handler.first.to_ruby # => ["a"] parser.handler.root.first # => #<Psych::Nodes::Document> parser.handler.root.first.to_ruby # => "a" # You can instantiate an Emitter manually Psych::Visitors::ToRuby.new.accept(parser.handler.root.first) # => "a"
The Readline module provides interface for GNU Readline. This module defines a number of methods to facilitate completion and accesses input history from the Ruby interpreter. This module supported Edit Line(libedit) too. libedit is compatible with GNU Readline.
Reads one inputted line with line edit by Readline.readline method. At this time, the facilitatation completion and the key bind like Emacs can be operated like GNU Readline.
require "readline" while buf = Readline.readline("> ", true) p buf end
The content that the user input can be recorded to the history. The history can be accessed by Readline::HISTORY constant.
require "readline" while buf = Readline.readline("> ", true) p Readline::HISTORY.to_a print("-> ", buf, "\n") end
Documented by Kouji Takao <kouji dot takao at gmail dot com>.
FileTest implements file test operations similar to those used in File::Stat. It exists as a standalone module, and its methods are also insinuated into the File class. (Note that this is not done by inclusion: the interpreter cheats).
Calculates the set of unambiguous abbreviations for a given set of strings.
require 'abbrev' require 'pp' pp Abbrev.abbrev(['ruby']) #=> {"ruby"=>"ruby", "rub"=>"ruby", "ru"=>"ruby", "r"=>"ruby"} pp Abbrev.abbrev(%w{ ruby rules })
Generates:
{ "ruby" => "ruby",
"rub" => "ruby",
"rules" => "rules",
"rule" => "rules",
"rul" => "rules" }
It also provides an array core extension, Array#abbrev.
pp %w{ summer winter }.abbrev
Generates:
{ "summer" => "summer",
"summe" => "summer",
"summ" => "summer",
"sum" => "summer",
"su" => "summer",
"s" => "summer",
"winter" => "winter",
"winte" => "winter",
"wint" => "winter",
"win" => "winter",
"wi" => "winter",
"w" => "winter" }
The Forwardable module provides delegation of specified methods to a designated object, using the methods def_delegator and def_delegators.
For example, say you have a class RecordCollection which contains an array @records. You could provide the lookup method record_number(), which simply calls [] on the @records array, like this:
require 'forwardable' class RecordCollection attr_accessor :records extend Forwardable def_delegator :@records, :[], :record_number end
We can use the lookup method like so:
r = RecordCollection.new r.records = [4,5,6] r.record_number(0) # => 4
Further, if you wish to provide the methods size, <<, and map, all of which delegate to @records, this is how you can do it:
class RecordCollection # re-open RecordCollection class def_delegators :@records, :size, :<<, :map end r = RecordCollection.new r.records = [1,2,3] r.record_number(0) # => 1 r.size # => 3 r << 4 # => [1, 2, 3, 4] r.map { |x| x * 2 } # => [2, 4, 6, 8]
You can even extend regular objects with Forwardable.
my_hash = Hash.new my_hash.extend Forwardable # prepare object for delegation my_hash.def_delegator "STDOUT", "puts" # add delegation for STDOUT.puts() my_hash.puts "Howdy!"
We want to rely on what has come before obviously, but with delegation we can take just the methods we need and even rename them as appropriate. In many cases this is preferable to inheritance, which gives us the entire old interface, even if much of it isn’t needed.
class Queue extend Forwardable def initialize @q = [ ] # prepare delegate object end # setup preferred interface, enq() and deq()... def_delegator :@q, :push, :enq def_delegator :@q, :shift, :deq # support some general Array methods that fit Queues well def_delegators :@q, :clear, :first, :push, :shift, :size end q = Queue.new q.enq 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 q.push 6 q.shift # => 1 while q.size > 0 puts q.deq end q.enq "Ruby", "Perl", "Python" puts q.first q.clear puts q.first
This should output:
2 3 4 5 6 Ruby nil
Be advised, RDoc will not detect delegated methods.
forwardable.rb provides single-method delegation via the def_delegator and def_delegators methods. For full-class delegation via DelegateClass, see delegate.rb.
SingleForwardable can be used to setup delegation at the object level as well.
printer = String.new printer.extend SingleForwardable # prepare object for delegation printer.def_delegator "STDOUT", "puts" # add delegation for STDOUT.puts() printer.puts "Howdy!"
Also, SingleForwardable can be used to set up delegation for a Class or Module.
class Implementation def self.service puts "serviced!" end end module Facade extend SingleForwardable def_delegator :Implementation, :service end Facade.service #=> serviced!
If you want to use both Forwardable and SingleForwardable, you can use methods def_instance_delegator and def_single_delegator, etc.
a = Node.new a << “B” # => <a>B</a> a.b # => <a>B<b/></a> a.b # => <a>B<b/><b/><a> a.b[“x”] = “y” # => <a>B<b/><b x=“y”/></a> a.b.c # => <a>B<c/><b x=“y”/></a> a.b.c << “D” # => <a>B<c>D</c><b x=“y”/></a>
REXML is an XML toolkit for Ruby, in Ruby.
REXML is a pure Ruby, XML 1.0 conforming, non-validating toolkit with an intuitive API. REXML passes 100% of the non-validating Oasis tests, and provides tree, stream, SAX2, pull, and lightweight APIs. REXML also includes a full XPath 1.0 implementation. Since Ruby 1.8, REXML is included in the standard Ruby distribution.
This API documentation can be downloaded from the REXML home page, or can be accessed online
A tutorial is available in the REXML distribution in docs/tutorial.html, or can be accessed online
This library is an interface to secure random number generators which are suitable for generating session keys in HTTP cookies, etc.
You can use this library in your application by requiring it:
require 'securerandom'
It supports the following secure random number generators:
openssl
/dev/urandom
Win32
Generate random hexadecimal strings:
require 'securerandom' p SecureRandom.hex(10) #=> "52750b30ffbc7de3b362" p SecureRandom.hex(10) #=> "92b15d6c8dc4beb5f559" p SecureRandom.hex(13) #=> "39b290146bea6ce975c37cfc23"
Generate random base64 strings:
p SecureRandom.base64(10) #=> "EcmTPZwWRAozdA==" p SecureRandom.base64(10) #=> "KO1nIU+p9DKxGg==" p SecureRandom.base64(12) #=> "7kJSM/MzBJI+75j8"
Generate random binary strings:
p SecureRandom.random_bytes(10) #=> "\016\t{\370g\310pbr\301" p SecureRandom.random_bytes(10) #=> "\323U\030TO\234\357\020\a\337"
Generate UUIDs:
p SecureRandom.uuid #=> "2d931510-d99f-494a-8c67-87feb05e1594" p SecureRandom.uuid #=> "bad85eb9-0713-4da7-8d36-07a8e4b00eab"
This module manipulates strings according to the word parsing rules of the UNIX Bourne shell.
The shellwords() function was originally a port of shellwords.pl, but modified to conform to POSIX / SUSv3 (IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 [1]).
You can use Shellwords to parse a string into a Bourne shell friendly Array.
require 'shellwords' argv = Shellwords.split('three blind "mice"') argv #=> ["three", "blind", "mice"]
Once you’ve required Shellwords, you can use the split alias String#shellsplit.
argv = "see how they run".shellsplit argv #=> ["see", "how", "they", "run"]
Be careful you don’t leave a quote unmatched.
argv = "they all ran after the farmer's wife".shellsplit #=> ArgumentError: Unmatched double quote: ...
In this case, you might want to use Shellwords.escape, or its alias String#shellescape.
This method will escape the String for you to safely use with a Bourne shell.
argv = Shellwords.escape("special's.txt") argv #=> "special\\'s.txt" system("cat " + argv)
Shellwords also comes with a core extension for Array, Array#shelljoin.
argv = %w{ls -lta lib} system(argv.shelljoin)
You can use this method to create an escaped string out of an array of tokens separated by a space. In this example we used the literal shortcut for Array.new.
Wakou Aoyama
Akinori MUSHA <knu@iDaemons.org>
Akinori MUSHA <knu@iDaemons.org> (current maintainer)