# How can I do a linux mount in a programmatic way?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-can-i-do-a-linux-mount-in-a-programmatic-way/177988>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [October 27, 2009, 3:51pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-can-i-do-a-linux-mount-in-a-programmatic-way/177988 "2009-10-27T15:51:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Jedrin](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/47e85d/32.png) [@Jedrin](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Jedrin)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2009, 3:51pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-can-i-do-a-linux-mount-in-a-programmatic-way/177988/1 "2009-10-27T15:51:02Z")

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If I do something like system('sudo mount … ') then I don’t really  
get any error codes back to see what happened because I just get the  
sudo return code here. Is there a way to do this like a library call  
in ruby ?

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**Author:** ![Jedrin](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/47e85d/32.png) [@Jedrin](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Jedrin)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2009, 4:13pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-can-i-do-a-linux-mount-in-a-programmatic-way/177988/2 "2009-10-27T16:13:53Z")

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El Martes, 27 de Octubre de 2009, Jedrin  
escribió:\> If I do something like system('sudo mount … ') then I don’t really

> get any error codes back to see what happened because I just get the  
> sudo return code here. Is there a way to do this like a library call  
> in ruby ?

Use open4 (gem install open4):

* * *

require “open4”

pid, stdin, stdout, stderr = Open4::popen4(“sudo mount…”)  
ignored, status = Process::waitpid2 pid

## if status.to\_i != 0 puts “Error: Command returned #{status.to\_i}”" end

You can also inspect the output and error output reading stdout and  
stderr  
(they are IO objects, no strings).

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jedrin](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/47e85d/32.png) [@Jedrin](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Jedrin)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2009, 4:12pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-can-i-do-a-linux-mount-in-a-programmatic-way/177988/3 "2009-10-27T16:12:59Z")

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Jedrin wrote:

> If I do something like system('sudo mount … ') then I don’t really  
> get any error codes back to see what happened because I just get the  
> sudo return code here.

I think you should get the exit status of the program which sudo ran:

$ cat xxx.sh  
exit 123  
$ irb --simple-prompt

> > %x{sudo ./xxx.sh}  
> > =\> “”
> 
> > $?  
> > =\> #\<Process::Status: pid=28583,exited(123)\>
> 
> > $?.exitstatus  
> > =\> 123
> 
> >

[Ubuntu Hardy, sudo 1.6.9p10-1ubuntu3.5]

Otherwise, I don’t know if there’s a way to call the mount API directly  
from ruby.

Even if there was, remember that it wouldn’t work unless the ruby script  
itself were running as root. That is: if you need ‘sudo’ to get root as  
in your original example, then it’s always going to be in a separate  
process.