How do i open a terminal using ruby?

Ruby
1

hi-

i want to open up a terminal from ruby if it was not executed in one.
so,

if not STDIN.isatty
#Open up a terminal
end

do i have to use IO.popen? i would rather not because, i’m using linux
but this ruby script will also be executed on windows. how do i account
for when to use “gnome-terminal” and when to use “cmd”? then, how do i
write to that terminal window?

is there something easier?

thanks!!!

2

On Jul 21, 2008, at 6:08 PM, Philip Rutkowski wrote:

but this ruby script will also be executed on windows. how do i
account
for when to use “gnome-terminal” and when to use “cmd”? then, how do i
write to that terminal window?

I have no idea if this will work, but it’s worth a shot …

Kernel.exec ‘/bin/bash’, ‘-c’, “ruby #{FILE} #{ARGV.join(’ ')}”

Beware the infinite recursion!

Blessings,
TwP

3

On Jul 21, 2008, at 6:08 PM, Philip Rutkowski wrote:

but this ruby script will also be executed on windows. how do i
account
for when to use “gnome-terminal” and when to use “cmd”? then, how do i
write to that terminal window?

is there something easier?
thanks!!!

why?

a @ http://codeforpeople.com/

4

Philip Rutkowski wrote:

if not STDIN.isatty
 #Open up a terminal
end
[…]
is there something easier?

If I’m not mistaken, on Windows ruby scripts automatically open in a
command
window. And most filemanagers on unix ask you whether to open a terminal
when
clicking on an executable file. So I don’t think there’s any need to do
what
you’re trying to do.

HTH,
Sebastian

5

Sebastian H. wrote:

Philip Rutkowski wrote:

if not STDIN.isatty
 #Open up a terminal
end
[…]
is there something easier?

If I’m not mistaken, on Windows ruby scripts automatically open in a
command
window. And most filemanagers on unix ask you whether to open a terminal
when
clicking on an executable file. So I don’t think there’s any need to do
what
you’re trying to do.

HTH,
Sebastian

I have the same need. I have a script that runs in a terminal right
now, but I eventually want to make it gui (probably with Shoes) and I’ll
need an option to click a button and open a command prompt (then run a
command in that command prompt and leave the prompt open for the user to
use).

I haven’t even begun converting to the gui part yet though, so I haven’t
put much thought into how I’m going to accomplish this. Oh yeah, and
this will need to be cross-platform, too, but it may just be a matter of
writing a slightly different program for each platform.

James

6

On Jul 22, 2008, at 6:37 AM, James D. wrote:

put much thought into how I’m going to accomplish this. Oh yeah, and
this will need to be cross-platform, too, but it may just be a
matter of
writing a slightly different program for each platform.

James

Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

Check out Monkeybars (http://monkeybars.rubyforge.org/) for GUI stuff.
Combine that with Rawr and you should have a slick cross-platform GUI
along with native .app/.exe files and/or a web start link. Monkeybars
sits on JRuby, so you might be able to find some Java libraries to
help you out along with your gems. A quick search for Java terminal
stuff yielded JLine (http://jline.sourceforge.net/). Of course, that’s
if the gem you had in mind isn’t adequate for what you’re doing.

7

On Tuesday 22 July 2008 03:54:46 Sebastian H. wrote:

Tim P. wrote:

Kernel.exec ‘/bin/bash’, ‘-c’, “ruby #{FILE} #{ARGV.join(’ ')}”

That won’t open a terminal windows. It will simply execute bash which will
execute ruby, but if you weren’t in a window before, you’re still not.

I don’t think there’s any standard way to open another terminal
window,
given that some platforms allow you to install many different kinds of
terminals in the first place, and there simply is no way to do this
consistently and cross-platform.

On Windows, you could definitely call ‘cmd’. On OS X, you’re probably
safe
doing something with Terminal.app. But on Linux, what do you do?
Gnome-terminal? Konsole? xterm? These are probably the most common to be
installed, yet none are guaranteed…

You could always implement your own terminal, in your own GUI – but
then
you’ll irritate people who have a favorite terminal, and would rather
work
from there. So this only really makes sense if you’re just going to go
whole-hog and use the GUI for everything.

I think about all you can do here is detect that you’re not running in a
terminal, and if you’re not, exit with an error. Most platforms make it
easy
enough to run a script in a terminal – it’s the default on Windows; OS
X has
a “script menu” that opens them in Terminal; and on typical Linux
desktop
environments, application launchers have a simple checkbox for “run in
terminal”, and double-clicking on a Ruby script should run it in a
terminal
anyway.

8

Tim P. wrote:

Kernel.exec ‘/bin/bash’, ‘-c’, “ruby #{FILE} #{ARGV.join(’ ')}”

That won’t open a terminal windows. It will simply execute bash which
will
execute ruby, but if you weren’t in a window before, you’re still not.