# How to debug failing Kernel.system call **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [November 12, 2007, 10:36pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-debug-failing-kernel-system-call/120010 "2007-11-12T22:36:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BallS\_Donald\_A\_Jr\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/da6949/32.png) [@BallS\_Donald\_A\_Jr\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/BallS_Donald_A_Jr_S)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2007, 10:36pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-debug-failing-kernel-system-call/120010/1 "2007-11-12T22:36:51Z")
Hi folks. I’ve got a simple Kernel.system call which is failing: system(‘svn’, ‘commit’, ‘-q’, ‘–non-interactive’, ‘–message’, ‘File updated by dball’, ‘reports/2007-11-11.txt’) with exit code 256. When I run this from the command line, wrapping the final two parameters in double quotes, it runs fine. Any suggestions for what I may be doing wrong or where to look for debugging inspiration? I’m on a win32 box, fwiw, running ruby-1.8.5. Do I need to be manually quoting the parameters to system? (Docs and previous experience suggest not, but I’ve been wrong before.) - donald ---
**Author:** ![BallS\_Donald\_A\_Jr\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/da6949/32.png) [@BallS\_Donald\_A\_Jr\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/BallS_Donald_A_Jr_S)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2007, 2:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-debug-failing-kernel-system-call/120010/2 "2007-11-13T14:05:26Z")
On Nov 12, 11:31 pm, “Ball, Donald A Jr (Library)” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Hi folks. I’ve got a simple Kernel.system call which is failing: > > system(‘svn’, ‘commit’, ‘-q’, ‘–non-interactive’, ‘–message’, ‘File updated by dball’, ‘reports/2007-11-11.txt’) > > with exit code 256. When I run this from the command line, wrapping the final two parameters in double quotes, it runs fine. Any suggestions for what I may be doing wrong or where to look for debugging inspiration? > > I’m on a win32 box, fwiw, running ruby-1.8.5. Do I need to be manually quoting the parameters to system? (Docs and previous experience suggest not, but I’ve been wrong before.) Try to examine stderr output. Plus try to enclose the parameters with spaces in double quotes–it’s Windows anyway, so who knows, it might work that way. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![BallS\_Donald\_A\_Jr\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/da6949/32.png) [@BallS\_Donald\_A\_Jr\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/BallS_Donald_A_Jr_S)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2007, 11:21pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-debug-failing-kernel-system-call/120010/3 "2007-11-13T23:21:46Z")
> > I’m on a win32 box, fwiw, running ruby-1.8.5. Do I need to > > be manually > > quoting the parameters to system? (Docs and previous experience > > suggest not, but I’ve been wrong before.) > > Try to examine stderr output. Plus try to enclose the > parameters with spaces in double quotes–it’s Windows anyway, > so who knows, it might work that way. 😉 I’ve switched to using the single argument version of system doing my own quoting of parameters with spaces, and I continue to get a failing error code. Here’s what I’m doing now: system(“svn commit --non-interactive --message “File added by dball””) after changing pwd to the root of the folder in which the svn repository is checked out. Stderr reports: svn: Commit failed (details follow): svn: Unable to open an ra\_local session to URL svn: Unable to open repository ‘file:///z:/techserv/svn/intranet-files/reports’ The true svn repository is at file:///z:/techserv/svn/intranet-files, while the file I added is in the reports directory. I’d submit that this has nothing to do with ruby but for the fact that when I run that command string from the win32 command shell, it works as expected. I’m pretty much at a loss now, so if anyone has any suggestions, no matter how bizarre, I’m all ears. - donald ---
**Author:** ![BallS\_Donald\_A\_Jr\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/da6949/32.png) [@BallS\_Donald\_A\_Jr\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/BallS_Donald_A_Jr_S)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2007, 1:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-debug-failing-kernel-system-call/120010/4 "2007-11-14T13:40:46Z")
On Nov 14, 12:20 am, “Ball, Donald A Jr (Library)” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > I’d submit that this has nothing to do with ruby but for the fact that > when I run that command string from the win32 command shell, it works as > expected. I’m pretty much at a loss now, so if anyone has any > suggestions, no matter how bizarre, I’m all ears. Try to check environment variables–do you get the same in Kernel#system as when command running from shell?