# How to execute files or commands in ruby? **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [September 10, 2008, 7:58pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-execute-files-or-commands-in-ruby/148235 "2008-09-10T19:58:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![F3leR\_F3leR](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/a87d85/32.png) [@F3leR\_F3leR](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/F3leR_F3leR)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 7:58pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-execute-files-or-commands-in-ruby/148235/1 "2008-09-10T19:58:11Z")
Hi! This is mi first message i’m new and i’m spanish if you are spanish please contact me. My question is: How I can execute files or commands in the system? Thanks for reading and have a nice day! ---
**Author:** ![F3leR\_F3leR](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/a87d85/32.png) [@F3leR\_F3leR](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/F3leR_F3leR)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 8:10pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-execute-files-or-commands-in-ruby/148235/2 "2008-09-10T20:10:33Z")
Overkill I know _ **BEGIN SCRIPT** _ class Example def hostname puts `hostname` end def date puts `date` end def message puts `echo 'just put you command between the tick marks'` end end e = Example.new e.hostname e.date e.message _ **END SCRIPT** _ ---
**Author:** ![F3leR\_F3leR](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/a87d85/32.png) [@F3leR\_F3leR](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/F3leR_F3leR)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 8:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-execute-files-or-commands-in-ruby/148235/3 "2008-09-10T20:34:03Z")
2008/9/10 Vazquez, Eduardo [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) > puts `date` > e.message > > “NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended > recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any > unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you > are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and > destroy all copies of the original message.” That don’t work for me. Only print in the screen the command. But I found the solution: exec ‘the command’ Have a nice day 😉 – Angel A. F3leR ---
**Author:** ![F3leR\_F3leR](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/a87d85/32.png) [@F3leR\_F3leR](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/F3leR_F3leR)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 9:41pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-execute-files-or-commands-in-ruby/148235/4 "2008-09-10T21:41:34Z")
On Wed, Sep 10, 2008 at 2:27 PM, Angel A. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > e.hostname > > To: ruby-talk ML > > – > Angel A. > > F3leR You can also use: returned\_data = `df`` # This will execute the ---
**Author:** ![F3leR\_F3leR](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/a87d85/32.png) [@F3leR\_F3leR](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/F3leR_F3leR)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 11:32pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-execute-files-or-commands-in-ruby/148235/5 "2008-09-10T23:32:21Z")
My favorite way of executing commands is output=%x{command name} So if you wanted the output of sar to slice and dice your machine’s stats sar\_output=%x{sar} ls\_output=%x{ls} is equivalent to ls\_output=`ls`, it’s just easier to read/notice in the file etc. There are other ways of course, but they’re more complex, and %x{} should work for %90 of what you want to do –kyle ---
**Author:** ![F3leR\_F3leR](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/a87d85/32.png) [@F3leR\_F3leR](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/F3leR_F3leR)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 8:44am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-execute-files-or-commands-in-ruby/148235/6 "2008-09-11T08:44:09Z")
I use popen3 because I usually want to capture any output to stderr as well as stdout. Here is an example: Open3.popen3(“commandname”) do |input\_stream, output\_stream, error\_stream| standard\_output = output\_stream.read standard\_error = error\_stream.read end The variables “standard\_output” and “standard\_error” will be string variables at that point, containing the text of the error and output streams. I haven’t had a need to use stdin, but I suspect calling the ‘write’ method on “input\_stream” would be be the equivalent of piping information to the command. However, it may also provide a method of scripting an interactive command. You can also use it without a block like this: [input\_stream, output\_stream, error\_stream] = Open3.popen3(“commandname”) You then have an array containing the IO streams, and then you could call the ‘read’ method on the streams just as above, although I’ve always used the block form. James ---
**Author:** ![F3leR\_F3leR](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/a87d85/32.png) [@F3leR\_F3leR](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/F3leR_F3leR)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 8:46pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-execute-files-or-commands-in-ruby/148235/7 "2008-09-10T20:46:25Z")
On Wed, Sep 10, 2008 at 2:27 PM, Angel A. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > e.hostname > > To: ruby-talk ML > > – > Angel A. > > F3leR You can also use: returned\_data = `df`` # This will execute the command, _df_ and the output of the command will be found on variable _returned\_data_ Regards… ---
**Author:** ![F3leR\_F3leR](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/a87d85/32.png) [@F3leR\_F3leR](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/F3leR_F3leR)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 4:51pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-execute-files-or-commands-in-ruby/148235/8 "2008-09-11T16:51:34Z")
Dick D. wrote: > On Wed, Sep 10, 2008 at 7:27 PM, Angel A. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) > wrote: > > > That don’t work for me. > > Only print in the screen the command. > > That sounds like you’re using standard quotes (’ or "). > You need to use ‘backticks’ (`). In windows, I always use system(“cmd”) because the backticks(`) doesn’t work most of the time. ---
**Author:** ![F3leR\_F3leR](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/a87d85/32.png) [@F3leR\_F3leR](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/F3leR_F3leR)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 10:31am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-execute-files-or-commands-in-ruby/148235/9 "2008-09-11T10:31:41Z")
On Wed, Sep 10, 2008 at 7:27 PM, Angel A. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > That don’t work for me. > Only print in the screen the command. That sounds like you’re using standard quotes (’ or "). You need to use ‘backticks’ (`).