# I want to turn off backslashing of quotes and such from the

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/i-want-to-turn-off-backslashing-of-quotes-and-such-from-the/106481>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [June 11, 2007, 4:47am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/i-want-to-turn-off-backslashing-of-quotes-and-such-from-the/106481 "2007-06-11T04:47:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2007, 4:47am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/i-want-to-turn-off-backslashing-of-quotes-and-such-from-the/106481/1 "2007-06-11T04:47:43Z")

</div>

I do something like:  
result=`cat mess.html`  
p result

and all my quotes in my html file are suddenly backslashed. Is there  
any way  
to turn that off?

xc

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2007, 6:51am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/i-want-to-turn-off-backslashing-of-quotes-and-such-from-the/106481/2 "2007-06-11T06:51:51Z")

</div>

Hi,

At Mon, 11 Jun 2007 11:47:01 +0900,  
[removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote in [ruby-talk:255079]:

> result=`cat mess.html`  
> puts result

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2007, 9:08am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/i-want-to-turn-off-backslashing-of-quotes-and-such-from-the/106481/3 "2007-06-11T09:08:02Z")

</div>

On Mon, Jun 11, 2007 at 01:51:16PM +0900, Nobuyoshi N. wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> At Mon, 11 Jun 2007 11:47:01 +0900,  
> [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote in [ruby-talk:255079]:
> 
> > result=`cat mess.html`  
> > puts result

Or

print result

if you don’t want an extra newline appended.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2007, 4:38am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/i-want-to-turn-off-backslashing-of-quotes-and-such-from-the/106481/4 "2007-06-12T04:38:23Z")

</div>

Anthony M. wrote:

> On Mon, Jun 11, 2007 at 01:51:16PM +0900, Nobuyoshi N. wrote:
> 
> > Hi,
> > 
> > At Mon, 11 Jun 2007 11:47:01 +0900,  
> > [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote in [ruby-talk:255079]:
> > 
> > > result=`cat mess.html`

Yeah, looks like I only get the backslashes inserted when I use “p”  
instead of puts and print. Thanks.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2007, 4:42am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/i-want-to-turn-off-backslashing-of-quotes-and-such-from-the/106481/5 "2007-06-12T04:42:24Z")

</div>

On 6/11/07, Xeno C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> Anthony M. wrote:
> 
> > On Mon, Jun 11, 2007 at 01:51:16PM +0900, Nobuyoshi N. wrote:
> > 
> > > Hi,
> > > 
> > > At Mon, 11 Jun 2007 11:47:01 +0900,  
> > > [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote in [ruby-talk:255079]:
> > > 
> > > > result=`cat mess.html`
> 
> Yeah, looks like I only get the backslashes inserted when I use “p”  
> instead of puts and print. Thanks.

That’s a feature.

seltzer:~/devel/bazaar/EarGTD sandal$ irb

> > a = “foo  
> > oo”  
> > =\> “foo\noo”  
> > puts a  
> > foo  
> > oo

p looks for the .inspect output, wheras puts uses .to\_s  
useful for debugging.