# Newbie: how to script windows commands with ruby? **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [November 18, 2006, 5:50pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-how-to-script-windows-commands-with-ruby/76427 "2006-11-18T17:50:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jasonmorrison](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/47e85d/32.png) [@jasonmorrison](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jasonmorrison)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2006, 5:50pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-how-to-script-windows-commands-with-ruby/76427/1 "2006-11-18T17:50:56Z")
Hi! I’ve been learning ruby for a little while, but I’m having trouble figuring out how to do this (and I must be using the wrong keywords in my google search). I do tech support, and I’m looking to automate some basic troubleshooting over a web interface for my coworkers and new hires. What I’d like to do is script the windows ping command and scrape the results. Anyone know where I can find good references on this? So I guess my question could be clarified as How do I script windows command line commands via ruby (I understand that in linux I could just use `ping xxx`)? The second question would be ‘How do I scrape the output of a windows cmd.exe command and use it in the rest of my script?’ Thanks in advance! ---
**Author:** ![jasonmorrison](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/47e85d/32.png) [@jasonmorrison](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jasonmorrison)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2006, 6:53pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-how-to-script-windows-commands-with-ruby/76427/2 "2006-11-18T18:53:06Z")
`ping xxx` will work in windows as well. Try String#scan, String#split for scraping, as well as the rest of String’s methods - they’re very useful. `ping www.google.com`.split("\r\n") will get you an array of the lines of output. I can’t really say more without knowing more about what you want to scrape out. Ken ---
**Author:** ![jasonmorrison](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/47e85d/32.png) [@jasonmorrison](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jasonmorrison)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2006, 7:11pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-how-to-script-windows-commands-with-ruby/76427/3 "2006-11-18T19:11:09Z")
Jason M. wrote: > So I guess my question could be clarified as How do I script windows > command line commands via ruby (I understand that in linux I could > just use `ping xxx`)? Yes, that’s right, and it works in Windows (under Ruby) the same way. But clearly this didn’t work for you. So, what did you try, and what was the result? Have you tried: data = `ping -n 1 hostname`.chomp > The second question would be ‘How do I scrape the output of a windows > cmd.exe command and use it in the rest of my script?’ This should work: data = `cmd.exe /C command`.chomp Again, it would help to see what you tried and what you got. ---
**Author:** ![jasonmorrison](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/47e85d/32.png) [@jasonmorrison](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jasonmorrison)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2006, 7:47pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-how-to-script-windows-commands-with-ruby/76427/4 "2006-11-18T19:47:14Z")
I feel ashamed of myself, but I hadn’t actually tried using what I thought to be the \*nux only command. Your example worked flawlessly, thanks! (and now I get to start on my project!) ---
**Author:** ![jasonmorrison](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/47e85d/32.png) [@jasonmorrison](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jasonmorrison)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2006, 7:53pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-how-to-script-windows-commands-with-ruby/76427/5 "2006-11-18T19:53:15Z")
Hi, could someone pls help me out a bit: I’d like send out e-mails from a script on our server, but not with smtp, rather giving them to the postfix pickup transport (like mailx or mutt does it), calling /sbin/sendmail or the like. The trick is, that at the time of sending it the full mail string is ready with headers and all. What is the easiest ruby way to do it? Thx in advance: Szab ---
**Author:** ![jasonmorrison](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/47e85d/32.png) [@jasonmorrison](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jasonmorrison)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2006, 8:25pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-how-to-script-windows-commands-with-ruby/76427/6 "2006-11-18T20:25:19Z")
Parragh S. wrote: > Hi, > could someone pls help me out a bit: I’d like send out e-mails from a > script on our server, but not with smtp, rather giving them to the > postfix pickup transport (like mailx or mutt does it), calling > /sbin/sendmail or the like. The trick is, that at the time of sending it > the full mail string is ready with headers and all. You aren’t being very clear about what you do and don’t want, but in any case, try this: Example 1: `echo "Here is my message" | /usr/sbin/sendmail removed_email_address@domain.invalid` Example 2: `echo -e "From: removed_email_address@domain.invalid\nSubject: This is a test\nHere is my message text." | /usr/sbin/sendmail removed_email_address@domain.invalid` The point is you can pipe all the required information to sendmail, one way or another. You could also use “popen” instead of the above approach. ---
**Author:** ![jasonmorrison](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/47e85d/32.png) [@jasonmorrison](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jasonmorrison)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2006, 10:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-how-to-script-windows-commands-with-ruby/76427/7 "2006-11-18T22:59:33Z")
Paul L. írta: > You aren’t being very clear about what you do and don’t want, but in any > case, try this: Thanks for the reply. I would like to do the following steps: 1. Get an e-mail from an account by pop3. 2. Alter the headers in that mail (simple text processing). 3. Send out that same mail to a few dozen addresses that I get form a database. The mail should be the one that was pop3-ed, I must not create a new multipart message. So after the text processing (step 2) I consider the mail text (= ruby string) ready for sending, no further processing needed. For sending. – I could use Net::SMTP.start… – but I don’t want to use SMTP on localhost, I’d prefer the pickup transport. – and I could use: File.popen(/usr/sbin/sendmail, “w”) do | pipe | pipe.puts … … … But thought there is a nicer way to do this… Is there? Szab ---
**Author:** ![jasonmorrison](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/47e85d/32.png) [@jasonmorrison](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jasonmorrison)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2006, 1:07am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-how-to-script-windows-commands-with-ruby/76427/8 "2006-11-19T01:07:44Z")
Parragh S. wrote: > database. The mail should be the one that was pop3-ed, I must not create > a new multipart message. So after the text processing (step 2) I > consider the mail text (= ruby string) ready for sending, no further > processing needed. Okay, I get it, you are designing a mail relay bot that receives a message, clones it, and sends it out in large volumes. I wish you the best of luck.