System command is wierd

Ruby
#1

Hello. this system command works from the command prompt but not from
irb. when i have a space in the directory name, the irb system command
cannot take it.

irb(main):008:0> system(“dir e:\program files”)
Volume in drive E has no label.
Volume Serial Number is N857-EB60

Directory of e:\

File Not Found

Directory of E:\Documents and Settings\rocky

File Not Found
=> false

When i try this thro command prompt, it works
E:\Documents and Settings\rocky>dir “e:\program files”
Volume in drive E has no label.
Volume Serial Number is B857-EB62

Directory of e:\program files

26/01/2008 06:41 PM .
26/01/2008 06:41 PM … …

#2

On Jan 31, 2008, at 19:49 , Junkone wrote:

irb(main):008:0> system(“dir e:\program files”)
E:\Documents and Settings\rocky>dir “e:\program files”

compare what you’re doing in both and notice how they’re different.

#3

Junkone wrote:

File Not Found
Volume Serial Number is B857-EB62

Directory of e:\program files

26/01/2008 06:41 PM .
26/01/2008 06:41 PM … …

Have you tried system(‘dir e:\“program files”’) ?
This works for me in irb.

#4

Hi,

At Fri, 1 Feb 2008 13:06:56 +0900,
Dan wrote in [ruby-talk:289420]:

you could use

system(‘dir “e:/program files”’)

dir is an internal command, and you can’t use forward slashes
as director separators.

#5

If i recall correctly, ruby will convert paths between different os’s if
it
can.

So instead of

system(‘dir e:\“program files”’)

you could use

system(‘dir “e:/program files”’)

and save yourself escaping the backslash.

#6

Yeah

Windows/DOS has accepted either / or \ as directory separators for a
while:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path_(computing)#Representations_of_paths_by_operating_system

However as you said dir is an internal command and forward slash breaks
with
it on the windows command line, but it does work in irb and stand-alone
ruby.

irb(main):001:0> system(‘dir “d:/program files”’)
Volume in drive D is WINDOWS
Volume Serial Number is 847A-A69A

Directory of d:\program files

13/01/2008 05:21 PM .
13/01/2008 05:21 PM …
13/01/2008 05:30 PM Cakewalk
24/10/2007 12:04 AM Common Files
24/10/2007 12:03 AM ComPlus Applications
10/11/2007 11:11 PM DAEMON Tools
03/01/2008 05:12 PM DIFX
24/10/2007 12:48 AM Internet Explorer
04/01/2008 09:28 AM Java
24/10/2007 12:19 AM Messenger
24/10/2007 12:36 AM MSBuild
24/10/2007 12:40 AM MSXML 6.0
24/10/2007 12:31 AM Reference Assemblies
12/12/2007 09:03 PM TortoiseSVN
02/11/2007 04:09 PM vim71
24/10/2007 12:03 AM Windows NT
0 File(s) 0 bytes
18 Dir(s) 5,931,704,320 bytes free
=> true