Execute commands in a specific shell within Ruby?

Question

I need to run some commands within a Ruby file, but rather than running them in Bash, because I'm on Unix, I want to run them in a different shell, called "s3sh". How can I specify the shell?

For example, in my Ruby code, I tried:

 system "export RUBYSHELL=s3sh"
 s3 = system "RightAws::S3Interface.new(#{S3ID}, #{S3KEY})"
 system "s3.copy(#{SRCBUCKET}, #{FILE}, #{DESTBUCKET}, #{FILE})"
 system "unset RUBYSHELL"

but it's not possible export environment variables to the shell the Ruby script runs in. (see "Exporting an Environment Variable in Ruby")

I'm pretty sure system always uses /bin/sh on Unixy systems so you might have to invoke s3sh by hand and feed it the necessary commands on its STDIN. — mu is too short
– mu is too short, Commented Jul 26, 2012 at 22:29
@muistooshort The documentation specifically says so (that system() always uses the standard shell, which is always /bin/sh on Unix-like systems) so you're correct. (Although things happen to be easier in this case.) — Darshan Rivka Whittle
– Darshan Rivka Whittle, Commented Jul 26, 2012 at 23:07
@DarshanComputing: The system docs aren't explicit, they just imply that /bin/sh will be used by referring to exec. — mu is too short
– mu is too short, Commented Jul 27, 2012 at 2:02
@muistooshort Huh, seems explicit to me: "command line string which is passed to the standard shell", "See Kernel.exec for the standard shell", and "The standard shell means always /bin/sh on Unix-like systems". Not really worth debating though, we both think you're correct and only disagree in how certain we are that you're correct ;) — Darshan Rivka Whittle
– Darshan Rivka Whittle, Commented Jul 27, 2012 at 3:25

Darshan Rivka Whittle · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-26 22:46:19Z

2

s3sh is just a wrapper around the AWS::S3 gem, so you're over-complicating things. You don't need to shell out; you can just use Ruby:

require 'right_aws'

s3 = RightAws::S3Interface.new(S3ID, S3KEY)
s3.copy(SRCBUCKET, FILE, DESTBUCKET, FILE)

edited Jul 26, 2012 at 22:46

answered Jul 26, 2012 at 22:30

Darshan Rivka Whittle

34.2k7 gold badges97 silver badges114 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Execute commands in a specific shell within Ruby?

1 Answer 1

Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related