Run shell script with parameter in Ruby

Question

I know how to run a script from within Ruby. I usually use back ticks and they work fine. Recently we got request to feed one more argument to the script and problem happens here.

Originally, it looks like this: a global variable defined as:

SCRIPT = "/opt/customer/send_command.pl"

Then, we call

status =`"#{SCRIPT}" -c "ctl.pl qstatus"`
queue = `"#{SCRIPT}" -c "ctl.pl queue"`

Everything is fine. Now, there's one more parameter to feed in the script send_command.pl. So I changed global variable SCRIPT to:

SCRIPT = "/opt/customer/send_command.pl -p production"

And I use the same way to call that script:

status =`"#{SCRIPT}" -c "ctl.pl qstatus"`

But I got the error message:

sh: /opt/customer/send_command.pl -p production: not found

If I ditch SCRIPT variable, just call the script directly like:

status = `/opt/customer/send_command.pl -p production -c "ctl.pl qstatus"`

and it works as expected.

My question is why that happens and how to fix it? I guess I could just manually put -p production everywhere, but it's less ideal and very error prone.

sawa · Accepted Answer · 2013-10-30 15:57:25Z

6

It didn't work because you have extra double quotes. To fix it, remove them.

status =`#{SCRIPT} -c "ctl.pl qstatus"`

answered Oct 30, 2013 at 15:57

sawa

169k51 gold badges287 silver badges398 bronze badges

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

2 Comments

Denis de Bernardy Over a year ago

Interestingly, running "ls", "pwd" (with the extra double quotes) in the shell all work just fine on OSX.

Denis de Bernardy Over a year ago

Yeyeye. I was just noticing the SCRIPT = "/opt/customer/send_command.pl -p production" part. That assuredly wouldn't work.

Plasmarob · Accepted Answer · 2013-10-30 16:01:24Z

1

Either remove the double quotes:

from:

status =`"#{SCRIPT}" -c "ctl.pl qstatus"`

to

status =`#{SCRIPT} -c "ctl.pl qstatus"`

unless you want to try escaping them like:

status ="#{SCRIPT} -c \"ctl.pl qstatus\""

answered Oct 30, 2013 at 16:01

Plasmarob

1,42114 silver badges21 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Run shell script with parameter in Ruby

2 Answers 2

2 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

2 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related