Executing system commands from Ruby

[MuppetGate]

Hello again. 

 

I wonder if someone could help out with a bit of Ruby scripting. I've written a workflow that deletes a list of files selected from Alfred. The problem is with the script; I can't get it to delete the files.

 

---

 

ext = "{query}"

 

fileNames = text.split("/t")

 

filesDeleted = ""

 

fileNames.each do  |fileName| 

 

    command = "rm -r " + fileName

 

    system(command)

 

    filesDeleted << fileName

 

end

 

print filesDeleted

---

 

Everything else works okay apart from the system call. 

 

Any ideas as to what I've forgotten? ... 

 

[jdfwarrior]

Hello again. 

 

I wonder if someone could help out with a bit of Ruby scripting. I've written a workflow that deletes a list of files selected from Alfred. The problem is with the script; I can't get it to delete the files.

 

---

 

ext = "{query}"

 

fileNames = text.split("/t")

 

filesDeleted = ""

 

fileNames.each do  |fileName| 

 

    command = "rm -r " + fileName

 

    system(command)

 

    filesDeleted << fileName

 

end

 

print filesDeleted

---

 

Everything else works okay apart from the system call. 

 

Any ideas as to what I've forgotten? ... 

 

Have you tried commenting out the system command and just using puts or print to get the exact output of command? Make sure its creating the string correctly? Also, in the command string where you are creating 'rm -r '+filename, you might ought to modify it so that the output of fileName will be in quotes when the command is run so it will still function correctly if the path has a space in it (unless you already have it escaped)

[ctwise]

Hello again. 

 

I wonder if someone could help out with a bit of Ruby scripting. I've written a workflow that deletes a list of files selected from Alfred. The problem is with the script; I can't get it to delete the files.

 

---

 

ext = "{query}"

 

fileNames = text.split("/t")

 

filesDeleted = ""

 

fileNames.each do  |fileName| 

 

    command = "rm -r " + fileName

 

    system(command)

 

    filesDeleted << fileName

 

end

 

print filesDeleted

---

 

Everything else works okay apart from the system call. 

 

Any ideas as to what I've forgotten? ... 

 

You can use the back ticks to run system commands.

 

`rm -r "#{fileName}"`

 

Your problem might be spaces in filenames. Hence the double quotes.

[MuppetGate]

Ah! Right, I've just tried printing and it appears that my split method isn't splitting on the the tab character. I need to play around with it some more I think.

[MuppetGate]

Deja vu. 

 

The fixes it.

 

fileNames = text.split("    ")

 

And I would have surely tripped over the 'spaces in filenames' thing within the next hour. Thanks for the suggestions!

[pittman]

I think the problem with the tabs was that it should be `\t` not `/t`.