module Process

Module Process represents a process in the underlying operating system. Its methods support management of the current process and its child processes.

Process Creation

Each of the following methods executes a given command in a new process or subshell, or multiple commands in new processes and/or subshells. The choice of process or subshell depends on the form of the command; see Argument command_line or exe_path.

In addition:

Execution Environment

Optional leading argument env is a hash of name/value pairs, where each name is a string and each value is a string or nil; each name/value pair is added to ENV in the new process.

Process.spawn(                'ruby -e "p ENV[\"Foo\"]"')
Process.spawn({'Foo' => '0'}, 'ruby -e "p ENV[\"Foo\"]"')

Output:

"0"

The effect is usually similar to that of calling ENV#update with argument env, where each named environment variable is created or updated (if the value is non-nil), or deleted (if the value is nil).

However, some modifications to the calling process may remain if the new process fails. For example, hard resource limits are not restored.

Argument command_line or exe_path

The required string argument is one of the following:

Argument command_line

String argument command_line is a command line to be passed to a shell; it must begin with a shell reserved word, begin with a special built-in, or contain meta characters:

system('if true; then echo "Foo"; fi')          # => true  # Shell reserved word.
system('exit')                                  # => true  # Built-in.
system('date > /tmp/date.tmp')                  # => true  # Contains meta character.
system('date > /nop/date.tmp')                  # => false
system('date > /nop/date.tmp', exception: true) # Raises RuntimeError.

The command line may also contain arguments and options for the command:

system('echo "Foo"') # => true

Output:

Foo

See Execution Shell for details about the shell.

Argument exe_path

Argument exe_path is one of the following:

Arguments args

If command_line does not contain shell meta characters except for spaces and tabs, or exe_path is given, Ruby invokes the executable directly. This form does not use the shell:

spawn("doesnt_exist")       # Raises Errno::ENOENT
spawn("doesnt_exist", "\n") # Raises Errno::ENOENT

spawn("doesnt_exist\n")     # => false
# sh: 1: doesnot_exist: not found

The error message is from a shell and would vary depending on your system.

If one or more args is given after exe_path, each is an argument or option to be passed to the executable:

Example:

system('echo', '<', 'C*', '|', '$SHELL', '>')   # => true

Output:

< C* | $SHELL >

However, there are exceptions on Windows. See Execution Shell on Windows.

If you want to invoke a path containing spaces with no arguments without shell, you will need to use a 2-element array exe_path.

Example:

path = '/Applications/Google Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google Chrome'
spawn(path) # Raises Errno::ENOENT; No such file or directory - /Applications/Google
spawn([path] * 2)

Execution Options

Optional trailing argument options is a hash of execution options.

Working Directory (:chdir)

By default, the working directory for the new process is the same as that of the current process:

Dir.chdir('/var')
Process.spawn('ruby -e "puts Dir.pwd"')

Output:

/var

Use option :chdir to set the working directory for the new process:

Process.spawn('ruby -e "puts Dir.pwd"', {chdir: '/tmp'})

Output:

/tmp

The working directory of the current process is not changed:

Dir.pwd # => "/var"

File Redirection (File Descriptor)

Use execution options for file redirection in the new process.

The key for such an option may be an integer file descriptor (fd), specifying a source, or an array of fds, specifying multiple sources.

An integer source fd may be specified as:

There are these shorthand symbols for fds:

The value given with a source is one of:

See Access Modes and File Permissions.

Environment Variables (:unsetenv_others)

By default, the new process inherits environment variables from the parent process; use execution option key :unsetenv_others with value true to clear environment variables in the new process.

Any changes specified by execution option env are made after the new process inherits or clears its environment variables; see Execution Environment.

File-Creation Access (:umask)

Use execution option :umask to set the file-creation access for the new process; see Access Modes:

command = 'ruby -e "puts sprintf(\"0%o\", File.umask)"'
options = {:umask => 0644}
Process.spawn(command, options)

Output:

0644

Process Groups (:pgroup and :new_pgroup)

By default, the new process belongs to the same process group as the parent process.

To specify a different process group. use execution option :pgroup with one of the following values:

On Windows only, use execution option :new_pgroup with value true to create a new process group for the new process.

Resource Limits

Use execution options to set resource limits.

The keys for these options are symbols of the form :rlimit_<i>resource_name</i>, where resource_name is the downcased form of one of the string resource names described at method Process.setrlimit. For example, key :rlimit_cpu corresponds to resource limit 'CPU'.

The value for such as key is one of:

File Descriptor Inheritance

By default, the new process inherits file descriptors from the parent process.

Use execution option :close_others => true to modify that inheritance by closing non-standard fds (3 and greater) that are not otherwise redirected.

Execution Shell

On a Unix-like system, the shell invoked is /bin/sh; the entire string command_line is passed as an argument to [shell option -c](pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799.2018edition/utilities/sh. html).

The shell performs normal shell expansion on the command line:

Example:

system('echo $SHELL: C*') # => true

Output:

/bin/bash: CONTRIBUTING.md COPYING COPYING.ja

Execution Shell on Windows

On Windows, the shell invoked is determined by environment variable RUBYSHELL, if defined, or COMSPEC otherwise; the entire string command_line is passed as an argument to -c option for RUBYSHELL, as well as /bin/sh, and [/c option](learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/window s-commands/cmd) for COMSPEC. The shell is invoked automatically in the following cases:

Note that the command will still be invoked as command_line form even when called in exe_path form, because cmd.exe does not accept a script name like /bin/sh does but only works with /c option.

The standard shell cmd.exe performs environment variable expansion but does not have globbing functionality:

Example:

system("echo %COMSPEC%: C*")' # => true

Output:

C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe: C*

What’s Here

Current-Process Getters

Current-Process Setters

Current-Process Execution

Child Processes

Process Groups

Timing