To change directory inside a ruby script?

Question

I want to create a new rails application and fire up the rails server for that application, everything from a ruby script.

My code look like this:

#!/usr/bin/env ruby system "rails new my_app" system "cd my_app" system "rails server &" 

However, when running "rails server &" the path is not in the my_app folder, but in the parent folder.

Is there a way to change directory inside a script so that i can run "rails server", "rake about" and "rake db:migrate" for that new application?

All work around tips would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Don't listen to them, Dir.chdir("dir") will probably do the wrong thing. What you almost always want is to limit change to a particular context, without affecting the rest of the program like this:

#!/usr/bin/env ruby system "rails new my_app" Dir.chdir("my_app") do   system "rails server &" end # back where we were, even with exception or whatever