上面的答案已经非常棒了，但是我真的很想分享下面的总结文章:“在Ruby中运行Shell命令的6种方法”

基本上，它告诉我们:

# exec内核:

exec 'echo "hello $HOSTNAME"'

System和$?：

system 'false' 
puts $?

Backticks ():

today = `date`

IO # execlp:

IO.popen("date") { |f| puts f.gets }

Open3#popen3—stdlib:

require "open3"
stdin, stdout, stderr = Open3.popen3('dc') 

Open4#popen4—一个宝石:

require "open4" 
pid, stdin, stdout, stderr = Open4::popen4 "false" # => [26327, #<IO:0x6dff24>, #<IO:0x6dfee8>, #<IO:0x6dfe84>]

不确定shell命令。我使用以下命令将系统命令的输出捕获到变量val中:

val = capture(:stdout) do
  system("pwd")
end

puts val

缩短版本:

val = capture(:stdout) { system("pwd") }

捕获方法由active_support/core_ext/kernel/reporting.rb提供

类似地，我们也可以用:stderr捕获标准错误

我们可以通过多种方式来实现它。

使用Kernel#exec命令执行后什么都没有:

exec('ls ~')

使用反引号或%x

`ls ~`
=> "Applications\nDesktop\nDocuments"
%x(ls ~)
=> "Applications\nDesktop\nDocuments"

使用Kernel#system命令，如果成功返回true，不成功返回false，如果命令执行失败返回nil:

system('ls ~')
=> true

不要忘记使用spawn命令创建一个后台进程来执行指定的命令。你甚至可以使用Process类和返回的pid来等待它的完成:

pid = spawn("tar xf ruby-2.0.0-p195.tar.bz2")
Process.wait pid

pid = spawn(RbConfig.ruby, "-eputs'Hello, world!'")
Process.wait pid

文档说:这个方法类似于#system，但它不会等待命令完成。

最简单的方法是:

reboot = `init 6`
puts reboot

如果您有一个比普通情况更复杂的情况，不能用' '来处理，那么请检查Kernel.spawn()。这似乎是Ruby提供的用于执行外部命令的最通用/功能最齐全的程序。

你可以用它来:

创建进程组(Windows)。 重定向进，出，错误文件/彼此。 设置env vars, umask。 执行命令前请更换目录。 设置CPU/数据等资源限制。 在其他答案中做其他选项可以做的所有事情，但需要更多的代码。

Ruby文档中有足够好的例子:

env: hash
  name => val : set the environment variable
  name => nil : unset the environment variable
command...:
  commandline                 : command line string which is passed to the standard shell
  cmdname, arg1, ...          : command name and one or more arguments (no shell)
  [cmdname, argv0], arg1, ... : command name, argv[0] and zero or more arguments (no shell)
options: hash
  clearing environment variables:
    :unsetenv_others => true   : clear environment variables except specified by env
    :unsetenv_others => false  : dont clear (default)
  process group:
    :pgroup => true or 0 : make a new process group
    :pgroup => pgid      : join to specified process group
    :pgroup => nil       : dont change the process group (default)
  create new process group: Windows only
    :new_pgroup => true  : the new process is the root process of a new process group
    :new_pgroup => false : dont create a new process group (default)
  resource limit: resourcename is core, cpu, data, etc.  See Process.setrlimit.
    :rlimit_resourcename => limit
    :rlimit_resourcename => [cur_limit, max_limit]
  current directory:
    :chdir => str
  umask:
    :umask => int
  redirection:
    key:
      FD              : single file descriptor in child process
      [FD, FD, ...]   : multiple file descriptor in child process
    value:
      FD                        : redirect to the file descriptor in parent process
      string                    : redirect to file with open(string, "r" or "w")
      [string]                  : redirect to file with open(string, File::RDONLY)
      [string, open_mode]       : redirect to file with open(string, open_mode, 0644)
      [string, open_mode, perm] : redirect to file with open(string, open_mode, perm)
      [:child, FD]              : redirect to the redirected file descriptor
      :close                    : close the file descriptor in child process
    FD is one of follows
      :in     : the file descriptor 0 which is the standard input
      :out    : the file descriptor 1 which is the standard output
      :err    : the file descriptor 2 which is the standard error
      integer : the file descriptor of specified the integer
      io      : the file descriptor specified as io.fileno
  file descriptor inheritance: close non-redirected non-standard fds (3, 4, 5, ...) or not
    :close_others => false : inherit fds (default for system and exec)
    :close_others => true  : dont inherit (default for spawn and IO.popen)