Description

The ptools (power tools) library is an additional set of commands for the
File class based on Unix command line tools.

Prerequisites

On MS Windows you will need win32-file 0.5.4 or later.

Installation

gem install ptools

Synopsis

require "ptools"

File.which("ruby")         # '/usr/local/bin/ruby'
File.whereis("ruby")       # ['/usr/local/bin/ruby','/opt/bin/ruby']

File.head("myfile")        # Returns first 10 lines of 'myfile'
File.middle("myfile",8,12) # Returns lines 8-12 of 'myfile'
File.tail("myfile",3)      # Returns last 3 lines of 'myfile'
File.wc("myfile",'words')  # Returns the number of words in 'myfile'

File.touch("newfile")      # "newfile" now exists
File.null                  # '/dev/null' on Unix, 'NUL' on Windows
File.binary?('some_file')  # true or false
File.sparse?('some_file')  # true or false

# Creates a copy of 'myfile' called 'newfile', in DOS format
File.nl_convert("myfile", "newfile", "dos")

Known Bugs

None known. Please report any bugs on the github project page.

http://www.github.com/djberg96/ptools

Acknowledgements

The File.which method was originally adopted from the FileWhich code posted
by Michael Granger on the now defunct rubygarden.org website. That code was
later replaced by a version based on the ruby-which library.

The File.nl_convert method is based on the nlcvt program found at
http://www.perl.com/language/ppt/src/nlcvt/nlcvt, written by Tom Christiansen.

The middle() method was provided by Shashank Date.

The binary?() method was based almost entirely on a blog post by Ryan
Davis (who, in turn, based his code on Perl's -B switch).

Future Plans

Add whatever other tools people think might be useful.

License

Artistic 2.0

(C) 2003-2014 Daniel J. Berger
All Rights Reserved.

Warranty

This package is provided "as is" and without any express or
implied warranties, including, without limitation, the implied
warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.

Author

Daniel J. Berger