Question

In my ~/.bashrc, I have a function:

function sayHi() {
    echo "hi, $@"
}

and in Ruby I want to:

`sayHi "friend"`

however, sayHi is “not found” in whatever context ruby runs exec or system.

How could I get Ruby to use functions in my .bashrc?

Answer 1

Your .bashrc is only run for interactive shells. When you execute a command using backquotes in Ruby, it does not execute the command in an interactive shell.

You can force an interactive shell by running bash -i. For example, to run your command under an interactive shell, use:

`bash -ic 'sayHi "friend"'`