Silencing current output, but capture output from another process


    def self.capture_system(*args)
  args = args.flatten.compact.collect { |arg| arg.to_s }
  return false if args.blank?

  rd, wr = IO.pipe

  pid = fork do
    rd.close
    $stdout.reopen wr
    $stderr.reopen wr
    yield if block_given?
    exec(*args) rescue nil
    exit! 1 # never gets here unless exec threw or failed
  end

  wr.close
  out = String.new
  out << rd.read until rd.eof?
  Process.wait
  raise unless $?.success?
  out
end

    Is there a shorter way to do this? Basically, I don't want anything outputted to the current irb session, but I want the variable 'out' to be the output from the fork. Command 'puts capture_system('which', 'git')' should work at the end of it.
    2010-02-03T02:34:27+00:00
    1166
    Ruby
    silencing-current-output-but-capture-output-from-another-process
    0
    Silencing current output, but capture output from another process
    
    2010-02-03T02:34:27+00:00
    1914
    
      1914
      http://k776.myopenid.com
      k776.myopenid.com
      0.0
      0
      http://k776.tumblr.com