IO

■ ri

 -------------------------------------------------------------- Class: IO
      Class  IO  is the basis for all input and output in Ruby. An I/O
      stream may be _duplexed_ (that is, bidirectional), and so may use
      more than one native operating system stream.
 
      Many of the examples in this section use class  File , the only
      standard subclass of  IO . The two classes are closely associated.
 
      As used in this section, _portname_ may take any of the following
      forms.
 
      *   A plain string represents a filename suitable for the
          underlying operating system.
 
      *   A string starting with `` | '' indicates a subprocess. The
          remainder of the string following the `` | '' is invoked as a
          process with appropriate input/output channels connected to it.
 
      *   A string equal to `` |- '' will create another Ruby instance as
          a subprocess.
 
      Ruby will convert pathnames between different operating system
      conventions if possible. For instance, on a Windows system the
      filename `` /gumby/ruby/test.rb '' will be opened as
      `` \gumby\ruby\test.rb ''. When specifying a Windows-style filename
      in a Ruby string, remember to escape the backslashes:
 
         "c:\gumby\ruby\test.rb"
 
      Our examples here will use the Unix-style forward slashes