Issue #4588 has been updated by Suraj Kurapati. My mistake. I just noticed that Kernel#exec() lacks an "env" parameter in the Ruby 1.8.7 API docs. So this bug report is now a feature request. Sorry for the confusion. ---------------------------------------- Bug #4588: exec(env, cmd) fails in Ruby 1.8; works in 1.9 http://redmine.ruby-lang.org/issues/4588 Author: Suraj Kurapati Status: Open Priority: Normal Assignee: Category: core Target version: Ruby 1.8.7 ruby -v: ruby 1.8.7 (2011-02-18 patchlevel 334) [x86_64-linux] Passing a hash as the "env" parameter for exec() fails in Ruby 1.8: # ruby -ve 'exec({"HELLO"=>"WORLD"}, "ruby", "-ve", "puts ENV[%q(HELLO)]")' ruby 1.8.7 (2011-02-18 patchlevel 334) [x86_64-linux] -e:1:in `exec': can't convert Hash into String (TypeError) from -e:1 In contrast, it works correctly in Ruby 1.9: # ruby -ve 'exec({"HELLO"=>"WORLD"}, "ruby", "-ve", "puts ENV[%q(HELLO)]")' ruby 1.9.2p180 (2011-02-18 revision 30909) [x86_64-linux] ruby 1.9.2p180 (2011-02-18 revision 30909) [x86_64-linux] WORLD Thanks for your consideration. -- http://redmine.ruby-lang.org