On Monday 17 October 2005 21:08, GáÃor SEBESTY¥ÎN wrote:
> How can I easily conver a string containing path
>
>      str = "/home/my folder/áÄcented lñÕtñÓs/having (this)"
>
> to one that
>
>      `ls #{str}`
>
> UNIX command can understand? It will surely fail at least due to
> parenthesis and space characters.

Usually it is enough to put quotes around the path:

    `ls '#{str}'`

HTH,
  Stefan