James Byrne wrote:

> This is the problem:
> 
> irb(main):002:0> x = '--rails --exclude something_is_not_right
> \/usr\/lib,test\/lib'
> => "--rails --exclude something_is_not_right \\/usr\\/lib,test\\/lib"
> 
> irb(main):004:0> p x
> "--rails --exclude something_is_not_right \\/usr\\/lib,test\\/lib"
> 
> How do I get a literal string like /usr\/lib,test\/lib into a
> variable? Where are these extra '\' artifacts coming from?

You have it right, it's just irb that backwacks it in response.

irb(main):004:0> x = '--rails -exclude something_is_not_right
\/usr\/lib,test\/lib'
=> "--rails -exclude something_is_not_right \\/usr\\/lib,test\\/lib"
irb(main):005:0> puts x
--rails -exclude something_is_not_right \/usr\/lib,test\/lib
=> nil
irb(main):006:0>   

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