I want to call a shell command from a mod_ruby cgi-script, eg.:

system("ls>out.txt")

But it is not possible with the $SAFE=1 level of the mod_ruby
installation provided by my web host provider (system returns false).

Is there any way I can hack this? The only thing I can think of
is to write a C-extension and make the call from there.

Or, of course, write the whole application in PHP or Python... :-(

Cheers
Jesper