calling mysql from a ruby program - mysql

Question

I am trying to do some simple statistics on data I am pulling from a database, but whenever I execute the mysql command all I get is the mysql usage listing. What is confusing to me is this command works from the command line, but not from inside my ruby script.
Command:
query = 'select * from builds;'
results = `mysql -h <hostname> -u root -D build -e #{query}`
print results
I want to see everything in that table, but what I get is this:
mysql Ver 14.12 Distrib 5.0.37, for
Win32 (ia32) Copyright (C) 2002 MySQL
AB This software comes with ABSOLUTELY
NO WARRANTY. This is free software,
and you are welcome to modify and
redistribute it under the GPL license
Usage: mysql [OPTIONS] [database]
-?, --help Display this help and exit. -I, --help
Synonym for -? --auto-rehash
Enable automatic rehashing. One
doesn't need to use
'rehash' to get table and field completion, but
startup
and reconnecting may take a longer time. Disable with
--disable-auto-rehash. -A, --no-auto-rehash
No automatic rehashing. One has to use 'rehash' to
get
table and field completion. This gives a quicker start
of
mysql and disables rehashing on reconnect.
WARNING:
options deprecated; use --disable-auto-rehash
instead. -B, --batch Don't
use history file. Disable interactive
behavior.
...etc
any help would be great.
Thanks.

Answer 1

I would highly recommend using the mysql gem for ruby. It allows you to operate natively instead of wrapping the command line.
But in your command I would try wrapping the query in quotes before executing it.
results = `mysql -h <hostname> -u root -D build -e "#{query}"`

Answer 2

Any reason you can't just use the mysql gem?