When you use heredoc, string interpolation is enabled by default:
x = "Universe"
<<-MESSAGE
Hello #{x}
MESSAGE
# => "Hello Universe"
This may be impractical sometimes. To avoid interpolation in heredoc strings, simply enclose your heredoc marker with single quotes:
x = "Universe"
<<-'MESSAGE'
Hello #{x}
MESSAGE
# => "Hello #{x}"
That will make the string behave like a single-quoted string, so sequences like \n will be used as they are. You don't need to escape single quotes in your heredoc string (just in case you were wondering).
Bonus: You can also use backticks to send shell commands:
<<-`MESSAGE`
hostname
whoami
MESSAGE
# => "happycat\narne\n"
Posted by Arne Hartherz to makandra dev (2013-03-13 17:09)