title: Using Ruby to execute arbitrary system calls
body: <p>This problem is to get into an internship within a devops department:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>"Write a ruby library that executes arbitrary system calls (eg: “dmesg", "ping -c 1 www.google.com”) and provides separated output streams of stderr and stdout as well are providing the final return code of the process.  Show your work with unit tests.”</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>Am I supposed to use already established system calls and replicate them in Ruby code? That seems silly to me. Am I supposed to come up with my own arbitrary calls and write a library complete with errors and status calls?</p>
  
  <p>I am not looking for someone to write this for me. I feel that the first step to solving this problem is understanding it.</p>