add an example to the readme

1 files changed, 16 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 278aa49..88afecd 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -5,6 +5,22 @@ working directory, uid, gid, etc.
 
 No means for passing input to the subprocess is provided.
 
+## Example
+Invoke find(1) to search for .rb files:
+
+      find = Mixlib::ShellOut.new("find . -name '*.rb'")
+      find.run_command
+If all went well, the results are on `stdout`
+      puts find.stdout
+`find(1)` prints diagnostic info to STDERR:
+      puts "error messages" + find.stderr
+Raise an exception if it didn't exit with 0
+      find.error!
+
+Run a command as the `www` user with no extra ENV settings from `/tmp`
+      cmd = Mixlib::ShellOut.new("apachectl", "start", :user => 'www', :env => nil, :cwd => '/tmp')
+      cmd.run_command # etc.
+
 ## Platform Support
 Mixlib::ShellOut does a standard fork/exec on Unix, and uses the Win32
 API on Windows. There is not currently support for JRuby.