You can cut that back a bit with the '-n' switch. Using an example from this helpful article[1] on some of the switches Ruby inherited from Perl: ps ax | r

You can cut that back a bit with the '-n' switch. Using an example from this helpful article[1] on some of the switches Ruby inherited from Perl: ps ax | ruby -e 'ARGF.each { |line| puts line.split.first if line =~ /top/ }' becomes: ps ax | ruby -ne 'puts $_.split.first if $_ =~ /top/' It even squashes the extra newline the ARGF version prints out first. [1] https://robm.me.uk/ruby/2013/11/20/ruby-enp.html https://robm.me.uk/ruby/2013/11/20/ruby-enp.html