1: //in Windows:

   2: println "cmd /c dir *.groovy".execute().text

   3: def c = ["cmd" , "/c" , "dir *.groovy" ].execute().text

   4: println c

   5: //in Unix / Linux / Mac OS X:

   6: def output = ["sh" , "-c" , "ls -al *.groovy" ].execute().text

   7: println output

   8: //sadly, these don't work

   9: println "ls -al *.groovy".execute().text

  10: println "sh -c ls -al *.groovy".execute().text