$ filename=/home/www/file1

$ firstchar=$(echo $filename | cut -c1)

$ echo $filename | tr "$firstchar" "^"

^users^steve^memos

$ filename=$(echo $filename | tr "$firstchar" "^")    

$ echo $filename

^users^steve^memos

$

$ filename=/home/www/file1

$ echo $filename | tr "$(echo $filename | cut -c1)" "^"

^home^www^file1

$ filename=$(echo $filename | tr "$(echo $filename | cut -c1)" "^")

$ echo $filename

^home^www^file1

$

require 'net/http'

require 'uri'

require 'json'

class Host

   def initialize(ip)

      @ip = ip

   end

   def http_req

      uri = URI('http://host.google.io/views?ip=' + @ip)

      http = Net::HTTP.new('host.google.io', 80)

      req = Net::HTTP::Get.new(uri.request_uri)

      http.open_timeout = 5

      http.read_timeout = 20

      response = http.request(req)

      if response.code.to_i == 200

        return response.body

      else

        raise Exception.new("#{response.code} to #{uri}\n#{response.body}")

      end

   end

   def get_host

     json = JSON.parse(http_req)

     json["hostname"]+ ", " + json["name"]

   end

end

$ cat hosts

a.google.io

b.google.io

c.google.io

$ cat hosts | xargs -n1 ruby host.rb