appears to have solved the issue with our code printing stderrs

app/helpers/benefit_forms_helper.rb

@@ -1,2 +1,3 @@
 module BenefitFormsHelper
+  
 end

app/models/benefits.rb

@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ class Benefits < ActiveRecord::Base
  
  def self.make_backup(file, data_path, full_file_name)
     if File.exists?(full_file_name) 
-      system("cp #{full_file_name} #{data_path}/bak#{Time.now.to_i}_#{file.original_filename}")
+      silence_streams(STDERR) { system("cp #{full_file_name} #{data_path}/bak#{Time.now.to_i}_#{file.original_filename}") }
     end  
  end
 
@@ -21,5 +21,18 @@ class Benefits < ActiveRecord::Base
     FileUtils.cp "#{full_file_name}", "#{data_path}/bak#{Time.now.to_i}_#{file.original_filename}"
   end
 =end 
+
+ def self.silence_streams(*streams)
+   on_hold = streams.collect { |stream| stream.dup }
+   streams.each do |stream|
+     stream.reopen(RUBY_PLATFORM =~ /mswin/ ? 'NUL:' : '/dev/null')
+     stream.sync = true
+   end
+   yield
+ ensure
+   streams.each_with_index do |stream, i|
+     stream.reopen(on_hold[i])
+   end
+ end
  
 end