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Official Ruby FAQ
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<div class="multi-page"> <a href="../" title="Content">Content</a> <span class="separator"> | </span> <a href="../1/" title="Part 1">1</a> <span class="separator"> | </span> <a href="../2/" title="Part 2">2</a> <span class="separator"> | </span> <a href="../3/" title="Part 3">3</a> <span class="separator"> | </span> <a href="../4/" title="Part 4">4</a> <span class="separator"> | </span> <a href="../5/" title="Part 5">5</a> <span class="separator"> | </span> <a href="../6/" title="Part 6">6</a> <span class="separator"> | </span> <a href="../7/" title="Part 7">7</a> <span class="separator"> | </span> <a href="../8/" title="Part 8">8</a> <span class="separator"> | </span> <a href="../9/" title="Part 9">9</a> <span class="separator"> | </span> <strong>10</strong> <span class="separator"> | </span> <a href="../11/" title="Part 11">11</a> </div> <h1>Official Ruby FAQ</h1>

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Extension library

How can I use Ruby interactively?

{: #irb}

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You can try using irb. The following is paraphrased from Kentaro Goto (Gotoken), and originally appeared in [ruby-talk:444].

  1. Get the latest tarball of irb from the contrib directory in the Ruby archive.
  2. Extract the irb directory tree.
  3. Add the location of the irb/ directory to the $RUBYLIB environment variable.
  4. Make a symbolic link from $RUBYLIB/irb/irb.rb to a file called irb somewhere in your path.
  5. chmod +x $RUBYLIB/irb/irb.rb
  6. Possibly use rehash to tell your login shell about the new command.
  7. Type irb.

If the readline extension module works with your interpreter, it makes irb a lot more fun to use.

There is also a simple program, eval, in the samples/ directory of the Ruby distribution. It lets you enter expressions and view their values. You can copy eval into the site_ruby directory in the Ruby tree, and then invoke it using:

ruby -r eval -e0

Is there a debugger for Ruby?

There is a gdb-like debugger for Ruby.

ruby -r debug your_program

How can I use a library written in C from Ruby?

Of all the scripting languages, Ruby is probably the easiest to extend. There are no problems with reference counting and variable types, and very few interfaces to learn. In fact, C code used to extend Ruby often ends up looking surprisingly like Ruby code itself.

First, read the doc/extension.rdoc file in the Ruby source, or read extension.rdoc on docs.ruby-lang.org. This is a good document, not only if you are writing an extension library, but also if you want to understand Ruby more deeply.

Then, the RubyGems site provides a guide on creating gems with extensions. It shows how to setup a gem with C extensions that are built at install time. It has also links to some existing gems that wrap C libraries and to further reading.

You might also want to have a look at the source of the interpreter itself, and at the various supplied extensions in the ext/ directory (you can browse the Ruby repository on GitHub).

Can I use Tcl/Tk in Ruby?

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There are two interfaces to Tcl/Tk included in the standard distribution. One is under ext/tcltk/ and loaded with require "tcltk". The syntax is very close to that Tcl which is passed on to the Tcl interpreter. Unfortunately, the description for this library is written in Japanese.

The other is under ext/tk/ and loaded with require "tk". Its syntax is closer to the style of the Tk interface provided by the Perl and Python interfaces.

Tk won't work. Why?

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Your Tk version may be old, try a newer version.

Can I use gtk+ or xforms interfaces in Ruby?

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You will find ruby-gtk-x.xx.tar.gz and ruby-forms-x.x.tar.gz under contrib/ on the Ruby ftp sites.

How can I do date arithmetic?

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A Time object can express only the dates between Jan 1, 1970 and Jan 19, 2038.

Two standard extension library modules are provided: require "date", which is simple and uses the English calendar, and require "date2", which is more general purpose.

Also see sample/cal.rb.