ruby command-line tools

When you use Ruby you will encounter an entire ecosystem of tools, most of which are run from the command line. This section gives a brief overview of the most important of these tools.

Ref: WGR Chapter 1. Bootstrapping your Ruby literacy

ruby

• ruby is the Ruby Interpreter
• ruby hello.rb runs the Ruby source file hello.rb
• Options
  • -w - warnings
  • -v - version or verbose
  • --help
  • -c - check syntax

irb

• Interactive Ruby Browser
• aka "the ruby console"
• interprets Ruby one line at a time

• Simple Prompt:

    irb --simple-prompt
  

  or

    echo "IRB.conf[:PROMPT_MODE] = :SIMPLE" >> ~/.irbrc
  

ri and rdoc

• generate and/or display documentation
• per file or class
• can be useful; usually not sufficient
  • http://gotapi.com/rubyrails is a great RDoc browser

cheat

• a text-only command-line wiki

• gem install cheat for command-line tool or see http://cheat.errtheblog.com

    $ cheat agile
    Agile Manifesto_____________
     - Individuals and interactions over processes and tools 
     - Working software over comprehensive documentation  
     - Customer collaboration over contract negotiation 
     - Responding to change over following a plan 
    While there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left
    more.
  

rake

• one Rakefile contains many "tasks" which can be run a la rake test
• rake looks up the directory tree for a Rakefile
• rake --tasks shows all defined tasks in the current Rakefile
  • also rake -T

gem

• aka RubyGems
• gem = Ruby package = library or program or plugin
• gem install foo - downloads and installs the "foo" gem from rubygems.org
• gem, rvm and bundler live in uneasy harmony

bundler

• manages lots of different sets of gems and versions thereof
• bundler is a gem itself
  • gem install bundler loads it into the current gemset
• bundle install
• bundle update
• Gemfile lists all the gems for the current project (directory)
  • similar to Rakefile in scope

rvm

• Ruby Version Manager
• manages lots of different versions and distros of Ruby on a single computer
  • rvm list
  • rvm install 1.9.2
  • rvm use 1.9.2
• also manages gemsets
  • rvm gemset create teaching
  • rvm use 1.9.2@teaching
• overlaps with gem and Bundler
  • in sometimes odd ways

RSpec

• testing framework