irbtools

Improvements for Ruby's IRB console 💎︎

Description

Improvements for Ruby's IRB console, like colored output and a lot of debugging and introspection methods. Unlike with PRY, you are still in your normal IRB. It is designed to work out-of-the-box, so there is no reason to not use it!

Code Quality Rank: L5

Monthly Downloads: 2,482

Programming language: Ruby

License: MIT License

Tags: IRB    

Latest version: v4.0

README

Irbtools

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Improvements for Ruby's IRB console, like syntax highlighted output and a lot of debugging and introspection methods. Unlike with PRY, you are still in your normal IRB. It is designed to work out-of-the-box, so there is no reason to not use it!

Setup

$ gem install irbtools

IRB executes code in ~/.irbrc on start-up. If the file does not exist, yet, just create a new one. Add the following content:

require 'irbtools'

You also need to add irbtools to your project's Gemfile:

gem 'irbtools', require: 'irbtools/binding'

Then start IRB (with Irbtools loaded) from the terminal or directly from your code with:

binding.irb

Enable More Gems

Some suggested gems will not be installed to ensure wider general support. For the full feature set, you can install irbtools-more. To do so, change your .irbrc to:

require 'irbtools/more'

and edit your Gemfile to read like this:

gem 'irbtools-more', require: 'irbtools/binding'

Features

Irbtools' IRB Improvements

• Syntax highlighting (wirb / fancy_irb)
• Loads included third party libraries effeciently
• Customizable views for specfic options using hirb
  • ActiveRecord results get displayed as a table
• (irbtools-more) Improved tab-completion

Irbtools' Included Methods for IRB

Highlights

• Lookup and manipulate instance variables / methods with ease using object_shadow
• (irbtools-more) Go even further with looksee, the best lookup path inspection tool out there
• Display a method's source code using code
• Inline access to ri docs by ori
  • If you have deactivated ri, you can re-generate the docs with something like: rvm docs generate-ri
• Find methods that turn one value into another value with methodfinder
• Use VIM from inside IRB

Ruby Introspection

Method / Constant	Arguments	Description	Provided By
code	object = self, method_name	Display the method source with syntax highlighting. Will also look up C methods if the core_docs gem (which is included in irbtools-more) is available.	code
howtocall	object = self, method_or_proc	Display parameter names and types you will need to call a method	debugging/howtocall
mf	object1, object2	Find methods which turn one value into another value	methodfinder
mof	object, depth = 0, grep = //	Print a method list, ordered by modules (looksee lite)	debugging
Object#lp		(irbtools-more) Supercharged method introspection in IRB	looksee
Object#ri	*args	Show ri documentation for this object or method	ori
Object#shadow		Manipulate instance variables and learn about callable methods	object_shadow

Platform Info

Method / Constant	Arguments	Description	Provided By
OS		Query operating system information	os
RubyVersion		Show the Ruby version	ruby_version
RubyEngine		Show the Ruby engine	ruby_engine
RubyInfo		List general information about the Ruby environment	ruby_info

General Utils

Method / Constant	Arguments	Description	Provided By
beep		Ring terminal bell	debugging/beep
copy	string	Copy something to the clipboard	clipboard
colorize	string	Syntax-highlight a string of Ruby code	coderay, irbtools
ed / emacs / mate / mvim / nano / vi / vim	filename = nil	Start an editor in the session context	interactive_editor
ld	file	Shortcut for load lib.to_s + '.rb'	every_day_irb
pa	string, color	Print a string in the specified color	paint
page	what, options = {}	Use pager to improve viewing longer content	hirb, irbtools
paste		Paste clipboard content	clipboard
q	*args	Like Kernel#p, but prints results on one line, with different colors	debugging/q
re	string, regexg, groups = nil	Regex debugging helper	debugging/re
rq	lib	Shortcut for require lib.to_s. Use it like this: rq:prime	every_day_irb
rr	lib	Shortcut for require_relative lib.to_s	every_day_irb
rrq / rerequire	lib	Hack to remove a library from $LOADED_FEATURES and require it again	every_day_irb
wp	inspect_string	Syntax-highlight a Ruby return value	wirb

IRB Support

Method / Constant	Arguments	Description	Provided By
clear		Clear the terminal	every_day_irb
copy_input		Copy session history to the clipboard	clipboard, irbtools
copy_output		Copy session output history to the clipboard	clipboard, irbtools
reset!		Restart the current IRB session	every_day_irb
session_history	number_of_lines = nil	Return a string of all commands issued in the current session	every_day_irb

Files and Navigation

Method / Constant	Arguments	Description	Provided By
cat	path	Read file contents	every_day_irb
cd	path = nil	Change the directory. Can also be used in these forms: ~cd (change to home directory), -cd (change to previous directory)	cd
chmod	mode, path	Set file mode for file	fileutils
chmod_R	mode, path	Set file mode for directory	fileutils
chown	user, group, path	Set file owner for file	fileutils
chown_R	user, group, path	Set file owner for directory	fileutils
cp	source, destination	Copy file	fileutils
cp_r	source, destination	Copy directory	fileutils
ls	path = "."	List directory content	fileutils
ln	target, link	Create symlink (ln)	fileutils
ln_s	target, link	Create symlink (ln -s)	fileutils
ln_sf	target, link	Create symlink (ln -sf)	fileutils
mkdir	path	Create a new directory	fileutils
mkdir_p	path	Create a new directory (with -p option)	fileutils
cp	source, destination	Move file or directory	fileutils
pwd		Return current directory	fileutils
ray	path	Syntax highlight a Ruby file	coderay, irbtools
rm	path	Delete a file (rm)	fileutils
rm_r	path	Delete a file or directory (rm -r)	fileutils
rm_rf	path	Delete a file or directory, with force (rm -rf)	fileutils
rmdir	path	Delete an empty directory	fileutils

Advanced Tweaking

See CONFIGURE.md.

Troubleshooting: ANSI colors on Windows

Windows: ANSI support can be enabled via ansicon or ConEmu or WSL.

Troubleshooting: Clipboard not working on Linux

Clipboard support requires xsel or xclip. On ubuntu, do:

sudo apt-get install xsel

Hint: Debundle

If you do not want to add Irbtools to your project's Gemfile, you will need a debundle hack. Put it at the beginning of your ~/.irbrc file and you are fine.

Hint: No ANSI / IRB extension

You can use Irbtools without colors/IRB extensions. To do so, put this into ~/.irbrc:

require 'irbtools/non_fancy'
Irbtools.start

Hint: Web Console and Other Approaches

Irbtools works well together with the amazing web-console!, and also with the ripl IRB alternative.

J-_-L

Copyright (c) 2010-2021 Jan Lelis https://janlelis.com released under the MIT license.