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Asked: 2026-05-10T17:30:15+00:00

I am trying to find a better way to integrate IRB with my normal

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I am trying to find a better way to integrate IRB with my normal ruby devleopment. Currently I rarely use IRB with my code. I only use it to verify syntax or to try something small.

I know I can load my own code into ruby as a

require 'mycode'

but this usually doesn’t mesh with my programming style. Sometimes the variables I want to examine are out of scope or inside of a loop. Is there an easy way to fire up my script and freeze at a certain point inside of IRB? I guess I’m looking for an easier way to debug my ruby code without breaking my F5(compile) key.

Maybe a more experienced ruby developer can share with me a more streamlined method of development.

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  1. Install the ruby-debug gem. Of course, require it inside your app (only in development/test mode). Now you can write ‘debugger’ where you want to stop execution.

    Once your app stop at your breakpoint, you can type ‘help’ to know about all commands. One of them is ‘irb’. It starts an IRB session in which you have access to all methods in your current context.

    I personally mostly use p (print), eval, v i (instance vars) and v l (local vars). Of course, n for next and c for continue.

    The command to step out of a given block/method never worked for me though. I never investigated why 🙂

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