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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-23T07:05:21+00:00

I am trying to load a file into IRB. I have the file saved

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I am trying to load a file into IRB. I have the file saved on my desktop titled “Ruby.rb”
How do i load the file into IRB?

I have tried using both, ‘load “Ruby.rb”‘, ‘load “Ruby”‘ and ‘require “Ruby.rb”. these documents are on my desktop, is there something requiring a path directory here?

The path for the document is C:\Users\Jamal\desktop, am i meant to include this into the load “Ruby.rb” command?
THanks

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    It depends on the version of Ruby you are using (1.8.x or 1.9.x). load and require work both on the loadpath of Ruby. You can have a look at it by evaluating $: inside IRB. In Ruby 1.9.x the current directory is not part of the loadpath, so you have to use the absolute path to your file. Depending on the operating system you are using (Windows 7), this may look like:

    c:\Users\mliebelt\Desktop>irb
irb(main):001:0> $:
=> ["C:/apps/ruby/ruby192/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.9.1", "C:/apps/ruby/ruby192/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.9.1/i386-msvcrt", "C:/apps/ruby/ruby192/lib/ruby/site_ruby", "C:/apps/ruby/ruby192/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby/1.9.1", "C:/apps/ruby/ruby192/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby/1.9.1/i386-msvcrt", "C:/apps/ruby/ruby192/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby", "C:/apps/ruby/ruby192/lib/ruby/1.9.1", "C:/apps/ruby/ruby192/lib/ruby/1.9.1/i386-mingw32"]
irb(main):002:0> require 'c:/Users/mliebelt/Desktop/ruby'
File c:/Users/mliebelt/Desktop/ruby.rb loaded.
=> true
irb(main):003:0> load 'c:/Users/mliebelt/Desktop/ruby.rb'
File c:/Users/mliebelt/Desktop/ruby.rb loaded.
=> true

    By the way, the contents of the file ruby.rb is:

    puts "File #{__FILE__} loaded."

    The same session with IRB on Ruby 1.8.x may look like that:

    c:\Users\mliebelt\Desktop>irb
irb(main):001:0> $:
=> ["C:/Users/mliebelt/.pik/rubies/Ruby-187-p334/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8", "C:/Users/mliebelt/.pik/rubies/Ruby-187-p334/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/i386-msvcrt", "C:/Users/mliebelt/.pik/rubies/Ruby-187-p334/lib/ruby/site_ruby", "C:/Users/mliebelt/.pik/rubies/Ruby-187-p334/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby/1.8", "C:/Users/mliebelt/.pik/rubies/Ruby-187-p334/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby/1.8/i386-msvcrt", "C:/Users/mliebelt/.pik/rubies/Ruby-187-p334/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby", "C:/Users/mliebelt/.pik/rubies/Ruby-187-p334/lib/ruby/1.8", "C:/Users/mliebelt/.pik/rubies/Ruby-187-p334/lib/ruby/1.8/i386-mingw32", "."]
irb(main):002:0> require 'ruby'
File ./ruby.rb loaded.
=> true
irb(main):003:0> load 'ruby.rb'
File ./ruby.rb loaded.
=> true

    The differences between require and load are:

    • require does not need the suffix (.rb) of the file
      • require 'ruby' and require 'ruby.rb' are the same
    • require reads the file into memory once, so require should normally be used instead of load, which reads the file into memory every time functions in the file are called.

    So to load files (by using require or load), do the following:
    – expand your load path by your current directory (if necessary). See Adding a directory to loadpath
    – (when using Ruby 1.8.x) Start your program (or IRB) in the directory from which you want to load or require files.

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