Project	binding.repl
Homepage	https://github.com/robgleeson/binding.repl
Documentation	http://rubydoc.info/github/robgleeson/binding.repl
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Author	Robert Gleeson

DESCRIPTION

binding.repl can start a number of different ruby consoles at runtime. IRB, ripl, and pry(of course!) can be invoked at runtime in any context that an instance of Binding closes over.

I owe all credit to John Mair(banisterfiend), the creator of Pry, for seeing the potential in a console that can be started at runtime and bound to the context of a Binding. I don't think a single ruby console has put as much emphasize on a console that be invoked at runtime as Pry has.

the interface to invoke Pry at runtime is very accessible and easy to use but if you look at other ruby console implementations you might find the eval() of code is the same. It happens through Binding#eval which closes over a context(maybe the context is "Foo", a class, or an instance of "Foo").

binding.repl provides the same binding.pry interface to all ruby consoles (if I missed one, open an issue or send an e-note :)).

EXAMPLES

Rails

class BlogsController < ApplicationController
  def show
    @blog = Blog.find(params[:id])
    binding.repl.{pry,irb,ripl,auto}
  end
end

Auto discovery

class Bar
  # auto discover and start the first available console.
  # default order is: ripl, pry, or irb.
  binding.repl.auto

  # change default load order
  Binding.repl.auto_load_order = %w(pry ripl irb)

  # remove "irb" from auto discovery
  Binding.repl.auto_load_order -= ["irb"]
end

Enable/disable at runtime

class Baz
  # invoke irb
  binding.repl.irb
  Binding.repl.disable!

  # no-op, returns :'binding.repl.disabled' and continues execution.
  binding.repl.irb
  binding.repl.ripl

  # invoke pry
  Binding.repl.enable!
  binding.repl.pry
end

NOTES

CONFIGURATION

ripl and pry can be customized by passing a set of key-value pairs but IRB isn't as straight forward to configure and I haven't implemented any customization options for it yet.

ripl can be invoked with options that are forwarded to Ripl.start(…):

class Foo
  binding.repl.ripl riplrc: false
end

pry can be configured in the same way. options are forwarded to Pry.start(…):

class Foo
  binding.repl.pry quiet: true
end

WORKING WITH TEAMS

people working in teams might have different choices for what ruby console they like to use and binding.repl tries to accomondate by reading a .binding.repl.rc file from $HOME or by setting a shell environment variable. binding.repl.rc is a simple JSON file.

let's say rob & amy are working on some code together. amy prefers ripl, so her $HOME/.binding.repl.rc would look like this:

{
  "auto_load_order": ["ripl", "irb"]
}

rob prefers pry, so his $HOME/.binding.repl.rc would look like this:

{
  "auto_load_order": ["pry", "irb"]
}

when either rob or amy wants to start their favorite ruby console they can use binding.repl.auto:

class Foo
  # starts "irb" in the context of Foo for amy. fall back console is "irb".
  # starts "pry" in the context of Foo for rob. fall back console is "irb".
  binding.repl.auto
end

SHELL ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

binding.repl can be configured with a couple of shell environment variables.

# disable trying to read $HOME/.binding.repl.rc
export BINDING_REPL_RC=0

# set the 'auto' load order
# takes precendence over $HOME/.binding.repl.rc when set
export BINDING_REPL_ORDER=pry,irb

DEPENDENCIES

binding.repl doesn't depend on anything. it's up to you to meet the dependencies(pry, irb, and/or ripl). binding.repl.{ripl,pry,irb} will try to load the appropiate console for you if it looks like it hasn't been loaded yet.

INSTALL

ruby 1.9+ only.

gem install binding.repl

CREDIT

• banisterfiend (John Mair) for pry

• Kyrylo (Kyrylo Silin) for his hard work on pry.

Rest of the Pry team(!!):

• cirwin, Conrad Irwin.
• ryanf, Ryan Fitzgerald.
• rking, "rking", on adventures outside programming now.

LICENSE

MIT.

CONTRIBUTING

1. Fork it
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
5. Create a new E-Note