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RI(1)() (ruby programmers reference guide) RI(1)()

NAME

riRuby API reference front end

SYNOPSIS

ri [-Ti] [-d directory] [-f format] [--list-doc-dirs] [--no-standard-docs] [--[no-]{system|site|gems|home}] [--[no-]use-cache] [--width=width] [target ...]

DESCRIPTION

ri is a CLI front end for the Ruby API reference. You can search and read API reference for classes and methods with ri.

ri is a part of Ruby.

target can be one of the following forms:

Class
for classes
Class::method
for class methods
Class#method
for instance methods
Class.method
for both class and instance methods
method
for both class and instance methods

All class names may be abbreviated to their minimum unambiguous form. If a name is ambiguous, all valid options will be listed.

For example:

ri Fil
ri File
ri File.new
ri zip

Note that shell quoting may be required for method names containing punctuation:

ri 'Array.[]'
ri compact

OPTIONS

Prints the version of ri.

 
Send output directly to stdout, rather than to a pager.

directory
 
=directory
List of directories from which to source documentation in addition to the standard directories. May be repeated.

FORMAT
 
FORMAT
 
=FORMAT
Format to use when displaying output:

ansi, bs, html, plain, simple

Use 'bs' (backspace) with most pager programs. To use ANSI, either disable the pager or tell the pager to allow control characters.

 
This makes ri go into interactive mode.

When ri is in interactive mode it will allow the user to disambiguate lists of methods in case multiple methods match against a method search string. It also will allow the user to enter in a method name (with auto-completion, if readline is supported) when viewing a class.

List the directories from which ri will source documentation on stdout and exit.

Do not include documentation from the Ruby standard library, site_lib, installed gems, or ~/.rdoc.

Equivalent to specifying the options --no-system, --no-site, --no-gems, and --no-home.

--[no-]system
Include documentation from Ruby's standard library. Defaults to true.

--[no-]site

Include documentation from libraries installed in site_lib. Defaults to true.

--[no-]gems
Include documentation from RubyGems. Defaults to true.

--[no-]home
Include documentation stored in ~/.rdoc. Defaults to true.

--[no-]use-cache
Whether or not to use ri's cache. True by default.

width
 
=width
Set the width of the output.

ENVIRONMENT

Additional options.

Used as the name of pager program for displaying.

 
 
Path to user's home directory.

FILES

~/.ri
Caches recently referenced documents here.

~/.rdoc
Searches user-wide documents here.

SEE ALSO

ruby(1) rdoc(1) gem(1)

REPORTING BUGS

Security vulnerabilities should be reported via an email to ⟨security@ruby-lang.org⟩. Reported problems will be published after being fixed.

And you can report other bugs and feature requests via the Ruby Issue Tracking System (http://bugs.ruby-lang.org). Do not report security vulnerabilities via the system because it publishes the vulnerabilities immediately.

AUTHORS

Written by Dave Thomas ⟨dave@pragmaticprogrammer.com⟩

November 7, 2012 UNIX