# A question about ruby-doc

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/a-question-about-ruby-doc/154822>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [December 4, 2008, 8:05am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/a-question-about-ruby-doc/154822 "2008-12-04T08:05:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![youhaodeyi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/y/b9bd4f/32.png) [@youhaodeyi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/youhaodeyi)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 8:05am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/a-question-about-ruby-doc/154822/1 "2008-12-04T08:05:56Z")

</div>

I installed ruby-doc-stdlib-0.10.1 in my computer and open the index  
file. I failed to show the method of String class. There are a lot of  
packages in the left frame and I don’t know which one contains string  
class. How can I search in ruby doc?

thanks.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![youhaodeyi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/y/b9bd4f/32.png) [@youhaodeyi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/youhaodeyi)\
**Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 8:33pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/a-question-about-ruby-doc/154822/2 "2009-08-05T20:33:31Z")

</div>

I often find myself not connected to the Internet and want to read  
ruby-doc core and standard locally. What is the best way to get a local  
copy of these libraries? I bet they come with the Ruby install, but I  
have not been able to find them (running Ubuntu 9.03).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![youhaodeyi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/y/b9bd4f/32.png) [@youhaodeyi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/youhaodeyi)\
**Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 9:12pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/a-question-about-ruby-doc/154822/3 "2009-08-05T21:12:18Z")

</div>

> I installed ruby-doc-stdlib-0.10.1 in my computer and open the index  
> file. I failed to show the method of String class. There are a lot of  
> packages in the left frame and I don’t know which one contains string  
> class. How can I search in ruby doc?

Well, I think I found the answer to your question. You downloaded the  
Standard library, which does not contain String. You need to download  
the Core library from this location:

> **[Ruby-Doc.org: Documenting the Ruby Language](https://ruby-doc.org/downloads/)**
>
> Fast, searchable Ruby documentation for core and standard libraries. Plus, links to tutorials, guides, books, and related sites.

Then under the words, “The 1.8.6 Base Distribution RDoc HTML”

click on the “tgz file” link.

That will give you the core library for viewing locally. In there, you  
can search by class and find String.

Jason

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![youhaodeyi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/y/b9bd4f/32.png) [@youhaodeyi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/youhaodeyi)\
**Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 10:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/a-question-about-ruby-doc/154822/4 "2009-08-05T22:59:31Z")

</div>

On Aug 5, 2009, at 12:12, Jason L. wrote:

> Then under the words, “The 1.8.6 Base Distribution RDoc HTML”
> 
> click on the “tgz file” link.
> 
> That will give you the core library for viewing locally. In there, you  
> can search by class and find String.

Also, you can view RDoc for installed gems locally, see:

gem help server

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![youhaodeyi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/y/b9bd4f/32.png) [@youhaodeyi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/youhaodeyi)\
**Post date:** [August 6, 2009, 3:04am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/a-question-about-ruby-doc/154822/5 "2009-08-06T03:04:31Z")

</div>

Jason L. wrote:

> Well, I think I found the answer to your question. You downloaded the  
> Standard library, which does not contain String. You need to download  
> the Core library from this location:
> 
> [Ruby-Doc.org: Documenting the Ruby Language](http://www.ruby-doc.org/downloads/)
> 
> Then under the words, “The 1.8.6 Base Distribution RDoc HTML”
> 
> click on the “tgz file” link.
> 
> That will give you the core library for viewing locally. In there, you  
> can search by class and find String.
> 
> Jason

Good. I saw that it is released on 06-30-2009.  
BTW, do you know where I can download rails document?

thanks.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![youhaodeyi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/y/b9bd4f/32.png) [@youhaodeyi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/youhaodeyi)\
**Post date:** [August 6, 2009, 6:04am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/a-question-about-ruby-doc/154822/6 "2009-08-06T06:04:50Z")

</div>

Zhao Yi wrote:

> Good. I saw that it is released on 06-30-2009.  
> BTW, do you know where I can download rails document?

This looks promising… [http://railsapi.com/](http://railsapi.com/)

And I know documentation comes with the rails install. On my Ubuntu, I  
can go to /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/doc/ and find documentation for:

ActiveRecord  
ActionPack  
ActionMailer

and other gems you have installed.

Go into one of those folders and find the “index.html” file and open it.  
You should find the classes you are looking for in the rdoc folder.

In Windows you can go find the ruby folder and should find the same  
thing.