# Cannot customize irb initialization

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/cannot-customize-irb-initialization/160727>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [February 19, 2009, 6:15am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/cannot-customize-irb-initialization/160727 "2009-02-19T06:15:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Fredrik](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/cab0a1/32.png) [@Fredrik](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Fredrik)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 6:15am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/cannot-customize-irb-initialization/160727/1 "2009-02-19T06:15:31Z")

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Why can’t I give a configuration file as argument when I run irb? It  
seems that looks for conf files in the order:  
~/.irbrc  
.irbrc  
irb.rc  
\_irbrc  
$irbrc

I would however like to have more flexibility than that. I would like  
to be able to use a special conf file in whichever directory I am. Is  
it only me who wants this flexibility? To me the ability to give a  
conf file as argument seems like the most obvious argument to have in  
irb.

Best regards,  
Fredrik

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**Author:** ![Fredrik](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/cab0a1/32.png) [@Fredrik](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Fredrik)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 7:33am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/cannot-customize-irb-initialization/160727/2 "2009-02-19T07:33:57Z")

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Fredrik wrote:

> it only me who wants this flexibility? To me the ability to give a  
> conf file as argument seems like the most obvious argument to have in  
> irb.

How about

irb -r config.rb

?

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**Author:** ![Fredrik](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/cab0a1/32.png) [@Fredrik](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Fredrik)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 8:45am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/cannot-customize-irb-initialization/160727/3 "2009-02-19T08:45:36Z")

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> How about
> 
> irb -r config.rb

I tried that but it didn’t work. I don’t think irb treats the file  
given by -r as a configuration. I runs what is written in the file as  
if written by the user once irb has started.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Fredrik](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/cab0a1/32.png) [@Fredrik](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Fredrik)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 2:50am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/cannot-customize-irb-initialization/160727/4 "2009-02-20T02:50:25Z")

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> > I tried that but it didn’t work. I don’t think irb treats

Sorry, I’m crazy. I didn’t realize that my config file should be named  
config.rb instead of config.rc… What a silly mistake… Not it’s all  
working great!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Fredrik](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/cab0a1/32.png) [@Fredrik](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Fredrik)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 8:53am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/cannot-customize-irb-initialization/160727/5 "2009-02-19T08:53:14Z")

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Fredrik wrote:

> > How about
> > 
> > irb -r config.rb
> 
> I tried that but it didn’t work. I don’t think irb treats the file  
> given by -r as a configuration. I runs what is written in the file as  
> if written by the user once irb has started.

What do you mean by “treats as configuration”? How is the effect of -r  
different?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Fredrik](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/cab0a1/32.png) [@Fredrik](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Fredrik)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 5:13am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/cannot-customize-irb-initialization/160727/6 "2009-02-20T05:13:53Z")

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Hi,

At Thu, 19 Feb 2009 15:33:24 +0900,  
Joel VanderWerf wrote in [ruby-talk:328701]:

> How about
> 
> irb -r config.rb
> 
> ?

Yet another way.

IRBRC=config.rb irb