# Etc.dir, Etc.name

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/etc-dir-etc-name/102562>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [October 20, 2006, 9:45am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/etc-dir-etc-name/102562 "2006-10-20T09:45:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ronaldfischer](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/67e7ee/32.png) [@ronaldfischer](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ronaldfischer)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2006, 9:45am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/etc-dir-etc-name/102562/1 "2006-10-20T09:45:21Z")

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I found some of the Etc functions missing which are mentioned in  
Matsumoto’s book “Ruby in a nutshell”, for example Etc.dir and  
Etc.shell. OTOH, Etc.name exists (for example):

irb(main):002:0\> Etc.dir  
NoMethodError: undefined method `dir' for Etc:Module from (irb):2 irb(main):003:0> Etc.name => "Etc" irb(main):004:0> Etc.shell NoMethodError: undefined method`shell’ for Etc:Module  
from (irb):4  
from :0

I’m running the following Ruby version:

$ irb --version  
irb 0.9.5(05/04/13)  
$ ruby --version  
ruby 1.8.4 (2005-12-24) [i686-linux]

As the book was published 2001, it can’t be that I just have an  
outdated Ruby version.

What am I doing wrong here?

Ronald