# How to provide variable to irb session **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [September 19, 2008, 6:22pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-provide-variable-to-irb-session/149044 "2008-09-19T18:22:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![roxah](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/54ee81/32.png) [@roxah](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/roxah)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2008, 6:22pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-provide-variable-to-irb-session/149044/1 "2008-09-19T18:22:01Z")
Hello all, Can anyone tell me how I would go about providing a variable to an irb session? For example, see the following screenshot from the Metasploit Meterpreter in irb mode. [http://www.metasploit.com/images/gallery/msf3-meterp-irb.jpg](http://www.metasploit.com/images/gallery/msf3-meterp-irb.jpg) Does anyone know how they are actually providing the ‘client’ variable to the irb session? – Thanks! Bryan ---
**Author:** ![roxah](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/54ee81/32.png) [@roxah](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/roxah)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2008, 7:29pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-provide-variable-to-irb-session/149044/2 "2008-09-19T19:29:04Z")
Bryan R. wrote: > Hello all, > > Can anyone tell me how I would go about providing a variable to an irb > session? For example, see the following screenshot from the Metasploit > Meterpreter in irb mode. > > [http://www.metasploit.com/images/gallery/msf3-meterp-irb.jpg](http://www.metasploit.com/images/gallery/msf3-meterp-irb.jpg) > > Does anyone know how they are actually providing the ‘client’ variable > to the irb session? > > – > Thanks! > Bryan You can run your script at Ruby startup by specifying env variables ([Ruby (Al2O3::Cr)](http://al2o3-cr.blogspot.com/2008/09/class-array.html), scroll to Add to load path), or you can specify env variable IRBRC pointing to a Ruby file that will be executed at the start of irb only. TPR. ---
**Author:** ![roxah](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/54ee81/32.png) [@roxah](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/roxah)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2008, 8:23pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-provide-variable-to-irb-session/149044/3 "2008-09-19T20:23:39Z")
A cheaty way: [http://snippets.dzone.com/posts/show/6099](http://snippets.dzone.com/posts/show/6099) ---
**Author:** ![roxah](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/54ee81/32.png) [@roxah](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/roxah)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2008, 9:45pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-provide-variable-to-irb-session/149044/4 "2008-09-19T21:45:28Z")
Sweet… thanks! ---
**Author:** ![roxah](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/54ee81/32.png) [@roxah](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/roxah)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2008, 9:56pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-provide-variable-to-irb-session/149044/5 "2008-09-19T21:56:06Z")
Bryan R. wrote: > Hello all, > > Can anyone tell me how I would go about providing a variable to an irb > session? For example, see the following screenshot from the Metasploit > Meterpreter in irb mode. > > [http://www.metasploit.com/images/gallery/msf3-meterp-irb.jpg](http://www.metasploit.com/images/gallery/msf3-meterp-irb.jpg) > > Does anyone know how they are actually providing the ‘client’ variable > to the irb session? Is it definitely a variable, not a method? This post shows how to start an IRb session within the context of an arbitary object: [http://blade.nagaokaut.ac.jp/cgi-bin/scat.rb/ruby/ruby-talk/244139](http://blade.nagaokaut.ac.jp/cgi-bin/scat.rb/ruby/ruby-talk/244139) So you can create your own object class with a “client” method, create an instance of this object, and start IRb such that “self” is this object.