# Irb command history issues with ruby 1.9.1p129

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/irb-command-history-issues-with-ruby-1-9-1p129/169194>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [May 31, 2009, 11:39am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/irb-command-history-issues-with-ruby-1-9-1p129/169194 "2009-05-31T11:39:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![sa125](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@sa125](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/sa125)\
**Post date:** [May 31, 2009, 11:39am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/irb-command-history-issues-with-ruby-1-9-1p129/169194/1 "2009-05-31T11:39:43Z")

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Hi all,

I’ve recently installed ruby 1.9.1 from source w/o any special issues on  
ubuntu linux 9.04. Everything works great except scrolling command  
history in irb with the up/down arrow keys. I’m sure you guys can  
appreciate how annoying it is to retype everything (yeah, I’m lazy).

Does anyone have an idea on how to fix this? I read that it has  
something to do with readline library, but after installing those (both  
GNU and ruby’s) and rebuilding didn’t change much. I also read a post on  
using

$ ./configure --with-readline-dir=/usr/local

for build, but that was on a mac and it doesn’t seem to be a valid  
configure flag (make didn’t recognize it). It was also a fairly old  
post.

Any ideas on how to solve this will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![sa125](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@sa125](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/sa125)\
**Post date:** [May 31, 2009, 5:12pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/irb-command-history-issues-with-ruby-1-9-1p129/169194/2 "2009-05-31T17:12:41Z")

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sa 125 wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> I’ve recently installed ruby 1.9.1 from source w/o any special issues on  
> ubuntu linux 9.04. Everything works great except scrolling command  
> history in irb with the up/down arrow keys. I’m sure you guys can  
> appreciate how annoying it is to retype everything (yeah, I’m lazy).
> 
> Does anyone have an idea on how to fix this? I read that it has  
> something to do with readline library, but after installing those (both  
> GNU and ruby’s) and rebuilding didn’t change much. I also read a post on

I installed 1.9.1p129 a few weeks ago on Fedora Core 10-64 and the irb  
CL history is fine. It almost certainly uses readline and probably  
would not build at all without it, but just in case: are you sure you  
installed the DEVELOPMENT libraries for GNU readline, which are required  
for source builds, and not just the normal library package, which is  
just objects for pre-built binaries to link to.

Ruby readline() is probably a red herring here.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![sa125](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@sa125](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/sa125)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 8:40am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/irb-command-history-issues-with-ruby-1-9-1p129/169194/3 "2009-06-01T08:40:49Z")

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Mk 27 wrote:

> sa 125 wrote:
> 
> > Hi all,
> > 
> > I’ve recently installed ruby 1.9.1 from source w/o any special issues on  
> > ubuntu linux 9.04. Everything works great except scrolling command  
> > history in irb with the up/down arrow keys. I’m sure you guys can  
> > appreciate how annoying it is to retype everything (yeah, I’m lazy).
> > 
> > Does anyone have an idea on how to fix this? I read that it has  
> > something to do with readline library, but after installing those (both  
> > GNU and ruby’s) and rebuilding didn’t change much. I also read a post on
> 
> I installed 1.9.1p129 a few weeks ago on Fedora Core 10-64 and the irb  
> CL history is fine. It almost certainly uses readline and probably  
> would not build at all without it, but just in case: are you sure you  
> installed the DEVELOPMENT libraries for GNU readline, which are required  
> for source builds, and not just the normal library package, which is  
> just objects for pre-built binaries to link to.
> 
> Ruby readline() is probably a red herring here.

You’re right - I got the development package for GNU readline  
(libreadline5-dev) and rebuilt, and irb worked fine. Thanks!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![sa125](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@sa125](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/sa125)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 1:26pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/irb-command-history-issues-with-ruby-1-9-1p129/169194/4 "2009-06-02T13:26:08Z")

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sa 125 wrote:

> > Ruby readline() is probably a red herring here.
> 
> You’re right - I got the development package for GNU readline  
> (libreadline5-dev) and rebuilt, and irb worked fine. Thanks!

Oh thanks, that was bugging me too, already. Sweet!

- Markus