# IRB fails to call some shell commands only on Windows **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [May 19, 2009, 12:32pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/irb-fails-to-call-some-shell-commands-only-on-windows/168304 "2009-05-19T12:32:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![umuro](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/6bbea6/32.png) [@umuro](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/umuro)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2009, 12:32pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/irb-fails-to-call-some-shell-commands-only-on-windows/168304/1 "2009-05-19T12:32:15Z")
[http://conceptspace.wikidot.com/forum/t-154517/rails101-getting-started-with-rad-ruby-on-rails#post-483414](http://conceptspace.wikidot.com/forum/t-154517/rails101-getting-started-with-rad-ruby-on-rails#post-483414) On windwos, we could not find a way to execute `gem --version` on windows. The weird thing is this is happening while we are able call ‘gem –version’ on DOS directly. Of course there is no problem on Linux. ---
**Author:** ![umuro](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/6bbea6/32.png) [@umuro](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/umuro)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2009, 4:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/irb-fails-to-call-some-shell-commands-only-on-windows/168304/2 "2009-05-19T16:34:41Z")
Have you tried invoking gem as `gem.bat --version` in IRB? There’s a special case in the config.gem installation code for win32, so I’d guess that that might solve your problem… –Matt J. On May 19, 6:32 am, Umur O. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) ---
**Author:** ![umuro](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/6bbea6/32.png) [@umuro](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/umuro)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2009, 5:53pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/irb-fails-to-call-some-shell-commands-only-on-windows/168304/3 "2009-05-19T17:53:14Z")
Matt J. wrote: > Have you tried invoking gem as `gem.bat --version` in IRB? There’s a > special case in the config.gem installation code for win32, so I’d > guess that that might solve your problem… > > –Matt J. > > On May 19, 6:32�am, Umur O. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) Yes, I tried. gem.bat itself is invoking but the calls it makes are resulting all in errors. Basically, in IRB, we could not call any “gem installed” commands in Windows. e.g. gem, rails, rake The mystery is as they are available in Shell, why they do result in error called from IRB? So far 4 other people complained me of the same thing. I am inclined to conclude that nobody uses IRB on Windows 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![umuro](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/6bbea6/32.png) [@umuro](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/umuro)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2009, 4:48am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/irb-fails-to-call-some-shell-commands-only-on-windows/168304/4 "2009-05-21T04:48:30Z")
Could you provide more details on how gem “gets an error”? I just tried it (including installing gems from IRB) and it worked fine. This isn’t the first heisenbug that I’ve seen with Ruby and Windows… (for instance, see [http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk/browse\_thread/thread/36be3d7767f66300/9b14c8774d0a5159](http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk/browse_thread/thread/36be3d7767f66300/9b14c8774d0a5159) ) Thanks, –Matt J. On May 19, 11:53 am, Umur O. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) ---
**Author:** ![umuro](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/6bbea6/32.png) [@umuro](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/umuro)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2009, 10:22pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/irb-fails-to-call-some-shell-commands-only-on-windows/168304/5 "2009-05-25T22:22:03Z")
I discovered the problem after running a rails template on Windows. After seeing the problem I opened IRB and failed to call rails, rake and gem from there. Tried on a few other windows machines to fail the same way. The error is “Invalid Exacutable Format” You can try the template: rails your\_app -m [http://tinyurl.com/cs-active-scaffold](http://tinyurl.com/cs-active-scaffold) Which is from the rails tutorial [http://conceptspace.wikidot.com/rails101:introduction](http://conceptspace.wikidot.com/rails101:introduction) PS. I am an Ubuntu user. I am just trying to know how to keep cross- platform ---
**Author:** ![umuro](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/6bbea6/32.png) [@umuro](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/umuro)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2009, 5:19pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/irb-fails-to-call-some-shell-commands-only-on-windows/168304/6 "2009-05-26T17:19:07Z")
Now I understand. Yep, that’s a known issue with templates: [https://rails.lighthouseapp.com/projects/8994-ruby-on-rails/tickets/2531](https://rails.lighthouseapp.com/projects/8994-ruby-on-rails/tickets/2531) –Matt J. ---
**Author:** ![umuro](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/6bbea6/32.png) [@umuro](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/umuro)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2009, 10:23pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/irb-fails-to-call-some-shell-commands-only-on-windows/168304/7 "2009-05-25T22:23:50Z")
If you successfully run rails your\_app -m [http://tinyurl.com/cs-active-scaffold](http://tinyurl.com/cs-active-scaffold) on your windows then I would say that everybody I’ve met has a wrong installation! ---
**Author:** ![umuro](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/6bbea6/32.png) [@umuro](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/umuro)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2009, 9:53pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/irb-fails-to-call-some-shell-commands-only-on-windows/168304/8 "2009-05-26T21:53:13Z")
Matt J. wrote: > Now I understand. Yep, that’s a known issue with templates: > [#2531 Fix Rails Templates for Windows - Ruby on Rails - rails](https://rails.lighthouseapp.com/projects/8994-ruby-on-rails/tickets/2531) > > –Matt J. Relief to know that. I added warnings to [http://conceptspace.wikidot.com/](http://conceptspace.wikidot.com/) and debugged the template to be free of commands almost. Finally I could achieve a running Windows version I guess.