# Newbie question

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-question/170366>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [June 16, 2009, 5:37pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-question/170366 "2009-06-16T17:37:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Heitor\_Faria](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Heitor\_Faria](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Heitor_Faria)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2009, 5:37pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-question/170366/1 "2009-06-16T17:37:16Z")

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Running this:

# p005methods.rb

# gets and chomp

puts “In which city do you stay?”  
STDOUT.flush  
city = gets.chomp  
puts "The city is " + city

I get this:

> ruby p004stringusage.rb  
> In which city do you stay?  
> p004stringusage.rb:5:in `gets’: Bad file descriptor (Errno::EBADF)  
> from p004stringusage.rb:5  
> Exit code: 1

What is whrong?

Regards,

Heitor Faria  
www.bacula.com.br

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**Author:** ![Heitor\_Faria](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Heitor\_Faria](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Heitor_Faria)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2009, 6:04pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-question/170366/2 "2009-06-16T18:04:30Z")

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Hi Heitor,

On Tue, 2009-06-16 at 07:21 -0700, Heitor Faria wrote:

> > ruby p004stringusage.rb  
> > In which city do you stay?  
> > p004stringusage.rb:5:in `gets’: Bad file descriptor (Errno::EBADF)  
> > from p004stringusage.rb:5  
> > Exit code: 1
> 
> What is whrong?

The problem is with ‘gets’. Not sure what OS you’re on, but it works on  
both Ubuntu and Windows in IRB. Could be a problem with how your system  
has mapped STDIN.

HTH,  
Bill

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**Author:** ![Heitor\_Faria](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Heitor\_Faria](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Heitor_Faria)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2009, 6:09pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-question/170366/3 "2009-06-16T18:09:06Z")

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Agree with Bill…

I tested this in IRB and it works fine… What OS are you using?

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**Author:** ![Heitor\_Faria](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Heitor\_Faria](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Heitor_Faria)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2009, 6:27pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-question/170366/4 "2009-06-16T18:27:47Z")

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Im using Ubuntu 8.0.  
On irb, the “gets” works - but not on that script Im running using the  
SciTE editor.

On 16 jun, 13:09, “Älphä Blüë” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Heitor\_Faria](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Heitor\_Faria](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Heitor_Faria)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2009, 6:48pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-question/170366/5 "2009-06-16T18:48:38Z")

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On Tue, 2009-06-16 at 09:26 -0700, Heitor Faria wrote:

> Im using Ubuntu 8.0.  
> On irb, the “gets” works - but not on that script Im running using the  
> SciTE editor.

What do you mean “running using the SciTE editor”?

What happens when you run the script from the command line?

Bill

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Heitor\_Faria](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Heitor\_Faria](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Heitor_Faria)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2009, 7:39pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-question/170366/6 "2009-06-16T19:39:25Z")

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On command line seems ok:

# p005methods.rb

# gets and chomp

puts “In which city do you stay?”  
In which city do you stay?  
=\> nil  
STDOUT.flush  
=\> #IO:0xb7c72f74  
city = gets.chomp  
salvador  
=\> "puts “The city is " + citysalvador”

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Heitor\_Faria](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Heitor\_Faria](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Heitor_Faria)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2009, 7:51pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-question/170366/7 "2009-06-16T19:51:51Z")

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On Tue, 2009-06-16 at 10:31 -0700, Heitor Faria wrote:

> salvador  
> =\> "puts “The city is " + citysalvador”

That’s either irb or script/console. I meant run the script from the  
command line.

ruby p005methods.rb

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Heitor\_Faria](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Heitor\_Faria](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Heitor_Faria)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2009, 9:53pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-question/170366/8 "2009-06-16T21:53:21Z")

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On Tue, 2009-06-16 at 11:05 -0700, Heitor Faria wrote:

> Gee… Im really a newbie… =P

We all were. Welcome aboard!

Best regards,  
Bill

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**Author:** ![Heitor\_Faria](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Heitor\_Faria](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Heitor_Faria)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2009, 8:06pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-question/170366/9 "2009-06-16T20:06:48Z")

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Gee… Im really a newbie… =P

# ruby p004stringusage.rb

In which city do you stay?  
salvador  
The city is salvador