# Noob has trouble with io/wait on Windows

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/noob-has-trouble-with-io-wait-on-windows/54099>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [February 23, 2006, 1:51am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/noob-has-trouble-with-io-wait-on-windows/54099 "2006-02-23T01:51:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ledelste](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@ledelste](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ledelste)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2006, 1:51am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/noob-has-trouble-with-io-wait-on-windows/54099/1 "2006-02-23T01:51:21Z")

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I’m trying to use the “io/wait” library (using “require ‘io/wait’”) but  
the interpreter won’t load it.

I’m a dang newbie and I’ve just installed the 1.8.2 one-click package on  
Windows. Do I need to do something special to enable this  
package? The error I get is like so:

D:/ruby/lib/ruby/site\_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom\_require.rb:18:in  
`require__': No such file to load -- io/wait (LoadError) from D:/ruby/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:18:in`require’  
from D:/repository/projects/.eclipse/STOMPing grounds/test\_stomp.rb:1

Larry Edelstein  
Revere Data  
removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ledelste](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@ledelste](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ledelste)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2006, 11:26am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/noob-has-trouble-with-io-wait-on-windows/54099/2 "2006-02-23T11:26:38Z")

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Larry Edelstein asked…

> I’m trying to use the “io/wait” library (using “require ‘io/wait’”) but  
> the interpreter won’t load it.
> 
> I’m a dang newbie and I’ve just installed the 1.8.2 one-click package on  
> Windows. Do I need to do something special to enable this  
> package? The error I get is like so:
> 
> D:/ruby/lib/ruby/site\_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom\_require.rb:18:in  
> `require\_\_': No such file to load – io/wait (LoadError)

io/wait is one of the POSIX-based functions (along with fork, etc.) that  
doesn’t work on Windows (yet).

The win32utils library win32-process available from RubyForge provides a  
replacement:  
[http://rubyforge.org/projects/win32utils/](http://rubyforge.org/projects/win32utils/)

Cheers,  
Dave

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ledelste](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@ledelste](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ledelste)\
**Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 2:42am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/noob-has-trouble-with-io-wait-on-windows/54099/3 "2006-02-24T02:42:14Z")

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Thanks Dave. Color me “grumbling” for not being able to find this info  
elsewhere.

-Larry

Dave B. wrote:

> Larry Edelstein asked…
> 
> > I’m trying to use the “io/wait” library (using “require ‘io/wait’”) but  
> > the interpreter won’t load it.
> > 
> > I’m a dang newbie and I’ve just installed the 1.8.2 one-click package on  
> > Windows. Do I need to do something special to enable this  
> > package? The error I get is like so:
> > 
> > D:/ruby/lib/ruby/site\_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom\_require.rb:18:in  
> > `require\_\_': No such file to load – io/wait (LoadError)
> 
> io/wait is one of the POSIX-based functions (along with fork, etc.) that  
> doesn’t work on Windows (yet).
> 
> The win32utils library win32-process available from RubyForge provides a  
> replacement:  
> [http://rubyforge.org/projects/win32utils/](http://rubyforge.org/projects/win32utils/)
> 
> Cheers,  
> Dave