# Require with absolute path

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/require-with-absolute-path/117795>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [October 20, 2007, 12:03pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/require-with-absolute-path/117795 "2007-10-20T12:03:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![molla5](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e0b2c6/32.png) [@molla5](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/molla5)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2007, 12:03pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/require-with-absolute-path/117795/1 "2007-10-20T12:03:07Z")

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Hi,  
I am trying to require the xml builder library using the require  
statement as follows:

require ‘C:/builder-2.1.2/lib/builder.rb’

builder.rb in turn has two requires inside using relative paths:

require ‘builder/xmlmarkup’  
require ‘builder/xmlevents’

Althougn those files exists in the builder directory, ruby complains and  
give this error:  
require’: no such file to load – builder/xmlmarkup (LoadError)

This is strange since $: variable has “.” evertime it loads a file, so  
it should find the files in “builder” folder. What is the correct way to  
load the files in that case? put everything under ruby lib folder so  
that they are in $: ?

Regards

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![molla5](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e0b2c6/32.png) [@molla5](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/molla5)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2007, 12:06pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/require-with-absolute-path/117795/2 "2007-10-20T12:06:37Z")

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Ayhan Molla wrote:

> Althougn those files exists in the builder directory, ruby complains and give this error:  
> require’: no such file to load – builder/xmlmarkup (LoadError)
> 
> This is strange since $: variable has “.” evertime it loads a file, so it should find the files in “builder” folder. What is the correct way to load the files in that case? put everything under ruby lib folder so that they are in $: ?  
> Doesn’t the “.” refer to the cwd of the ruby process, rather than the  
> directory of the file that contains it?