# Require

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/require/113339>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [August 30, 2007, 1:47am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/require/113339 "2007-08-30T01:47:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/casper_the_ghost)\
**Post date:** [August 30, 2007, 1:47am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/require/113339/1 "2007-08-30T01:47:53Z")

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Newbie question.  
When I am looking at a addon/plugin and I see the “require” this or  
“require” that for the plugin, is there a simple way I am missing of  
finding out if I already have what is required?  
For example, I searched on one of the requires and after reading 10  
different google references I found out the require was already part  
of the ruby libraries.(so I assume I don’t have to download it). In  
any case, it took me a long time to find that out. Is there a shorter  
way?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/casper_the_ghost)\
**Post date:** [August 30, 2007, 2:02am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/require/113339/2 "2007-08-30T02:02:54Z")

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[http://ruby.about.com/od/learnruby/ss/require\_load.htm](http://ruby.about.com/od/learnruby/ss/require_load.htm)

Regards  
Florian