# Ruby Include Dirs for libs

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-include-dirs-for-libs/54804>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [March 14, 2006, 2:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-include-dirs-for-libs/54804 "2006-03-14T14:34:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Florian\_Assmann](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/779978/32.png) [@Florian\_Assmann](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Florian_Assmann)\
**Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 2:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-include-dirs-for-libs/54804/1 "2006-03-14T14:34:26Z")

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Hi there,

does anybody know which are the default dirs for ruby to search its  
…rb’s and .so’s?

I tried to include postgres-pr but ruby fails finding it. It’s residing  
in my ruby/gems/1.8/ dir. I don’t know it’s really installed this way.

Sincerly,

Florian

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**Author:** ![Florian\_Assmann](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/779978/32.png) [@Florian\_Assmann](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Florian_Assmann)\
**Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 2:45pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-include-dirs-for-libs/54804/2 "2006-03-14T14:45:45Z")

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Florian Assmann scribbled on Tuesday 14 Mar 2006 14:33:

> Florian  
> elven@avariel ~ $ ruby -e ‘puts $:’  
> /usr/local/lib/site\_ruby/1.8  
> /usr/local/lib/site\_ruby/1.8/i486-linux  
> /usr/local/lib/site\_ruby/1.8/i386-linux  
> /usr/local/lib/site\_ruby  
> /usr/lib/ruby/1.8  
> /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i486-linux  
> /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i386-linux  
> …  
> elven@avariel ~ $

Gems is a somewhat different matter:

require ‘rubygems’  
require\_gem ‘activerecord’

See also [http://docs.rubygems.org/read/chapter/4](http://docs.rubygems.org/read/chapter/4)

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**Author:** ![Florian\_Assmann](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/779978/32.png) [@Florian\_Assmann](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Florian_Assmann)\
**Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 3:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-include-dirs-for-libs/54804/3 "2006-03-14T15:07:21Z")

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Florian Assmann wrote:

> Hi there,
> 
> does anybody know which are the default dirs for ruby to search its  
> …rb’s and .so’s?
> 
> I tried to include postgres-pr but ruby fails finding it. It’s residing  
> in my ruby/gems/1.8/ dir. I don’t know it’s really installed this way.

If it is in your gems directory, make sure you require rubygems before  
requiring the library. Either do an explicit ‘require “rubygems”’ in  
your code, or make sure that the RUBYOPT environment variable is set to  
‘rubygems’.

–  
– Jim W.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Florian\_Assmann](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/779978/32.png) [@Florian\_Assmann](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Florian_Assmann)\
**Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 7:31pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-include-dirs-for-libs/54804/4 "2006-03-14T19:31:16Z")

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Bernhard ‘elven’ Stoeckner schrieb:

> elven@avariel ~ $ ruby -e ‘puts $:’

Ah, nice to know.

> require ‘rubygems’  
> require\_gem ‘activerecord’
> 
> See also [http://docs.rubygems.org/read/chapter/4](http://docs.rubygems.org/read/chapter/4)

Nice to know too, Thanks!

Florian