# Running IronRuby script from C# **URL:** \ **Category:** IronRuby\ **Created:** [November 2, 2010, 7:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/running-ironruby-script-from-c/198506 "2010-11-02T19:07:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dobai-Pataky\_BSSSSl](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/77aa72/32.png) [@Dobai-Pataky\_BSSSSl](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Dobai-Pataky_BSSSSl)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 7:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/running-ironruby-script-from-c/198506/1 "2010-11-02T19:07:05Z")
I am trying to get a Ruby file to run through C#. I was reading through “Ruby Unleashed” (book), and it appears to be easy. However, I keep getting an error on a very simple test. The text of my programs are: C#: using System; using Microsoft.Scripting.Hosting; using IronRuby; ## class Run\_Ruby { static void Main() { ScriptEngine engine = IronRuby.Ruby.CreateEngine(); engine.ExecuteFile(“C:/Test\_Files/hello.rb”); } } hello.rb: puts ‘hello’ When I run the program I get: “MissingMethodException was unhandled” “undefined method `puts’ for main:Object” I am a novice to C#, but this should be hard. What am I doing wrong? I have attached a pic of the Visual Studio Error. ---
**Author:** ![tuatha](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/b4bc9f/32.png) [@tuatha](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tuatha)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 8:52pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/running-ironruby-script-from-c/198506/2 "2010-11-02T20:52:23Z")
What version of IronRuby do you use? The file has UTF8 BOM at the beginning and IronRuby 1.0 doesn’t support that (MRI 1.8.6 doesn’t either). IronRuby 1.1.1 should work fine. Tomas ---
**Author:** ![tuatha](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/b4bc9f/32.png) [@tuatha](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tuatha)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 9:19pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/running-ironruby-script-from-c/198506/3 "2010-11-02T21:19:26Z")
before i think about it too much, it seems you have some unicodish chars in the file? ---
**Author:** ![tuatha](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/b4bc9f/32.png) [@tuatha](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tuatha)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2010, 2:19pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/running-ironruby-script-from-c/198506/4 "2010-11-03T14:19:03Z")
Thanks for the replies. I recreated hello.rb in Scite and the program worked. I have read about UTF8 encoding and ruby, but had not ran into it before, and I didn’t not know what the symbols in front of the hello.rb text meant (see VS error message). So thanks for the help. Tomas: I was using IronRuby 1.0.0.0 but had just downloaded IronRuby 1.1.1. However, I originally created the file in SharpDevelop and have been creating IronRuby programs in SharpDevelop with no issue (running in SD Debug), until I tried to call this ruby file from C#. So I still don’t quite understand why ruby works one way and not the other, but that seems to be a SharpDevelop issue/setting. I am pretty sure SharpDevelop is running IronRuby 1.0.0.0. After I couldn’t get it to work I tried it again in Visual Studio which I assume also called IronRuby 1.0.0.0. since I still had that version installed and my files associated with that version. Last, Now that IronRuby supports the UTF8 encoding, should my files be encoded that way? Or now does it just not matter which encoding I use? and does C# have to be encoded UTF8? ---
**Author:** ![tuatha](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/b4bc9f/32.png) [@tuatha](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tuatha)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 9:32pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/running-ironruby-script-from-c/198506/5 "2010-11-02T21:32:39Z")
confirmed. you probably created the file inside VS, or other UTF happy editor. if you insist you might want to try the encoding pragma, but i’m not sure of its support # coding: utf-8 puts ‘hello’ ---
**Author:** ![tuatha](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/b4bc9f/32.png) [@tuatha](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tuatha)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2010, 4:11pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/running-ironruby-script-from-c/198506/6 "2010-11-03T16:11:22Z")
this is not an ‘issue’ with either editors. it is simply a matter of encoding. As i previously noted, you’ve created the file in visual studio, which adds: > **[Byte order mark](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byte_order_mark)** > > The byte order mark (BOM) is a particular usage of the special Unicode character code, .mw-parser-output .monospaced{font-family:monospace,monospace}U+FEFF .mw-parser-output .unichar-name{font-variant:small-caps;text-transform:lowercase;font-feature-settings:"onum"}ZERO WIDTH NO-BREAK SPACE, whose appearance as a magic number at the start of a text stream can signal several things to a program reading the text: BOM use is optional. Its presence interferes with the use of UTF-8 by software that ... please find the time to read this > **[The Absolute Minimum Every Software Developer Absolutely, Positively Must...](https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2003/10/08/the-absolute-minimum-every-software-developer-absolutely-positively-must-know-about-unicode-and-character-sets-no-excuses/)** > > Ever wonder about that mysterious Content-Type tag? You know, the one you’re supposed to put in HTML and you never quite know what it should be? Did you ever get an email from your friends in… On Wed, Nov 3, 2010 at 3:19 PM, Timothy B. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > in SD Debug), until I tried to call this ruby file from C#. So I still don’t quite understand why ruby works one way and not the other, but ---
**Author:** ![tuatha](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/b4bc9f/32.png) [@tuatha](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tuatha)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2010, 5:11pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/running-ironruby-script-from-c/198506/7 "2010-11-03T17:11:32Z")
Dotan, Thanks for the links. I have been looking for a place to explain encoding well for awhile. I am a self-trained programmer and sometimes it is hard to find good info to increase my knowledge base. Thanks for the help. ---
**Author:** ![tuatha](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/b4bc9f/32.png) [@tuatha](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tuatha)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2010, 6:29pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/running-ironruby-script-from-c/198506/8 "2010-11-03T18:29:05Z")
Files don’t need to be encoded in UTF8, you can chose any encoding supported on your system. IronRuby 1.1.1 supports BOMs and also Ruby specific #encoding directives. I would suggest always using UTF8. Personally I consider any non-Unicode based encoding obsolete and frankly don’t understand why Ruby went the way they did with all that complexity around encodings. It just makes it slower and cumbersome to use. Tomas ---
**Author:** ![tuatha](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/b4bc9f/32.png) [@tuatha](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tuatha)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2010, 6:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/running-ironruby-script-from-c/198506/9 "2010-11-03T18:59:20Z")
Tomas, I appreciate the suggestion. The reason I was trying to do this was to create and .exe file that I can distribute to other co-workers without them having to understand what ruby is. The only other answer I can’t find through internet searches is whether on not I can suppress the console window while running a window application through IronRuby. (similar to the using a .rbw file) It appears that this is not possible. Is that correct? Timothy ---
**Author:** ![tuatha](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/b4bc9f/32.png) [@tuatha](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tuatha)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2010, 9:18pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/running-ironruby-script-from-c/198506/10 "2010-11-03T21:18:06Z")
it is possible to embed without a console window 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![tuatha](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/b4bc9f/32.png) [@tuatha](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tuatha)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2010, 9:41pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/running-ironruby-script-from-c/198506/11 "2010-11-03T21:41:20Z")
Not today, but it would be easy to implement. I can do it over the weekend if you need it. Tomas ---
**Author:** ![tuatha](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/b4bc9f/32.png) [@tuatha](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tuatha)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2010, 9:38pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/running-ironruby-script-from-c/198506/12 "2010-11-03T21:38:49Z")
I mean you can indeed write a Windows app in C# or VB that hosts IronRuby and that doesn’t need the console window (you can redirect standard output to a stream if you would like to display it in some window). The thing that’s missing from IronRuby is irw.exe file that would do that for you (we have a similar one for Python). Tomas ---
**Author:** ![tuatha](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/b4bc9f/32.png) [@tuatha](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tuatha)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2010, 10:37pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/running-ironruby-script-from-c/198506/13 "2010-11-03T22:37:24Z")
Tomas, Do you mean create a irw.exe file? That would be great. I don’t want to take up too much of your time, but it would be a great help. Again, thanks for the replies. Timothy ---
**Author:** ![tuatha](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/b4bc9f/32.png) [@tuatha](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tuatha)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2010, 12:33am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/running-ironruby-script-from-c/198506/14 "2010-11-04T00:33:46Z")
Yes, should be easy. Tomas ---
**Author:** ![tuatha](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/b4bc9f/32.png) [@tuatha](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tuatha)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 4:52pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/running-ironruby-script-from-c/198506/15 "2010-11-08T16:52:19Z")
Tomas, Where should I look for this file when you are finished? Timothy ---
**Author:** ![tuatha](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/b4bc9f/32.png) [@tuatha](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tuatha)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 6:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/running-ironruby-script-from-c/198506/16 "2010-11-08T18:30:32Z")
It’s already there - build Solutions\Ruby.sln from GIT repo ([https://github.com/ironruby/ironruby/archives/master](https://github.com/ironruby/ironruby/archives/master)): msbuild Solutions.Ruby.sln /p:Configuration=Release This produces binaries to bin\Release directory. You’ll need to take all IronRuby binaries (not just irw.exe). Of if you’d rather make an installer (IronRuby.msi) go to Msi directory and run msbuild Installer.proj /p:Configuration=Release This produces the .msi also into bin\Release. Tomas ---
**Author:** ![tuatha](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/b4bc9f/32.png) [@tuatha](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tuatha)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2010, 8:56pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/running-ironruby-script-from-c/198506/17 "2010-11-10T20:56:37Z")
Tomas, I built the binaries using msbuild (command line). I then copy all of the resulting files into my bin folder and now even using ir.exe results in an error message: unknown: no such file to load – gem\_prelude.rb (LoadError) Can you tell me what I have done wrong? Also, when I tried to build the .msi installer a .msi file doesn’t show up in the bin Release Folder. I am unsure if there is something wrong or it is my incompetence. Timothy ---
**Author:** ![tuatha](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/b4bc9f/32.png) [@tuatha](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tuatha)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2010, 11:02pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/running-ironruby-script-from-c/198506/18 "2010-11-10T23:02:01Z")
I did pass /p:Configuration=Release to msbuild and checked the debug folder. I did get 4 errors which might have been the cause. They were 20-30 lines long so I didn’t type them out here. Would it help for me to post them? Also, am I correct in the fact that you have to build the solution Ruby.sln before you can build the installer.proj? Timothy ---
**Author:** ![tuatha](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/b4bc9f/32.png) [@tuatha](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tuatha)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2010, 10:20pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/running-ironruby-script-from-c/198506/19 "2010-11-10T22:20:03Z")
There are some issues with how library load paths are set up today (gem\_prelude load error), I’m working on a fix. I might finish it this weekend. Did you pass /p:Configuration=Release to msbuild when building the installer? If not look at bin\Debug folder 🙂 Tomas ---
**Author:** ![tuatha](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/b4bc9f/32.png) [@tuatha](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tuatha)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 8:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/running-ironruby-script-from-c/198506/20 "2010-11-11T20:05:03Z")
I did not have VS SDK 2010, which I now have installed and the build is still failing. I have attached a copy of some of the error text from the unsuccessful build, if you want to look. More info: Only have Visual C# Express 2010 installed - Not sure if this is affecting the build. Using command prompt to build. Timothy [Next page](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/running-ironruby-script-from-c/198506.md?page=2)