# Sending irb session to a file in windows **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [April 10, 2007, 5:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/sending-irb-session-to-a-file-in-windows/91576 "2007-04-10T17:40:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**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:** [April 10, 2007, 5:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/sending-irb-session-to-a-file-in-windows/91576/1 "2007-04-10T17:40:29Z")
I’m looking to send an irb session to a file. How do people do this on Windows? Andy ---
**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:** [April 10, 2007, 7:38pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/sending-irb-session-to-a-file-in-windows/91576/2 "2007-04-10T19:38:46Z")
On Apr 10, 2007, at 10:40 AM, removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid wrote: > I’m looking to send an irb session to a file. How do people do this on > Windows? Here’s what you need: [http://blog.bleything.net/2006/10/21/shell-style-history-for-irb](http://blog.bleything.net/2006/10/21/shell-style-history-for-irb) James Edward G. II ---
**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:** [April 11, 2007, 5:05am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/sending-irb-session-to-a-file-in-windows/91576/3 "2007-04-11T05:05:41Z")
Thanks, James, this is useful, although it appears that it only retains the history of commands I enter, without the irb output (return values, errors, etc). I’m surprised there’s no way to send all of an irb session (input and output) to a file – if I’m still missing something, please someone let me know. For what I want to do (mostly, I just want to pull out snippets from an irb session to describe code behavior), what works best for me so far is to put the command prompt in QuickEdit Mode and manually copy out sections to the clipboard. (I went a long, frustrating time without knowing about this – to turn it on, click the mini-command prompt on the upper left of the command prompt window and adjust defaults or properties.) Andy On Apr 10, 1:38 pm, James Edward G. II [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) ---
**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:** [April 11, 2007, 7:21am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/sending-irb-session-to-a-file-in-windows/91576/4 "2007-04-11T07:21:50Z")
On Wed, Apr 11, 2007, andy eggers wrote: > Thanks, James, this is useful, although it appears that it only > retains the history of commands I enter, without the irb output > (return values, errors, etc). I’m surprised there’s no way to send all > of an irb session (input and output) to a file – if I’m still missing > something, please someone let me know. As far as I know (and I’m definitely open to the possibility that I’m wrong here) that’s not really possible outside of windows, either. You can capture the output, but getting both the input and output would be tricky. I think your best bet is to just copy/paste the sections as you describe below. That’s what I’d be doing on OSX to accomplish the same thing. An alternative would be to look at the history stuff James pointed you at, and edit the part that writes history out to a file to also exec each line and put its output in the file. My guess is that would get you most of the way there. Either way, please share what you figure out 🙂 Ben ---
**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:** [April 11, 2007, 7:46am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/sending-irb-session-to-a-file-in-windows/91576/5 "2007-04-11T07:46:52Z")
On Wed, Apr 11, 2007 at 02:21:09PM +0900, Ben B. wrote: > tricky. > It’s easy in Linux: $ script foo.txt $ irb irb\> … irb\> exit $ exit $ cat foo.txt Technically that only captures the output, but since the output includes the keystrokes you typed echoed back, that’s what you see on the screen. ---
**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:** [April 11, 2007, 5:14pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/sending-irb-session-to-a-file-in-windows/91576/6 "2007-04-11T17:14:12Z")
On Wed, Apr 11, 2007, Brian C. wrote: > It’s easy in Linux: > > $ script foo.txt oh DUH. I always forget about script. Thanks for reminding me. Ben