# Strange IRB problem

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/strange-irb-problem/159715>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [February 7, 2009, 1:43pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/strange-irb-problem/159715 "2009-02-07T13:43:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![doug](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@doug](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/doug)\
**Post date:** [February 7, 2009, 1:43pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/strange-irb-problem/159715/1 "2009-02-07T13:43:53Z")

</div>

strange…  
I’m on Vista and updated to Rails 2.2.2 and rubygems 1.3.1 with the  
usual problem there.  
…but fixed that pretty easily …(it’s well documented)…

everything was fine…but then I tried to use IRB.  
in every shell I have (netbeans, git bash, windows shell)  
I got this result:

* * *

Doug@APOLLO /c/projects/work/MathCraze  
$ script/console  
Loading development environment (Rails 2.2.2)

c:\projects\work\MathCraze\>#@echo off  
‘#@echo’ is not recognized as an internal or external command,  
operable program or batch file.

c:\projects\work\MathCraze\>#goto endofruby  
‘#goto’ is not recognized as an internal or external command,  
operable program or batch file.

c:\projects\work\MathCraze\>#!/bin/ruby  
‘#!’ is not recognized as an internal or external command,  
operable program or batch file.

c:\projects\work\MathCraze\>#  
‘#’ is not recognized as an internal or external command,  
operable program or batch file.

c:\projects\work\MathCraze\># irb.rb - intaractive ruby  
‘#’ is not recognized as an internal or external command,  
operable program or batch file.

c:\projects\work\MathCraze\># $Release Version: 0.9.5 $  
‘#’ is not recognized as an internal or external command,  
operable program or batch file.

c:\projects\work\MathCraze\># $Revision: 1.2.2.1 $  
‘#’ is not recognized as an internal or external command,  
operable program or batch file.

c:\projects\work\MathCraze\># $Date: 2005/04/19 19:24:56 $  
‘#’ is not recognized as an internal or external command,  
operable program or batch file.

c:\projects\work\MathCraze\># by Keiju ISHITSUKA(keiju@ruby-  
[lang.org](http://lang.org))  
‘#’ is not recognized as an internal or external command,  
operable program or batch file.

c:\projects\work\MathCraze\>#  
‘#’ is not recognized as an internal or external command,  
operable program or batch file.

## c:\projects\work\MathCraze\>require “irb” ‘require’ is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file. The syntax of the command is incorrect. c:\projects\work\MathCraze\>if **FILE** == $0

In Netbeans (6.5), while the Rails Console gives similiar output,  
however,  
the Ruby IRB sort of “worked”, but I had to load the environment  
manually.  
…see below…

=======================================================================  
.irbrc successfully loaded

> > load ‘config/environment.rb’  
> > load ‘config/environment.rb’

=\> true

> > u = User.new  
> > u = User.new

=\> #\<User id: nil, login: nil, crypted\_password: nil, password\_salt:  
nil, persistence\_token: nil, login\_count: nil, last\_request\_at: nil,  
last\_login\_at: nil, current\_login\_at: nil, last\_login\_ip: nil,  
current\_login\_ip: nil, created\_at: nil, updated\_at: nil\>

> > f = FlashCardGame.new  
> > f = FlashCardGame.new

=\> #\<FlashCardGame:0x5c86d4c @y=98, @x=75, @answer=173\>

> >

=====================================================================

ANY Ideas?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![doug](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@doug](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/doug)\
**Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 5:52am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/strange-irb-problem/159715/2 "2009-02-09T05:52:13Z")

</div>

What version of Ruby are you running? From the output, it appears that  
somebody’s commented out several DOS batch commands (@echo and  
friends)  
with #s in irb.bat.

Does calling irb directly from the command line work?

–Matt J.