# The Ruby/ERB way to do this?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/the-ruby-erb-way-to-do-this/100182>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [July 27, 2006, 4:54pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/the-ruby-erb-way-to-do-this/100182 "2006-07-27T16:54:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![bodikp](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@bodikp](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/bodikp)\
**Post date:** [July 27, 2006, 4:54pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/the-ruby-erb-way-to-do-this/100182/1 "2006-07-27T16:54:41Z")

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Hello, I was wondering if someone could point me to a smarter way of  
doing  
the following? It’s probably a Ruby basics question.

I am using ERB to generate sets of configuration files for different  
environments. I imagined that I would use a different config file per  
environment, that sets variables, and apply this against a list of  
configuration file templates.

Currently each environment file defines a module “X” that has constants  
for  
each variable:  
module X  
MgrPort = ‘3000’  
MsgPort2s = ‘4000’

The template files reference the variables like so  
domain = \<%= X::Domain %\>

The script that calls erb.result() uses require/include to reference the  
config file

require “Configs/stagingProperties”  
include X

## There must be a better way to do this. Is there a “Right Way” here? I’ve perused the erb docs and the Pickaxe book but neither explicitly join the dots.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bodikp](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@bodikp](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/bodikp)\
**Post date:** [July 27, 2006, 6:31pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/the-ruby-erb-way-to-do-this/100182/2 "2006-07-27T18:31:31Z")

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Not sure if I totally understand your question, but I’ll try to help.

Note that if you want to, you can make your require use a variable so  
that  
you can vary which file to require in.

Also note that you can do your require and include in the module that  
calls  
erb since you can pass in a binding. The binding gives erb access to  
everything that was available where ever the binding was created. So you  
don’t have to put the require and inlude in the erb template.