Asp Forum - getting ri working on FreeBSD

Chad Perrin

6/12/2007 11:12:00 PM

I seem to have run into a small problem on FreeBSD. Hopefully, someone
here has an answer. (Note: cross-posted to freebsd-questions list)

No matter what I try to look up with ri (the Ruby information utility
that is used to look up stuff about classes, methods, et cetera, from the
command line), it returns the same result:

> ri Time.strftime
Nothing known about Time.strftime

I don't see anything in /usr/ports/lang that seems to relate to the
matter of ensuring ri has a database of information to share. What
am I missing? How can I get ri working properly on FreeBSD?

--
CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.ap... ]
W. Somerset Maugham: "The ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for
wit."

7 Answers

Chad Perrin

6/13/2007 8:05:00 AM

On Wed, Jun 13, 2007 at 08:12:27AM +0900, Chad Perrin wrote:
> I seem to have run into a small problem on FreeBSD. Hopefully, someone
> here has an answer. (Note: cross-posted to freebsd-questions list)
>
> No matter what I try to look up with ri (the Ruby information utility
> that is used to look up stuff about classes, methods, et cetera, from the
> command line), it returns the same result:
>
> > ri Time.strftime
> Nothing known about Time.strftime
>
> I don't see anything in /usr/ports/lang that seems to relate to the
> matter of ensuring ri has a database of information to share. What
> am I missing? How can I get ri working properly on FreeBSD?

I managed to get it working. Apparently, I had to run:
# tar jxvf /usr/ports/distfiles/ruby/ruby-1.8.6.tar.bz2
# rdoc --ri -R -U ruby-1.8.6/

. . but there didn't appear to be any documentation for that in any
easily discoverable location.

--
CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.ap... ]
Leon Festinger: "A man with a conviction is a hard man to change. Tell him
you disagree and he turns away. Show him facts and figures and he questions
your sources. Appeal to logic and he fails to see your point."

barjunk

6/13/2007 3:04:00 PM

On Jun 13, 12:04 am, Chad Perrin <per...@apotheon.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 13, 2007 at 08:12:27AM +0900, Chad Perrin wrote:
> > I seem to have run into a small problem on FreeBSD. Hopefully, someone
> > here has an answer. (Note: cross-posted to freebsd-questions list)
>
> > No matter what I try to look up with ri (the Ruby information utility
> > that is used to look up stuff about classes, methods, et cetera, from the
> > command line), it returns the same result:
>
> > > ri Time.strftime
> > Nothing known about Time.strftime
>
> > I don't see anything in /usr/ports/lang that seems to relate to the
> > matter of ensuring ri has a database of information to share. What
> > am I missing? How can I get ri working properly on FreeBSD?
>
> I managed to get it working. Apparently, I had to run:
> # tar jxvf /usr/ports/distfiles/ruby/ruby-1.8.6.tar.bz2
> # rdoc --ri -R -U ruby-1.8.6/
>
> . . but there didn't appear to be any documentation for that in any
> easily discoverable location.
>
> --
> CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [http://ccd.ap...]
> Leon Festinger: "A man with a conviction is a hard man to change. Tell him
> you disagree and he turns away. Show him facts and figures and he questions
> your sources. Appeal to logic and he fails to see your point."

Chad,

Where did you end up finding information about that...especially the -
U switch.

Mike B.

Chad Perrin

6/13/2007 9:00:00 PM

On Thu, Jun 14, 2007 at 12:05:05AM +0900, barjunk wrote:
> On Jun 13, 12:04 am, Chad Perrin <per...@apotheon.com> wrote:
> > On Wed, Jun 13, 2007 at 08:12:27AM +0900, Chad Perrin wrote:
> > > I seem to have run into a small problem on FreeBSD. Hopefully, someone
> > > here has an answer. (Note: cross-posted to freebsd-questions list)
> >
> > > No matter what I try to look up with ri (the Ruby information utility
> > > that is used to look up stuff about classes, methods, et cetera, from the
> > > command line), it returns the same result:
> >
> > > > ri Time.strftime
> > > Nothing known about Time.strftime
> >
> > > I don't see anything in /usr/ports/lang that seems to relate to the
> > > matter of ensuring ri has a database of information to share. What
> > > am I missing? How can I get ri working properly on FreeBSD?
> >
> > I managed to get it working. Apparently, I had to run:
> > # tar jxvf /usr/ports/distfiles/ruby/ruby-1.8.6.tar.bz2
> > # rdoc --ri -R -U ruby-1.8.6/
> >
> > . . but there didn't appear to be any documentation for that in any
> > easily discoverable location.
>
> Where did you end up finding information about that...especially the -
> U switch.

Enter "rdoc --help" or "rdoc -h" at the command line to get information
about the CLI arguments available for rdoc.

It was actually someone else on the freebsd-questions mailing list that
pointed me in the right direction, through a series of hunches.
Attempting to run "ri -c" (something I had not yet tried) gave a faint
hint, which led to another faint hint, and from there we found our way to
the rdoc help to sort out what to do to build the ri database. It was
kind of like a very brief, and interesting, scavenger hunt -- which can
be fun, but isn't really the best way to document a fundamentally
necessary feature.

At this point, I'm not sure whether the problem is a FreeBSD issue or a
Ruby packaging issue, so I haven't decided to make any bug reports or
anything like that (since I don't know yet where to send them, not
knowing who's responsible for this bug).

--
CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.ap... ]
Amazon.com interview candidate: "When C++ is your hammer, everything starts
to look like your thumb."

Ryan Zezeski

6/13/2007 9:09:00 PM

barjunk wrote:
> On Jun 13, 12:04 am, Chad Perrin <per...@apotheon.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>> --
>> CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [http://ccd.ap...]
>> Leon Festinger: "A man with a conviction is a hard man to change. Tell him
>> you disagree and he turns away. Show him facts and figures and he questions
>> your sources. Appeal to logic and he fails to see your point."
>
>
> Chad,
>
> Where did you end up finding information about that...especially the -
> U switch.
>
> Mike B.

You can run rdoc -h for a list of the commands.

I think you may want to use -Y instead of -R because you are building
the documentation for the standard classes.

# rdoc --ri -Y -U ruby-1.8.6

I've just started using FreeBSD (6.2) as of a week ago, but I would
think the port should do this automatically? I looked at the
/usr/ports/lang/ruby18 and it seems to have an option to build/install
the documentation. There is also /usr/ports/lang/ruby-doc-stdlib, but I
didn't try building it.

--
Posted via http://www.ruby-....

Chad Perrin

6/13/2007 9:18:00 PM

On Thu, Jun 14, 2007 at 06:08:30AM +0900, Ryan Zezeski wrote:
> barjunk wrote:
> > On Jun 13, 12:04 am, Chad Perrin <per...@apotheon.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [http://ccd.ap...]
> >> Leon Festinger: "A man with a conviction is a hard man to change. Tell him
> >> you disagree and he turns away. Show him facts and figures and he questions
> >> your sources. Appeal to logic and he fails to see your point."
> >
> >
> > Chad,
> >
> > Where did you end up finding information about that...especially the -
> > U switch.
> >
> > Mike B.
>
> You can run rdoc -h for a list of the commands.
>
> I think you may want to use -Y instead of -R because you are building
> the documentation for the standard classes.

I wish I'd known that before I ran the command with -R.

>
> # rdoc --ri -Y -U ruby-1.8.6
>
> I've just started using FreeBSD (6.2) as of a week ago, but I would
> think the port should do this automatically? I looked at the
> /usr/ports/lang/ruby18 and it seems to have an option to build/install
> the documentation. There is also /usr/ports/lang/ruby-doc-stdlib, but I
> didn't try building it.

I don't recall that being an option at the time I installed Ruby. C'est
la vie.

--
CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.ap... ]
Amazon.com interview candidate: "When C++ is your hammer, everything starts
to look like your thumb."

Eric Hodel

6/17/2007 12:46:00 AM

On Jun 12, 2007, at 16:12, Chad Perrin wrote:

> I seem to have run into a small problem on FreeBSD. Hopefully,
> someone
> here has an answer. (Note: cross-posted to freebsd-questions list)
>
> No matter what I try to look up with ri (the Ruby information utility
> that is used to look up stuff about classes, methods, et cetera,
> from the
> command line), it returns the same result:
>
>> ri Time.strftime
> Nothing known about Time.strftime
>
> I don't see anything in /usr/ports/lang that seems to relate to the
> matter of ensuring ri has a database of information to share. What
> am I missing? How can I get ri working properly on FreeBSD?

cd /usr/ports/lang/ruby
WITH_RDOC=yes make install

--
Poor workers blame their tools. Good workers build better tools. The
best
workers get their tools to do the work for them. -- Syndicate Wars

barjunk

6/18/2007 10:50:00 PM

On Jun 13, 1:17 pm, Chad Perrin <per...@apotheon.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Jun 14, 2007 at 06:08:30AM +0900, Ryan Zezeski wrote:
> >barjunkwrote:
> > > On Jun 13, 12:04 am, Chad Perrin <per...@apotheon.com> wrote:
>
> > >> --
> > >> CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [http://ccd.ap...]
> > >> Leon Festinger: "A man with a conviction is a hard man to change. Tell him
> > >> you disagree and he turns away. Show him facts and figures and he questions
> > >> your sources. Appeal to logic and he fails to see your point."
>
> > > Chad,
>
> > > Where did you end up finding information about that...especially the -
> > > U switch.
>
> > > Mike B.
>
> > You can run rdoc -h for a list of the commands.
>
> > I think you may want to use -Y instead of -R because you are building
> > the documentation for the standard classes.
>
> I wish I'd known that before I ran the command with -R.
>
>
>
> > # rdoc --ri -Y -U ruby-1.8.6
>
> > I've just started using FreeBSD (6.2) as of a week ago, but I would
> > think the port should do this automatically? I looked at the
> > /usr/ports/lang/ruby18 and it seems to have an option to build/install
> > the documentation. There is also /usr/ports/lang/ruby-doc-stdlib, but I
> > didn't try building it.
>
> I don't recall that being an option at the time I installed Ruby. C'est
> la vie.
>
> --
> CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [http://ccd.ap...]
> Amazon.com interview candidate: "When C++ is your hammer, everything starts
> to look like your thumb."

Interestingly:

rdoc --ri -Y -U ruby-1.8.6

gives me:

invalid option -- U

For help on options, try 'rdoc --help'

I'm using RDoc V1.0.1 - 20041108, which i think comes with ruby 1.8.4.

Mike B.

comp.lang.ruby

getting ri working on FreeBSD

Chad Perrin

Chad Perrin

barjunk

Chad Perrin

Ryan Zezeski

Chad Perrin

Eric Hodel

barjunk

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