How to get Readline support in IRB using RVM on Ubuntu 11.10

Question

I have tried everything I can think of to get this to work, to no avail so here I am requesting suggestions on how to debug.

Firstly, runnning Ubuntu 11.10

Installed rvm:

$ bash < <(curl -s https://raw.github.com/wayneeseguin/rvm/master/binscripts/rvm-installer) 

Installed readline using apt-get:

$ sudo apt-get install libreadline-dev 

Check for readline install:

$ dpkg --get-selections | grep readline lib64readline-gplv2-dev             install lib64readline5                  install libreadline-dev                 install libreadline5                    install libreadline6                    install libreadline6-dev                install readline-common                 install 

Install ruby, with readline support?

$ rvm install 1.9.2 --with-readline-dir=/usr 

Here is rvm version:

$ rvm --version  rvm 1.9.2 by Wayne E. Seguin ([email protected]) [https://rvm.beginrescueend.com/] 

Lets try the ruby shell:

$ irb 1.9.2 :001 > puts "add history" add history  => nil  1.9.2 :002 > ^[[A^[[A^[[A^[[A^[[A <------ PRESS UP ARROW DOES THIS 

No, ok so if its not going to work with ubuntu's readline version??? lets try with rvm's own version of readline:

$ rvm pkg install readline Fetching readline-5.2.tar.gz to /home/keith/.rvm/archives   % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current                                  Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed 100 1989k  100 1989k    0     0   318k      0  0:00:06  0:00:06 --:--:--  418k Extracting readline-5.2.tar.gz to /home/keith/.rvm/src Applying patch '/home/keith/.rvm/patches/readline-5.2/shobj-conf.patch'... Prepare readline in /home/keith/.rvm/src/readline-5.2. ERROR: Error running 'autoreconf -is --force', please read /home/keith/.rvm/log/readline/autoreconf.log Configuring readline in /home/keith/.rvm/src/readline-5.2. Compiling readline in /home/keith/.rvm/src/readline-5.2. Installing readline to /home/keith/.rvm/usr Fetching readline-6.2.tar.gz to /home/keith/.rvm/archives   % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current                                  Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed 100 2224k  100 2224k    0     0   310k      0  0:00:07  0:00:07 --:--:--  444k Extracting readline-6.2.tar.gz to /home/keith/.rvm/src Applying patch '/home/keith/.rvm/patches/readline-6.2/patch-shobj-conf.diff'... Prepare readline in /home/keith/.rvm/src/readline-6.2. ERROR: Error running 'autoreconf -is --force', please read /home/keith/.rvm/log/readline/autoreconf.log Configuring readline in /home/keith/.rvm/src/readline-6.2. Compiling readline in /home/keith/.rvm/src/readline-6.2. Installing readline to /home/keith/.rvm/usr 

Ok, there's an error there, lets take a look:

$ more /home/keith/.rvm/log/readline/autoreconf.log [2011-11-17 22:31:15] autoreconf -is --force autoheader: warning: missing template: CTYPE_NON_ASCII autoheader: Use AC_DEFINE([CTYPE_NON_ASCII], [], [Description]) autoheader: warning: missing template: FIONREAD_IN_SYS_IOCTL autoheader: warning: missing template: HAVE_BSD_SIGNALS autoheader: warning: missing template: HAVE_GETPW_DECLS autoheader: warning: missing template: HAVE_LANGINFO_CODESET autoheader: warning: missing template: HAVE_MBRLEN autoheader: warning: missing template: HAVE_MBSCMP autoheader: warning: missing template: HAVE_MBSNRTOWCS autoheader: warning: missing template: HAVE_MBSRTOWCS autoheader: warning: missing template: HAVE_MBSTATE_T autoheader: warning: missing template: HAVE_POSIX_SIGNALS autoheader: warning: missing template: HAVE_POSIX_SIGSETJMP autoheader: warning: missing template: HAVE_STRUCT_DIRENT_D_FILENO autoheader: warning: missing template: HAVE_STRUCT_DIRENT_D_INO autoheader: warning: missing template: HAVE_USG_SIGHOLD autoheader: warning: missing template: HAVE_WCRTOMB autoheader: warning: missing template: HAVE_WCSCOLL autoheader: warning: missing template: HAVE_WCSDUP autoheader: warning: missing template: HAVE_WCTYPE autoheader: warning: missing template: HAVE_WCWIDTH autoheader: warning: missing template: MUST_REINSTALL_SIGHANDLERS autoheader: warning: missing template: NO_MULTIBYTE_SUPPORT autoheader: warning: missing template: SPEED_T_IN_SYS_TYPES autoheader: warning: missing template: STRCOLL_BROKEN autoheader: warning: missing template: STRUCT_WINSIZE_IN_SYS_IOCTL autoheader: warning: missing template: STRUCT_WINSIZE_IN_TERMIOS autoheader: warning: missing template: TIOCSTAT_IN_SYS_IOCTL autoheader: warning: missing template: VOID_SIGHANDLER autoreconf: /usr/bin/autoheader failed with exit status: 1 

And as expected irb isn't working with readline:

$ rvm install 1.8.7 --with-readline-dir=\$HOME/.rvm/usr Installing Ruby from source to: /home/keith/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.8.7-p352, this may take a while depending on your cpu(s)...  ruby-1.8.7-p352 - #fetching  ruby-1.8.7-p352 - #extracting ruby-1.8.7-p352 to /home/keith/.rvm/src/ruby-1.8.7-p352 ruby-1.8.7-p352 - #extracted to /home/keith/.rvm/src/ruby-1.8.7-p352 Applying patch 'stdout-rouge-fix' (located at /home/keith/.rvm/patches/ruby/1.8.7/stdout-rouge-fix.patch) ruby-1.8.7-p352 - #configuring  ruby-1.8.7-p352 - #compiling  ruby-1.8.7-p352 - #installing  Removing old Rubygems files... Installing rubygems-1.8.10 for ruby-1.8.7-p352 ... Installation of rubygems completed successfully. ruby-1.8.7-p352 - adjusting #shebangs for (gem irb erb ri rdoc testrb rake). ruby-1.8.7-p352 - #importing default gemsets (/home/keith/.rvm/gemsets/) Install of ruby-1.8.7-p352 - #complete  $ irb Readline was unable to be required, if you need completion or history install readline then reinstall the ruby. You may follow 'rvm notes' for dependencies and/or read the docs page https://rvm.beginrescueend.com/packages/readline/ . Be sure you 'rvm remove X ; rvm install X' to re-compile your ruby with readline support after obtaining the readline libraries. 1.8.7 :001 >  

Have I installed all the rvm requirements? Yes here look:

$ sudo apt-get install build-essential openssl libreadline6 libreadline6-dev curl git-core zlib1g zlib1g-dev libssl-dev libyaml-dev libsqlite3-0 libsqlite3-dev sqlite3 libxml2-dev libxslt-dev autoconf libc6-dev ncurses-dev automake libtool bison subversion Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree        Reading state information... Done Note, selecting 'libxslt1-dev' instead of 'libxslt-dev' Note, selecting 'libncurses5-dev' instead of 'ncurses-dev' autoconf is already the newest version. automake is already the newest version. bison is already the newest version. build-essential is already the newest version. curl is already the newest version. git-core is already the newest version. libc6-dev is already the newest version. libncurses5-dev is already the newest version. libreadline6 is already the newest version. libreadline6-dev is already the newest version. libreadline6-dev set to manually installed. libsqlite3-0 is already the newest version. libsqlite3-dev is already the newest version. libssl-dev is already the newest version. libtool is already the newest version. libxml2-dev is already the newest version. libxslt1-dev is already the newest version. libyaml-dev is already the newest version. openssl is already the newest version. sqlite3 is already the newest version. subversion is already the newest version. zlib1g is already the newest version. zlib1g-dev is already the newest version. 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. 

And so it goes on, and on and on and on.....

$ rvm remove 1.8.7 Removing /home/keith/.rvm/src/ruby-1.8.7-p352... Removing /home/keith/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.8.7-p352... Removing ruby-1.8.7-p352 aliases... Removing ruby-1.8.7-p352 wrappers... Removing ruby-1.8.7-p352 environments... Removing ruby-1.8.7-p352 binaries...  $ rvm install 1.8.7 --with-readline-dir=\$HOME/.rvm/usr Installing Ruby from source to: /home/keith/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.8.7-p352, this may take a while depending on your cpu(s)...  ruby-1.8.7-p352 - #fetching  ruby-1.8.7-p352 - #extracting ruby-1.8.7-p352 to /home/keith/.rvm/src/ruby-1.8.7-p352 ruby-1.8.7-p352 - #extracted to /home/keith/.rvm/src/ruby-1.8.7-p352 Applying patch 'stdout-rouge-fix' (located at /home/keith/.rvm/patches/ruby/1.8.7/stdout-rouge-fix.patch) ruby-1.8.7-p352 - #configuring  ruby-1.8.7-p352 - #compiling  ruby-1.8.7-p352 - #installing  Removing old Rubygems files... Installing rubygems-1.8.10 for ruby-1.8.7-p352 ... Installation of rubygems completed successfully. ruby-1.8.7-p352 - adjusting #shebangs for (gem irb erb ri rdoc testrb rake). ruby-1.8.7-p352 - #importing default gemsets (/home/keith/.rvm/gemsets/) Install of ruby-1.8.7-p352 - #complete   $ irb Readline was unable to be required, if you need completion or history install readline then reinstall the ruby. You may follow 'rvm notes' for dependencies and/or read the docs page https://rvm.beginrescueend.com/packages/readline/ . Be sure you 'rvm remove X ; rvm install X' to re-compile your ruby with readline support after obtaining the readline libraries. 1.8.7 :001 >   $ cd ~/.rvm/src/ruby-1.8.7-p352/ext/readline/ $ ruby extconf.rb  checking for tgetnum() in -lncurses... yes checking for readline/readline.h... yes checking for readline/history.h... yes checking for readline() in -lreadline... yes checking for rl_filename_completion_function()... yes checking for rl_username_completion_function()... yes checking for rl_completion_matches()... yes checking for rl_deprep_term_function in stdio.h,readline/readline.h,readline/history.h... yes checking for rl_completion_append_character in stdio.h,readline/readline.h,readline/history.h... yes checking for rl_basic_word_break_characters in stdio.h,readline/readline.h,readline/history.h... yes checking for rl_completer_word_break_characters in stdio.h,readline/readline.h,readline/history.h... yes checking for rl_basic_quote_characters in stdio.h,readline/readline.h,readline/history.h... yes checking for rl_completer_quote_characters in stdio.h,readline/readline.h,readline/history.h... yes checking for rl_filename_quote_characters in stdio.h,readline/readline.h,readline/history.h... yes checking for rl_attempted_completion_over in stdio.h,readline/readline.h,readline/history.h... yes checking for rl_library_version in stdio.h,readline/readline.h,readline/history.h... yes checking for rl_event_hook in stdio.h,readline/readline.h,readline/history.h... yes checking for rl_cleanup_after_signal()... yes checking for rl_clear_signals()... yes checking for rl_vi_editing_mode()... yes checking for rl_emacs_editing_mode()... yes checking for replace_history_entry()... yes checking for remove_history()... yes creating Makefile  $ make gcc -shared -o readline.so readline.o -L. -L/home/keith/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.8.7-p352/lib -Wl,-R/home/keith/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.8.7-p352/lib -L.  -rdynamic -Wl,-export-dynamic    -Wl,-R -Wl,/home/keith/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.8.7-p352/lib -L/home/keith/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.8.7-p352/lib -lruby -lreadline -lncurses  -lrt -ldl -lcrypt -lm   -lc  $ make install /usr/bin/install -c -m 0755 readline.so /home/keith/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.8.7-p352/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/i686-linux  $ rvm remove 1.8.7 Removing /home/keith/.rvm/src/ruby-1.8.7-p352... Removing /home/keith/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.8.7-p352... shell-init: error retrieving current directory: getcwd: cannot access parent directories: No such file or directory Removing ruby-1.8.7-p352 aliases... Removing ruby-1.8.7-p352 wrappers... Removing ruby-1.8.7-p352 environments... Removing ruby-1.8.7-p352 binaries...  $ rvm install 1.8.7 --with-readline-dir=\$HOME/.rvm/usr Installing Ruby from source to: /home/keith/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.8.7-p352, this may take a while depending on your cpu(s)... ruby-1.8.7-p352 - #fetching  ruby-1.8.7-p352 - #extracting ruby-1.8.7-p352 to /home/keith/.rvm/src/ruby-1.8.7-p352 ruby-1.8.7-p352 - #extracted to /home/keith/.rvm/src/ruby-1.8.7-p352 Applying patch 'stdout-rouge-fix' (located at /home/keith/.rvm/patches/ruby/1.8.7/stdout-rouge-fix.patch) ruby-1.8.7-p352 - #configuring  ruby-1.8.7-p352 - #compiling  ruby-1.8.7-p352 - #installing  Removing old Rubygems files... Installing rubygems-1.8.10 for ruby-1.8.7-p352 ... Installation of rubygems completed successfully. ruby-1.8.7-p352 - adjusting #shebangs for (gem irb erb ri rdoc testrb rake). ruby-1.8.7-p352 - #importing default gemsets (/home/keith/.rvm/gemsets/) Install of ruby-1.8.7-p352 - #complete   $ irb Readline was unable to be required, if you need completion or history install readline then reinstall the ruby. You may follow 'rvm notes' for dependencies and/or read the docs page https://rvm.beginrescueend.com/packages/readline/ . Be sure you 'rvm remove X ; rvm install X' to re-compile your ruby with readline support after obtaining the readline libraries. 1.8.7 :001 > $   $ rvm pkg install readline Fetching readline-5.2.tar.gz to /home/keith/.rvm/archives Extracting readline-5.2.tar.gz to /home/keith/.rvm/src Applying patch '/home/keith/.rvm/patches/readline-5.2/shobj-conf.patch'... Prepare readline in /home/keith/.rvm/src/readline-5.2. ERROR: Error running 'autoreconf -is --force', please read /home/keith/.rvm/log/readline/autoreconf.log Configuring readline in /home/keith/.rvm/src/readline-5.2. Compiling readline in /home/keith/.rvm/src/readline-5.2. Installing readline to /home/keith/.rvm/usr Fetching readline-6.2.tar.gz to /home/keith/.rvm/archives Extracting readline-6.2.tar.gz to /home/keith/.rvm/src Applying patch '/home/keith/.rvm/patches/readline-6.2/patch-shobj-conf.diff'... Prepare readline in /home/keith/.rvm/src/readline-6.2. ERROR: Error running 'autoreconf -is --force', please read /home/keith/.rvm/log/readline/autoreconf.log Configuring readline in /home/keith/.rvm/src/readline-6.2. Compiling readline in /home/keith/.rvm/src/readline-6.2. Installing readline to /home/keith/.rvm/usr  $ sudo apt-get install build-essential openssl libreadline6 libreadline6-dev curl git-core zlib1g zlib1g-dev libssl-dev libyaml-dev libsqlite3-0 libsqlite3-dev sqlite3 libxml2-dev libxslt-dev autoconf libc6-dev ncurses-dev automake libtool bison subversion Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree        Reading state information... Done Note, selecting 'libxslt1-dev' instead of 'libxslt-dev' Note, selecting 'libncurses5-dev' instead of 'ncurses-dev' autoconf is already the newest version. automake is already the newest version. bison is already the newest version. build-essential is already the newest version. curl is already the newest version. git-core is already the newest version. libc6-dev is already the newest version. libncurses5-dev is already the newest version. libreadline6 is already the newest version. libreadline6-dev is already the newest version. libreadline6-dev set to manually installed. libsqlite3-0 is already the newest version. libsqlite3-dev is already the newest version. libssl-dev is already the newest version. libtool is already the newest version. libxml2-dev is already the newest version. libxslt1-dev is already the newest version. libyaml-dev is already the newest version. openssl is already the newest version. sqlite3 is already the newest version. subversion is already the newest version. zlib1g is already the newest version. zlib1g-dev is already the newest version. 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.  $ cd ~/.rvm/src/ruby-1.8.7-p352/ext/readline/  $ ruby extconf.rb --with-readline-dir=/usr checking for tgetnum() in -lncurses... yes checking for readline/readline.h... yes checking for readline/history.h... yes checking for readline() in -lreadline... yes checking for rl_filename_completion_function()... yes checking for rl_username_completion_function()... yes checking for rl_completion_matches()... yes checking for rl_deprep_term_function in stdio.h,readline/readline.h,readline/history.h... yes checking for rl_completion_append_character in stdio.h,readline/readline.h,readline/history.h... yes checking for rl_basic_word_break_characters in stdio.h,readline/readline.h,readline/history.h... yes checking for rl_completer_word_break_characters in stdio.h,readline/readline.h,readline/history.h... yes checking for rl_basic_quote_characters in stdio.h,readline/readline.h,readline/history.h... yes checking for rl_completer_quote_characters in stdio.h,readline/readline.h,readline/history.h... yes checking for rl_filename_quote_characters in stdio.h,readline/readline.h,readline/history.h... yes checking for rl_attempted_completion_over in stdio.h,readline/readline.h,readline/history.h... yes checking for rl_library_version in stdio.h,readline/readline.h,readline/history.h... yes checking for rl_event_hook in stdio.h,readline/readline.h,readline/history.h... yes checking for rl_cleanup_after_signal()... yes checking for rl_clear_signals()... yes checking for rl_vi_editing_mode()... yes checking for rl_emacs_editing_mode()... yes checking for replace_history_entry()... yes checking for remove_history()... yes creating Makefile  $ make gcc -I. -I. -I/home/keith/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.8.7-p352/lib/ruby/1.8/i686-linux -I. -DHAVE_READLINE_READLINE_H -DHAVE_READLINE_HISTORY_H -DHAVE_RL_FILENAME_COMPLETION_FUNCTION -DHAVE_RL_USERNAME_COMPLETION_FUNCTION -DHAVE_RL_COMPLETION_MATCHES -DHAVE_RL_DEPREP_TERM_FUNCTION -DHAVE_RL_COMPLETION_APPEND_CHARACTER -DHAVE_RL_BASIC_WORD_BREAK_CHARACTERS -DHAVE_RL_COMPLETER_WORD_BREAK_CHARACTERS -DHAVE_RL_BASIC_QUOTE_CHARACTERS -DHAVE_RL_COMPLETER_QUOTE_CHARACTERS -DHAVE_RL_FILENAME_QUOTE_CHARACTERS -DHAVE_RL_ATTEMPTED_COMPLETION_OVER -DHAVE_RL_LIBRARY_VERSION -DHAVE_RL_EVENT_HOOK -DHAVE_RL_CLEANUP_AFTER_SIGNAL -DHAVE_RL_CLEAR_SIGNALS -DHAVE_RL_VI_EDITING_MODE -DHAVE_RL_EMACS_EDITING_MODE -DHAVE_REPLACE_HISTORY_ENTRY -DHAVE_REMOVE_HISTORY -I/usr/include  -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64  -fPIC -g -O2  -fPIC   -c readline.c gcc -shared -o readline.so readline.o -L. -L/home/keith/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.8.7-p352/lib -Wl,-R/home/keith/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.8.7-p352/lib -L/usr/lib -Wl,-R/usr/lib -L.  -rdynamic -Wl,-export-dynamic    -Wl,-R -Wl,/home/keith/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.8.7-p352/lib -L/home/keith/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.8.7-p352/lib -lruby -lreadline -lncurses  -lrt -ldl -lcrypt -lm   -lc  $ make install /usr/bin/install -c -m 0755 readline.so /home/keith/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.8.7-p352/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/i686-linux  $ irb ruby-1.8.7-p352 :001 > p 1 1  => nil  ruby-1.8.7-p352 :002 > $     $ rvm remove 1.8.7 Removing /home/keith/.rvm/src/ruby-1.8.7-p352... Removing /home/keith/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.8.7-p352... Removing ruby-1.8.7-p352 aliases... Removing ruby-1.8.7-p352 wrappers... Removing ruby-1.8.7-p352 environments... Removing ruby-1.8.7-p352 binaries...  $ rvm install 1.8.7 --with-readline-dir=/usr Installing Ruby from source to: /home/keith/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.8.7-p352, this may take a while depending on your cpu(s)...  ruby-1.8.7-p352 - #fetching  ruby-1.8.7-p352 - #extracting ruby-1.8.7-p352 to /home/keith/.rvm/src/ruby-1.8.7-p352 ruby-1.8.7-p352 - #extracted to /home/keith/.rvm/src/ruby-1.8.7-p352 Applying patch 'stdout-rouge-fix' (located at /home/keith/.rvm/patches/ruby/1.8.7/stdout-rouge-fix.patch) ruby-1.8.7-p352 - #configuring  ruby-1.8.7-p352 - #compiling  ruby-1.8.7-p352 - #installing  Removing old Rubygems files... Installing rubygems-1.8.10 for ruby-1.8.7-p352 ... Installation of rubygems completed successfully. ruby-1.8.7-p352 - adjusting #shebangs for (gem irb erb ri rdoc testrb rake). ruby-1.8.7-p352 - #importing default gemsets (/home/keith/.rvm/gemsets/) Install of ruby-1.8.7-p352 - #complete   $ irb 1.8.7 :001 > p "hello world" "hello world"  => nil  1.8.7 :002 > ^[[A^[[A^[[A^[[A^[[A 

So in conclusion, I would be exceptionally grateful if some bright spark could suggest how I can debug this situation and resolve.

ps - Yes I have "Google" this problem to death....

Answer 1

Ubuntu 12.04 here: the answers here helped, but were also misleading.

If you're using Ubuntu 12.04, DO NOT pkg install readline, with or without --skip-autoreconf. After you've done that, either readline or zlib will be broken no matter what combination of switches you give to rvm install 1.9.3.

To get it to work, do the apt-get install that rvm requirements tells you to do, do a pkg uninstall readline and then do a simple rvm remove 1.9.3; rvm install 1.9.3

Answer 2

I struggled with this same issue with Ubuntu 11.10.

In my case readline would seemingly compile properly if I used the following:

$ rvm --skip-autoreconf pkg install readline 

as outlined at the bottom of http://beginrescueend.com/packages/readline/

However, when I invoked irb, I would get the normal error "Unable to require readline"

Finally, based on Shane's command line, I invoked the following:

$ rvm install 1.9.3 --with-readline-dir=$rvm_usr_path --with-iconv-dir=$rvm_usr_path --with-zlib-dir=$rvm_usr_path --with-openssl-dir=$rvm_usr_path 

rather than the command mentioned at http://beginrescueend.com/packages/readline/

$ rvm install 1.9.2 --with-readline-dir=$rvm_path/usr 

In my case version 1.9.3 was what I wanted. And finally irb came up with a functioning readline.

Thanks to everyone here for pointing me in the right direction.