Ruby require path

Question

I have a Ruby code with different classes in a few files. In one file, I start the execution. This file requires my other files.

• Is this a good way to start a ruby code?
• When I run the code from a symbolic link, for example DIR2/MyRubyCode is a link to the main file DIR1/MyRubyCode.rb, then my requires will fail. I solved the problem by adding the path DIR1 to $LOAD_PATH before the require, but I think there would be much better ways to do it. Do you have any suggestions about that?

Answer 1

If you're using Ruby 1.9 or greater, user require_relative for your dependencies.

require_relative 'foo_class'
require_relative 'bar_module'

Answer 2

If you want to check if a Ruby file is being 'require'ed or executed with 'ruby MyRubyCode.rb', check the __FILE__ constant.

# If the first argument to `ruby` is this file.
if $0 == __FILE__
  # Execute some stuff.
end

As far as the require/$LOAD_PATH issue, you could always use the relative path in the require statement. For example:

# MyRubyCode.rb
require "#{File.dirname(__FILE__)}/foo_class"
require "#{File.dirname(__FILE__)}/bar_module"

Which would include the foo_class.rb and bar_module.rb files in the same directory as MyRubyCode.rb.