What's the best way to do multiple requires in Ruby?

Question

I'm not sure I've seen this addressed, but I am wondering what is the best way to do multiple requires in a ruby script. I have come up with a couple rudimentary examples which I will outline below, but I'm not sure if there is a best practice for this -- my search results have come back with nothing.

0) Bunch of includes & exceptions (I'll leave the rescue out)

require 'rubygems'
require 'builder'

1) String array

torequire = ['rubygems', 'builder']
begin
  torequire.each do |req|
    require req
rescue LoadError => e
  # Not sure if this is great either
  puts "Missing required gem: " + e.message.split[-1]
  exit
end

2) ??

Is there a large problem created from loading them all from a string array? You could specify version requirements or locations similarly, I'm just wondering if there is a problem with doing it this way.

Answer 1

The plain way is the best way.

You could do this, but it trades clarity for cleverness--a poor bargain:

[
  'rubygems',
  'rack',
  'rails'
].each(&method(:require))

Skip the "rescue" with the fancy error message. Everyone knows what it means when a require throws a stack trace.

If you want to make it easier for someone using your program to have the required gems installed, check out bundler.