How to enable auto completion in Ruby's IRB

John F. Miller picture John F. Miller · Sep 5, 2009 · Viewed 17.7k times · Source

When I use Merb's built in console, I get tab auto-completion similar to a standard bash prompt. I find this useful and would like to enable it in non-merb IRB sessions. How do I get auto-completion in IRB?

Answer

cldwalker picture cldwalker · Sep 5, 2009

Just drop require 'irb/completion' in your irbrc.

If that doesn't work try bond, http://tagaholic.me/bond/:

   require 'bond'; require 'bond/completion'

Bond not only improves irb's completion, http://tagaholic.me/2009/07/22/better-irb-completion-with-bond.html, but also offers an easy dsl for making custom autocompletions.