RI(1)

NAME
ri - Ruby API reference front end

SYNOPSIS
ri [-ahilTv] [-d DIRNAME] [-f FORMAT] [-w WIDTH] [--[no-]pager] [--server[=PORT]] [--[no-]list-doc-dirs] [--no-standard-docs] [--[no-]{system|site|gems|home}] [--[no-]profile] [--dump=CACHE] [name ...]

DESCRIPTION
ri is a command-line front end for the Ruby API reference. You can search and read the API reference for classes and methods with ri.

ri is a part of Ruby.

name can be:

Class | Module | Module::Class

Class::method | Class#method | Class.method | method

gem_name: | gem_name:README | gem_name:History

ruby: | ruby:NEWS | ruby:globals

All class names may be abbreviated to their minimum unambiguous form. If a name is ambiguous, all valid options will be listed.

A ‘’. matches either class or instance methods, while #method matches only instance and ::method matches only class methods.

README and other files may be displayed by prefixing them with the gem name they're contained in. If the gem name is followed by a ‘’: all files in the gem will be shown. The file name extension may be omitted where it is unambiguous.

For example:

    ri Fil
    ri File
    ri File.new
    ri zip
    ri rdoc:README

Note that shell quoting or escaping may be required for method names containing punctuation:

    ri 'Array.[]'
    ri compact\!

To see the default directories ri will search, run:

    ri --list-doc-dirs

Specifying the --system, --site, --home, --gems, or --doc-dir options will limit ri to searching only the specified directories.

ri options may be set in the RI environment variable.

The ri pager can be set with the RI_PAGER environment variable or the PAGER environment variable.

OPTIONS

-i
--[no-]interactive
    In interactive mode you can repeatedly look up methods with autocomplete.

-a
--[no-]all
    Show all documentation for a class or module.

-l
--[no-]list
    List classes ri knows about.

--[no-]pager
    Send output to a pager, rather than directly to stdout.

-T  Synonym for --no-pager.

-w WIDTH
--width=WIDTH
    Set the width of the output.

--server[=PORT]
    Run RDoc server on the given port. The default port is 8214.

-f FORMAT
--format=FORMAT
    Use the selected formatter. The default formatter is bs for paged output and ansi otherwise. Valid formatters are: ansi, bs, markdown, rdoc.

-h
--help
    Show help and exit.

-v
--version
    Output version information and exit.

Data source options:

--[no-]list-doc-dirs
    List the directories from which ri will source documentation on stdout and exit.

-d DIRNAME
--doc-dir=DIRNAME
    List of directories from which to source documentation in addition to the standard directories. May be repeated.

--no-standard-docs
    Do not include documentation from the Ruby standard library, site_lib, installed gems, or ~/.rdoc. Use with --doc-dir.

--[no-]system
    Include documentation from Ruby's standard library. Defaults to true.

--[no-]site
    Include documentation from libraries installed in site_lib. Defaults to true.

--[no-]gems
    Include documentation from RubyGems. Defaults to true.

--[no-]home
    Include documentation stored in ~/.rdoc. Defaults to true.

Debug options:

--[no-]profile
    Run with the Ruby profiler.

--dump=CACHE
    Dump data from an ri cache or data file.

ENVIRONMENT

RI  Options to prepend to those specified on the command-line.

RI_PAGER
PAGER
    Pager program to use for displaying.

HOME
USERPROFILE
HOMEPATH
    Path to the user's home directory.

FILES

~/.rdoc
    Path for ri data in the user's home directory.

SEE ALSO
ruby(1), rdoc(1), gem(1)

REPORTING BUGS

•   Security vulnerabilities should be reported via an email to security@ruby-lang.org. Reported problems will be published after being fixed.

•   Other bugs and feature requests can be reported via the Ruby Issue Tracking System (https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/). Do not report security vulnerabilities via this system because it publishes the vulnerabilities immediately.

AUTHORS
Written by Dave Thomas <dave@pragmaticprogrammer.com>.