IO

Class

Expect library adds the IO instance method expect, which does similar act to tcl’s expect extension.

In order to use this method, you must require expect:

require 'expect'

Please see expect for usage.

The IO class is the basis for all input and output in Ruby. An I/O stream may be duplexed (that is, bidirectional), and so may use more than one native operating system stream.

Many of the examples in this section use the File class, the only standard subclass of IO. The two classes are closely associated. Like the File class, the Socket library subclasses from IO (such as TCPSocket or UDPSocket).

The Kernel#open method can create an IO (or File) object for these types of arguments:

  • A plain string represents a filename suitable for the underlying operating system.

  • A string starting with "|" indicates a subprocess. The remainder of the string following the "|" is invoked as a process with appropriate input/output channels connected to it.

  • A string equal to "|-" will create another Ruby instance as a subprocess.

The IO may be opened with different file modes (read-only, write-only) and encodings for proper conversion. See IO.new for these options. See Kernel#open for details of the various command formats described above.

IO.popen, the Open3 library, or Process#spawn may also be used to communicate with subprocesses through an IO.

Ruby will convert pathnames between different operating system conventions if possible. For instance, on a Windows system the filename "/gumby/ruby/test.rb" will be opened as "\gumby\ruby\test.rb". When specifying a Windows-style filename in a Ruby string, remember to escape the backslashes:

"c:\\gumby\\ruby\\test.rb"

Our examples here will use the Unix-style forward slashes; File::ALT_SEPARATOR can be used to get the platform-specific separator character.

The global constant ARGF (also accessible as $<) provides an IO-like stream which allows access to all files mentioned on the command line (or STDIN if no files are mentioned). ARGF#path and its alias ARGF#filename are provided to access the name of the file currently being read.

io/console

The io/console extension provides methods for interacting with the console. The console can be accessed from IO.console or the standard input/output/error IO objects.

Requiring io/console adds the following methods:

Example:

require 'io/console'
rows, columns = $stdout.winsize
puts "Your screen is #{columns} wide and #{rows} tall"
Constants

EWOULDBLOCKWaitReadable

same as IO::EAGAINWaitReadable

EWOULDBLOCKWaitWritable

same as IO::EAGAINWaitWritable

SEEK_SET

Set I/O position from the beginning

SEEK_CUR

Set I/O position from the current position

SEEK_END

Set I/O position from the end

SEEK_DATA

Set I/O position to the next location containing data

SEEK_HOLE

Set I/O position to the next hole

Class Methods

IO.binread(name, [length [, offset]] ) → string
::

Opens the file, optionally seeks to the given offset, then returns length bytes (defaulting to the rest of the file). binread ensures the file is closed before returning. The open mode would be “rb:ASCII-8BIT”.

IO.binread("testfile")           #=> "This is line one\nThis is line two\nThis is line three\nAnd so on...\n"
IO.binread("testfile", 20)       #=> "This is line one\nThi"
IO.binread("testfile", 20, 10)   #=> "ne one\nThis is line "

IO.binwrite(name, string, [offset] ) → integer

IO.binwrite(name, string, [offset], open_args ) → integer
::

Same as IO.write except opening the file in binary mode and ASCII-8BIT encoding (“wb:ASCII-8BIT”).

IO.console → #<File:/dev/tty>

IO.console(sym, *args)
::

Returns an File instance opened console.

If sym is given, it will be sent to the opened console with args and the result will be returned instead of the console IO itself.

You must require ‘io/console’ to use this method.

IO.copy_stream(src, dst)

IO.copy_stream(src, dst, copy_length)

IO.copy_stream(src, dst, copy_length, src_offset)
::

IO.copy_stream copies src to dst. src and dst is either a filename or an IO.

This method returns the number of bytes copied.

If optional arguments are not given, the start position of the copy is the beginning of the filename or the current file offset of the IO. The end position of the copy is the end of file.

If copy_length is given, No more than copy_length bytes are copied.

If src_offset is given, it specifies the start position of the copy.

When src_offset is specified and src is an IO, IO.copy_stream doesn’t move the current file offset.

IO.for_fd(fd, mode [, opt]) → io
::

Synonym for IO.new.

IO.foreach(name, sep=$/ [, open_args]) {|line| block } → nil

IO.foreach(name, limit [, open_args]) {|line| block } → nil

IO.foreach(name, sep, limit [, open_args]) {|line| block } → nil

IO.foreach(...) → an_enumerator
::

Executes the block for every line in the named I/O port, where lines are separated by sep.

If no block is given, an enumerator is returned instead.

IO.foreach("testfile") {|x| print "GOT ", x }

produces:

GOT This is line one
GOT This is line two
GOT This is line three
GOT And so on...

If the last argument is a hash, it’s the keyword argument to open. See IO.read for detail.

IO.new(fd [, mode] [, opt]) → io
::

Returns a new IO object (a stream) for the given integer file descriptor fd and mode string. opt may be used to specify parts of mode in a more readable fashion. See also IO.sysopen and IO.for_fd.

IO.new is called by various File and IO opening methods such as IO::open, Kernel#open, and File::open.

Open Mode

When mode is an integer it must be combination of the modes defined in File::Constants (File::RDONLY, +File::WRONLY | File::CREAT+). See the open(2) man page for more information.

When mode is a string it must be in one of the following forms:

fmode
fmode ":" ext_enc
fmode ":" ext_enc ":" int_enc
fmode ":" "BOM|UTF-*"

fmode is an IO open mode string, ext_enc is the external encoding for the IO and int_enc is the internal encoding.

IO Open Mode

Ruby allows the following open modes:

"r"  Read-only, starts at beginning of file  (default mode).

"r+" Read-write, starts at beginning of file.

"w"  Write-only, truncates existing file
     to zero length or creates a new file for writing.

"w+" Read-write, truncates existing file to zero length
     or creates a new file for reading and writing.

"a"  Write-only, each write call appends data at end of file.
     Creates a new file for writing if file does not exist.

"a+" Read-write, each write call appends data at end of file.
     Creates a new file for reading and writing if file does
     not exist.

The following modes must be used separately, and along with one or more of the modes seen above.

"b"  Binary file mode
     Suppresses EOL <-> CRLF conversion on Windows. And
     sets external encoding to ASCII-8BIT unless explicitly
     specified.

"t"  Text file mode

When the open mode of original IO is read only, the mode cannot be changed to be writable. Similarly, the open mode cannot be changed from write only to readable.

When such a change is attempted the error is raised in different locations according to the platform.

IO Encoding

When ext_enc is specified, strings read will be tagged by the encoding when reading, and strings output will be converted to the specified encoding when writing.

When ext_enc and int_enc are specified read strings will be converted from ext_enc to int_enc upon input, and written strings will be converted from int_enc to ext_enc upon output. See Encoding for further details of transcoding on input and output.

If “BOM|UTF-8”, “BOM|UTF-16LE” or “BOM|UTF16-BE” are used, Ruby checks for a Unicode BOM in the input document to help determine the encoding. For UTF-16 encodings the file open mode must be binary. When present, the BOM is stripped and the external encoding from the BOM is used. When the BOM is missing the given Unicode encoding is used as ext_enc. (The BOM-set encoding option is case insensitive, so “bom|utf-8” is also valid.)

Options

opt can be used instead of mode for improved readability. The following keys are supported:

:mode

Same as mode parameter

:flags

Specifies file open flags as integer. If mode parameter is given, this parameter will be bitwise-ORed.

:external_encoding

External encoding for the IO.

:internal_encoding

Internal encoding for the IO. “-” is a synonym for the default internal encoding.

If the value is nil no conversion occurs.

:encoding

Specifies external and internal encodings as “extern:intern”.

:textmode

If the value is truth value, same as “t” in argument mode.

:binmode

If the value is truth value, same as “b” in argument mode.

:autoclose

If the value is false, the fd will be kept open after this IO instance gets finalized.

Also, opt can have same keys in String#encode for controlling conversion between the external encoding and the internal encoding.

Example 1 

fd = IO.sysopen("/dev/tty", "w")
a = IO.new(fd,"w")
$stderr.puts "Hello"
a.puts "World"

Produces:

Hello
World

Example 2 

require 'fcntl'

fd = STDERR.fcntl(Fcntl::F_DUPFD)
io = IO.new(fd, mode: 'w:UTF-16LE', cr_newline: true)
io.puts "Hello, World!"

fd = STDERR.fcntl(Fcntl::F_DUPFD)
io = IO.new(fd, mode: 'w', cr_newline: true,
            external_encoding: Encoding::UTF_16LE)
io.puts "Hello, World!"

Both of above print “Hello, World!” in UTF-16LE to standard error output with converting EOL generated by puts to CR.

IO.open(fd, mode="r" [, opt]) → io

IO.open(fd, mode="r" [, opt]) {|io| block } → obj
::

With no associated block, IO.open is a synonym for IO.new. If the optional code block is given, it will be passed io as an argument, and the IO object will automatically be closed when the block terminates. In this instance, IO.open returns the value of the block.

See IO.new for a description of the fd, mode and opt parameters.

IO.pipe → [read_io, write_io]

IO.pipe(ext_enc) → [read_io, write_io]

IO.pipe("ext_enc:int_enc" [, opt]) → [read_io, write_io]

IO.pipe(ext_enc, int_enc [, opt]) → [read_io, write_io]

IO.pipe(...) {|read_io, write_io| ... }
::

Creates a pair of pipe endpoints (connected to each other) and returns them as a two-element array of IO objects: [ read_io, write_io ].

If a block is given, the block is called and returns the value of the block. read_io and write_io are sent to the block as arguments. If read_io and write_io are not closed when the block exits, they are closed. i.e. closing read_io and/or write_io doesn’t cause an error.

Not available on all platforms.

If an encoding (encoding name or encoding object) is specified as an optional argument, read string from pipe is tagged with the encoding specified. If the argument is a colon separated two encoding names “A:B”, the read string is converted from encoding A (external encoding) to encoding B (internal encoding), then tagged with B. If two optional arguments are specified, those must be encoding objects or encoding names, and the first one is the external encoding, and the second one is the internal encoding. If the external encoding and the internal encoding is specified, optional hash argument specify the conversion option.

In the example below, the two processes close the ends of the pipe that they are not using. This is not just a cosmetic nicety. The read end of a pipe will not generate an end of file condition if there are any writers with the pipe still open. In the case of the parent process, the rd.read will never return if it does not first issue a wr.close.

rd, wr = IO.pipe

if fork
  wr.close
  puts "Parent got: <#{rd.read}>"
  rd.close
  Process.wait
else
  rd.close
  puts "Sending message to parent"
  wr.write "Hi Dad"
  wr.close
end

produces:

Sending message to parent
Parent got: <Hi Dad>

IO.popen([env,] cmd, mode="r" [, opt]) → io

IO.popen([env,] cmd, mode="r" [, opt]) {|io| block } → obj
::

Runs the specified command as a subprocess; the subprocess’s standard input and output will be connected to the returned IO object.

The PID of the started process can be obtained by IO#pid method.

cmd is a string or an array as follows.

cmd:
  "-"                                      : fork
  commandline                              : command line string which is passed to a shell
  [env, cmdname, arg1, ..., opts]          : command name and zero or more arguments (no shell)
  [env, [cmdname, argv0], arg1, ..., opts] : command name, argv[0] and zero or more arguments (no shell)
(env and opts are optional.)

If cmd is a String “-”, then a new instance of Ruby is started as the subprocess.

If cmd is an Array of String, then it will be used as the subprocess’s argv bypassing a shell. The array can contains a hash at first for environments and a hash at last for options similar to spawn.

The default mode for the new file object is “r”, but mode may be set to any of the modes listed in the description for class IO. The last argument opt qualifies mode.

# set IO encoding
IO.popen("nkf -e filename", :external_encoding=>"EUC-JP") {|nkf_io|
  euc_jp_string = nkf_io.read
}

# merge standard output and standard error using
# spawn option.  See the document of Kernel.spawn.
IO.popen(["ls", "/", :err=>[:child, :out]]) {|ls_io|
  ls_result_with_error = ls_io.read
}

# spawn options can be mixed with IO options
IO.popen(["ls", "/"], :err=>[:child, :out]) {|ls_io|
  ls_result_with_error = ls_io.read
}

Raises exceptions which IO.pipe and Kernel.spawn raise.

If a block is given, Ruby will run the command as a child connected to Ruby with a pipe. Ruby’s end of the pipe will be passed as a parameter to the block. At the end of block, Ruby closes the pipe and sets $?. In this case IO.popen returns the value of the block.

If a block is given with a cmd of “-”, the block will be run in two separate processes: once in the parent, and once in a child. The parent process will be passed the pipe object as a parameter to the block, the child version of the block will be passed nil, and the child’s standard in and standard out will be connected to the parent through the pipe. Not available on all platforms.

f = IO.popen("uname")
p f.readlines
f.close
puts "Parent is #{Process.pid}"
IO.popen("date") {|f| puts f.gets }
IO.popen("-") {|f| $stderr.puts "#{Process.pid} is here, f is #{f.inspect}"}
p $?
IO.popen(%w"sed -e s|^|<foo>| -e s&$&;zot;&", "r+") {|f|
  f.puts "bar"; f.close_write; puts f.gets
}

produces:

["Linux\n"]
Parent is 21346
Thu Jan 15 22:41:19 JST 2009
21346 is here, f is #<IO:fd 3>
21352 is here, f is nil
#<Process::Status: pid 21352 exit 0>
<foo>bar;zot;

IO.read(name, [length [, offset]] [, opt] ) → string
::

Opens the file, optionally seeks to the given offset, then returns length bytes (defaulting to the rest of the file). read ensures the file is closed before returning.

Options

The options hash accepts the following keys:

encoding

string or encoding

Specifies the encoding of the read string. encoding: will be ignored if length is specified. See Encoding.aliases for possible encodings.

mode

string

Specifies the mode argument for open(). It must start with an “r” otherwise it will cause an error. See IO.new for the list of possible modes.

open_args

array of strings

Specifies arguments for open() as an array. This key can not be used in combination with either encoding: or mode:.

Examples:

IO.read("testfile")              #=> "This is line one\nThis is line two\nThis is line three\nAnd so on...\n"
IO.read("testfile", 20)          #=> "This is line one\nThi"
IO.read("testfile", 20, 10)      #=> "ne one\nThis is line "
IO.read("binfile", mode: "rb")   #=> "\xF7\x00\x00\x0E\x12"

IO.readlines(name, sep=$/ [, open_args]) → array

IO.readlines(name, limit [, open_args]) → array

IO.readlines(name, sep, limit [, open_args]) → array
::

Reads the entire file specified by name as individual lines, and returns those lines in an array. Lines are separated by sep.

a = IO.readlines("testfile")
a[0]   #=> "This is line one\n"

If the last argument is a hash, it’s the keyword argument to open. See IO.read for detail.

IO.select(read_array [, write_array [, error_array [, timeout]]]) → array or nil
::

Calls select(2) system call. It monitors given arrays of IO objects, waits until one or more of IO objects are ready for reading, are ready for writing, and have pending exceptions respectively, and returns an array that contains arrays of those IO objects. It will return nil if optional timeout value is given and no IO object is ready in timeout seconds.

IO.select peeks the buffer of IO objects for testing readability. If the IO buffer is not empty, IO.select immediately notifies readability. This “peek” only happens for IO objects. It does not happen for IO-like objects such as OpenSSL::SSL::SSLSocket.

The best way to use IO.select is invoking it after nonblocking methods such as read_nonblock, write_nonblock, etc. The methods raise an exception which is extended by IO::WaitReadable or IO::WaitWritable. The modules notify how the caller should wait with IO.select. If IO::WaitReadable is raised, the caller should wait for reading. If IO::WaitWritable is raised, the caller should wait for writing.

So, blocking read (readpartial) can be emulated using read_nonblock and IO.select as follows:

begin
  result = io_like.read_nonblock(maxlen)
rescue IO::WaitReadable
  IO.select([io_like])
  retry
rescue IO::WaitWritable
  IO.select(nil, [io_like])
  retry
end

Especially, the combination of nonblocking methods and IO.select is preferred for IO like objects such as OpenSSL::SSL::SSLSocket. It has to_io method to return underlying IO object. IO.select calls to_io to obtain the file descriptor to wait.

This means that readability notified by IO.select doesn’t mean readability from OpenSSL::SSL::SSLSocket object.

The most likely situation is that OpenSSL::SSL::SSLSocket buffers some data. IO.select doesn’t see the buffer. So IO.select can block when OpenSSL::SSL::SSLSocket#readpartial doesn’t block.

However, several more complicated situations exist.

SSL is a protocol which is sequence of records. The record consists of multiple bytes. So, the remote side of SSL sends a partial record, IO.select notifies readability but OpenSSL::SSL::SSLSocket cannot decrypt a byte and OpenSSL::SSL::SSLSocket#readpartial will blocks.

Also, the remote side can request SSL renegotiation which forces the local SSL engine to write some data. This means OpenSSL::SSL::SSLSocket#readpartial may invoke write system call and it can block. In such a situation, OpenSSL::SSL::SSLSocket#read_nonblock raises IO::WaitWritable instead of blocking. So, the caller should wait for ready for writability as above example.

The combination of nonblocking methods and IO.select is also useful for streams such as tty, pipe socket socket when multiple processes read from a stream.

Finally, Linux kernel developers don’t guarantee that readability of select(2) means readability of following read(2) even for a single process. See select(2) manual on GNU/Linux system.

Invoking IO.select before IO#readpartial works well as usual. However it is not the best way to use IO.select.

The writability notified by select(2) doesn’t show how many bytes writable. IO#write method blocks until given whole string is written. So, IO#write(two or more bytes) can block after writability is notified by IO.select. IO#write_nonblock is required to avoid the blocking.

Blocking write (write) can be emulated using write_nonblock and IO.select as follows: IO::WaitReadable should also be rescued for SSL renegotiation in OpenSSL::SSL::SSLSocket.

while 0 < string.bytesize
  begin
    written = io_like.write_nonblock(string)
  rescue IO::WaitReadable
    IO.select([io_like])
    retry
  rescue IO::WaitWritable
    IO.select(nil, [io_like])
    retry
  end
  string = string.byteslice(written..-1)
end

Parameters

read_array

an array of IO objects that wait until ready for read

write_array

an array of IO objects that wait until ready for write

error_array

an array of IO objects that wait for exceptions

timeout

a numeric value in second

Example 

rp, wp = IO.pipe
mesg = "ping "
100.times {
  # IO.select follows IO#read.  Not the best way to use IO.select.
  rs, ws, = IO.select([rp], [wp])
  if r = rs[0]
    ret = r.read(5)
    print ret
    case ret
    when /ping/
      mesg = "pong\n"
    when /pong/
      mesg = "ping "
    end
  end
  if w = ws[0]
    w.write(mesg)
  end
}

produces:

ping pong
ping pong
ping pong
(snipped)
ping

IO.sysopen(path, [mode, [perm]]) → fixnum
::

Opens the given path, returning the underlying file descriptor as a Fixnum.

IO.sysopen("testfile")   #=> 3

IO.try_convert(obj) → io or nil
::

Try to convert obj into an IO, using to_io method. Returns converted IO or nil if obj cannot be converted for any reason.

IO.try_convert(STDOUT)     #=> STDOUT
IO.try_convert("STDOUT")   #=> nil

require 'zlib'
f = open("/tmp/zz.gz")       #=> #<File:/tmp/zz.gz>
z = Zlib::GzipReader.open(f) #=> #<Zlib::GzipReader:0x81d8744>
IO.try_convert(z)            #=> #<File:/tmp/zz.gz>

IO.write(name, string, [offset] ) => fixnum

IO.write(name, string, [offset], open_args ) => fixnum
::

Opens the file, optionally seeks to the given offset, writes string, then returns the length written. write ensures the file is closed before returning. If offset is not given in write mode, the file is truncated. Otherwise, it is not truncated.

If the last argument is a hash, it specifies option for internal open(). The key would be the following. open_args: is exclusive to others.

encoding: string or encoding

 specifies encoding of the read string.  encoding will be ignored
 if length is specified.

mode: string

 specifies mode argument for open().  it should start with "w" or "a" or "r+"
 otherwise it would cause error.

perm: fixnum

 specifies perm argument for open().

open_args: array

 specifies arguments for open() as an array.

  IO.write("testfile", "0123456789", 20) # => 10
  # File could contain:  "This is line one\nThi0123456789two\nThis is line three\nAnd so on...\n"
  IO.write("testfile", "0123456789")      #=> 10
  # File would now read: "0123456789"
Instance Methods

ios << obj → ios
#

String Output—Writes obj to ios. obj will be converted to a string using to_s.

$stdout << "Hello " << "world!\n"

produces:

Hello world!

ios.advise(advice, offset=0, len=0) → nil
#

Announce an intention to access data from the current file in a specific pattern. On platforms that do not support the posix_fadvise(2) system call, this method is a no-op.

advice is one of the following symbols:

:normal

No advice to give; the default assumption for an open file.

:sequential

The data will be accessed sequentially with lower offsets read before higher ones.

:random

The data will be accessed in random order.

:willneed

The data will be accessed in the near future.

:dontneed

The data will not be accessed in the near future.

:noreuse

The data will only be accessed once.

The semantics of a piece of advice are platform-dependent. See man 2 posix_fadvise for details.

“data” means the region of the current file that begins at offset and extends for len bytes. If len is 0, the region ends at the last byte of the file. By default, both offset and len are 0, meaning that the advice applies to the entire file.

If an error occurs, one of the following exceptions will be raised:

IOError

The IO stream is closed.

Errno::EBADF

The file descriptor of the current file is invalid.

Errno::EINVAL

An invalid value for advice was given.

Errno::ESPIPE

The file descriptor of the current file refers to a FIFO or pipe. (Linux raises Errno::EINVAL in this case).

TypeError

Either advice was not a Symbol, or one of the other arguments was not an Integer.

RangeError

One of the arguments given was too big/small.

This list is not exhaustive; other Errno

exceptions are also possible.

io.autoclose = bool → true or false
#

Sets auto-close flag.

f = open("/dev/null")
IO.for_fd(f.fileno)
# ...
f.gets # may cause IOError

f = open("/dev/null")
IO.for_fd(f.fileno).autoclose = true
# ...
f.gets # won't cause IOError

ios.autoclose? → true or false
#

Returns true if the underlying file descriptor of ios will be closed automatically at its finalization, otherwise false.

beep
#
No documentation available

ios.binmode → ios
#

Puts ios into binary mode. Once a stream is in binary mode, it cannot be reset to nonbinary mode.

  • newline conversion disabled

  • encoding conversion disabled

  • content is treated as ASCII-8BIT

ios.binmode? → true or false
#

Returns true if ios is binmode.

block_scanf(str) { |current| ... }
#
No documentation available

bytes
#

This is a deprecated alias for each_byte.

chars
#

This is a deprecated alias for each_char.

ios.close → nil
#

Closes ios and flushes any pending writes to the operating system. The stream is unavailable for any further data operations; an IOError is raised if such an attempt is made. I/O streams are automatically closed when they are claimed by the garbage collector.

If ios is opened by IO.popen, close sets $?.

Calling this method on closed IO object is just ignored since Ruby 2.3.

ios.close_on_exec = bool → true or false
#

Sets a close-on-exec flag.

f = open("/dev/null")
f.close_on_exec = true
system("cat", "/proc/self/fd/#{f.fileno}") # cat: /proc/self/fd/3: No such file or directory
f.closed?                #=> false

Ruby sets close-on-exec flags of all file descriptors by default since Ruby 2.0.0. So you don’t need to set by yourself. Also, unsetting a close-on-exec flag can cause file descriptor leak if another thread use fork() and exec() (via system() method for example). If you really needs file descriptor inheritance to child process, use spawn()‘s argument such as fd=>fd.

ios.close_on_exec? → true or false
#

Returns true if ios will be closed on exec.

f = open("/dev/null")
f.close_on_exec?                 #=> false
f.close_on_exec = true
f.close_on_exec?                 #=> true
f.close_on_exec = false
f.close_on_exec?                 #=> false

ios.close_read → nil
#

Closes the read end of a duplex I/O stream (i.e., one that contains both a read and a write stream, such as a pipe). Will raise an IOError if the stream is not duplexed.

f = IO.popen("/bin/sh","r+")
f.close_read
f.readlines

produces:

prog.rb:3:in `readlines': not opened for reading (IOError)
 from prog.rb:3

ios.close_write → nil
#

Closes the write end of a duplex I/O stream (i.e., one that contains both a read and a write stream, such as a pipe). Will raise an IOError if the stream is not duplexed.

f = IO.popen("/bin/sh","r+")
f.close_write
f.print "nowhere"

produces:

prog.rb:3:in `write': not opened for writing (IOError)
 from prog.rb:3:in `print'
 from prog.rb:3

ios.closed? → true or false
#

Returns true if ios is completely closed (for duplex streams, both reader and writer), false otherwise.

f = File.new("testfile")
f.close         #=> nil
f.closed?       #=> true
f = IO.popen("/bin/sh","r+")
f.close_write   #=> nil
f.closed?       #=> false
f.close_read    #=> nil
f.closed?       #=> true

codepoints
#

This is a deprecated alias for each_codepoint.

io.cooked {|io| }
#

Yields self within cooked mode.

STDIN.cooked(&:gets)

will read and return a line with echo back and line editing.

You must require ‘io/console’ to use this method.

io.cooked!
#

Enables cooked mode.

If the terminal mode needs to be back, use io.cooked { … }.

You must require ‘io/console’ to use this method.

cursor
#
No documentation available

cursor=(p1)
#
No documentation available

ios.each(sep=$/) {|line| block } → ios

ios.each(limit) {|line| block } → ios

ios.each(sep, limit) {|line| block } → ios

ios.each(...) → an_enumerator
#

Executes the block for every line in ios, where lines are separated by sep. ios must be opened for reading or an IOError will be raised.

If no block is given, an enumerator is returned instead.

f = File.new("testfile")
f.each {|line| puts "#{f.lineno}: #{line}" }

produces:

1: This is line one
2: This is line two
3: This is line three
4: And so on...

ios.each_byte {|byte| block } → ios

ios.each_byte → an_enumerator
#

Calls the given block once for each byte (0..255) in ios, passing the byte as an argument. The stream must be opened for reading or an IOError will be raised.

If no block is given, an enumerator is returned instead.

f = File.new("testfile")
checksum = 0
f.each_byte {|x| checksum ^= x }   #=> #<File:testfile>
checksum                           #=> 12

ios.each_char {|c| block } → ios

ios.each_char → an_enumerator
#

Calls the given block once for each character in ios, passing the character as an argument. The stream must be opened for reading or an IOError will be raised.

If no block is given, an enumerator is returned instead.

f = File.new("testfile")
f.each_char {|c| print c, ' ' }   #=> #<File:testfile>

ios.each_codepoint {|c| block } → ios

ios.codepoints {|c| block } → ios

ios.each_codepoint → an_enumerator

ios.codepoints → an_enumerator
#

Passes the Integer ordinal of each character in ios, passing the codepoint as an argument. The stream must be opened for reading or an IOError will be raised.

If no block is given, an enumerator is returned instead.

ios.each_line(sep=$/) {|line| block } → ios

ios.each_line(limit) {|line| block } → ios

ios.each_line(sep, limit) {|line| block } → ios

ios.each_line(...) → an_enumerator
#
An alias for each

io.echo = flag
#

Enables/disables echo back. On some platforms, all combinations of this flags and raw/cooked mode may not be valid.

You must require ‘io/console’ to use this method.

io.echo? → true or false
#

Returns true if echo back is enabled.

You must require ‘io/console’ to use this method.

ios.eof → true or false
#

Returns true if ios is at end of file that means there are no more data to read. The stream must be opened for reading or an IOError will be raised.

f = File.new("testfile")
dummy = f.readlines
f.eof   #=> true

If ios is a stream such as pipe or socket, IO#eof? blocks until the other end sends some data or closes it.

r, w = IO.pipe
Thread.new { sleep 1; w.close }
r.eof?  #=> true after 1 second blocking

r, w = IO.pipe
Thread.new { sleep 1; w.puts "a" }
r.eof?  #=> false after 1 second blocking

r, w = IO.pipe
r.eof?  # blocks forever

Note that IO#eof? reads data to the input byte buffer. So IO#sysread may not behave as you intend with IO#eof?, unless you call IO#rewind first (which is not available for some streams).

ios.eof? → true or false
#
An alias for eof

IO#expect(pattern,timeout=9999999) → Array

IO#expect(pattern,timeout=9999999) { |result| ... } → nil
#

Reads from the IO until the given pattern matches or the timeout is over.

It returns an array with the read buffer, followed by the matches. If a block is given, the result is yielded to the block and returns nil.

When called without a block, it waits until the input that matches the given pattern is obtained from the IO or the time specified as the timeout passes. An array is returned when the pattern is obtained from the IO. The first element of the array is the entire string obtained from the IO until the pattern matches, followed by elements indicating which the pattern which matched to the anchor in the regular expression.

The optional timeout parameter defines, in seconds, the total time to wait for the pattern. If the timeout expires or eof is found, nil is returned or yielded. However, the buffer in a timeout session is kept for the next expect call. The default timeout is 9999999 seconds.

io.external_encoding → encoding
#

Returns the Encoding object that represents the encoding of the file. If io is in write mode and no encoding is specified, returns nil.

ios.fcntl(integer_cmd, arg) → integer
#

Provides a mechanism for issuing low-level commands to control or query file-oriented I/O streams. Arguments and results are platform dependent. If arg is a number, its value is passed directly. If it is a string, it is interpreted as a binary sequence of bytes (Array#pack might be a useful way to build this string). On Unix platforms, see fcntl(2) for details. Not implemented on all platforms.

ios.fdatasync → 0 or nil
#

Immediately writes all buffered data in ios to disk.

If the underlying operating system does not support fdatasync(2), IO#fsync is called instead (which might raise a NotImplementedError).

ios.fileno → fixnum
#

Returns an integer representing the numeric file descriptor for ios.

$stdin.fileno    #=> 0
$stdout.fileno   #=> 1

ios.flush → ios
#

Flushes any buffered data within ios to the underlying operating system (note that this is Ruby internal buffering only; the OS may buffer the data as well).

$stdout.print "no newline"
$stdout.flush

produces:

no newline

ios.fsync → 0 or nil
#

Immediately writes all buffered data in ios to disk. Note that fsync differs from using IO#sync=. The latter ensures that data is flushed from Ruby’s buffers, but does not guarantee that the underlying operating system actually writes it to disk.

NotImplementedError is raised if the underlying operating system does not support fsync(2).

ios.getbyte → fixnum or nil
#

Gets the next 8-bit byte (0..255) from ios. Returns nil if called at end of file.

f = File.new("testfile")
f.getbyte   #=> 84
f.getbyte   #=> 104

ios.getc → string or nil
#

Reads a one-character string from ios. Returns nil if called at end of file.

f = File.new("testfile")
f.getc   #=> "h"
f.getc   #=> "e"

io.getch(min: nil, time: nil) → char
#

Reads and returns a character in raw mode.

You must require ‘io/console’ to use this method.

io.getpass(prompt=nil) → string
#

Reads and returns a line without echo back. Prints prompt unless it is nil.

You must require ‘io/console’ to use this method.

ios.gets(sep=$/) → string or nil

ios.gets(limit) → string or nil

ios.gets(sep, limit) → string or nil
#

Reads the next “line” from the I/O stream; lines are separated by sep. A separator of nil reads the entire contents, and a zero-length separator reads the input a paragraph at a time (two successive newlines in the input separate paragraphs). The stream must be opened for reading or an IOError will be raised. The line read in will be returned and also assigned to $_. Returns nil if called at end of file. If the first argument is an integer, or optional second argument is given, the returning string would not be longer than the given value in bytes.

File.new("testfile").gets   #=> "This is line one\n"
$_                          #=> "This is line one\n"

File.new("testfile").gets(4)#=> "This"

If IO contains multibyte characters byte then gets(1) returns character entirely:

# Russian characters take 2 bytes
File.write("testfile", "\u{442 435 441 442}")
File.open("testfile") {|f|f.gets(1)} #=> "\u0442"
File.open("testfile") {|f|f.gets(2)} #=> "\u0442"
File.open("testfile") {|f|f.gets(3)} #=> "\u0442\u0435"
File.open("testfile") {|f|f.gets(4)} #=> "\u0442\u0435"

goto(p1, p2)
#
No documentation available

io.iflush
#

Flushes input buffer in kernel.

You must require ‘io/console’ to use this method.

ios.inspect → string
#

Return a string describing this IO object.

io.internal_encoding → encoding
#

Returns the Encoding of the internal string if conversion is specified. Otherwise returns nil.

ios.ioctl(integer_cmd, arg) → integer
#

Provides a mechanism for issuing low-level commands to control or query I/O devices. Arguments and results are platform dependent. If arg is a number, its value is passed directly. If it is a string, it is interpreted as a binary sequence of bytes. On Unix platforms, see ioctl(2) for details. Not implemented on all platforms.

io.ioflush
#

Flushes input and output buffers in kernel.

You must require ‘io/console’ to use this method.

ios.isatty → true or false
#

Returns true if ios is associated with a terminal device (tty), false otherwise.

File.new("testfile").isatty   #=> false
File.new("/dev/tty").isatty   #=> true

ios.lineno → integer
#

Returns the current line number in ios. The stream must be opened for reading. lineno counts the number of times gets is called rather than the number of newlines encountered. The two values will differ if gets is called with a separator other than newline.

Methods that use $/ like each, lines and readline will also increment lineno.

See also the $. variable.

f = File.new("testfile")
f.lineno   #=> 0
f.gets     #=> "This is line one\n"
f.lineno   #=> 1
f.gets     #=> "This is line two\n"
f.lineno   #=> 2

ios.lineno = integer → integer
#

Manually sets the current line number to the given value. $. is updated only on the next read.

f = File.new("testfile")
f.gets                     #=> "This is line one\n"
$.                         #=> 1
f.lineno = 1000
f.lineno                   #=> 1000
$.                         #=> 1         # lineno of last read
f.gets                     #=> "This is line two\n"
$.                         #=> 1001      # lineno of last read

lines(*args)
#

This is a deprecated alias for each_line.

io.noecho {|io| }
#

Yields self with disabling echo back.

STDIN.noecho(&:gets)

will read and return a line without echo back.

You must require ‘io/console’ to use this method.

io.nonblock {|io| } → io

io.nonblock(boolean) {|io| } → io
#

Yields self in non-blocking mode.

When false is given as an argument, self is yielded in blocking mode. The original mode is restored after the block is executed.

io.nonblock = boolean → boolean
#

Enables non-blocking mode on a stream when set to true, and blocking mode when set to false.

io.nonblock? → boolean
#

Returns true if an IO object is in non-blocking mode.

io.nread → int
#

Returns number of bytes that can be read without blocking. Returns zero if no information available.

io.oflush
#

Flushes output buffer in kernel.

You must require ‘io/console’ to use this method.

pathconf(p1)
#

Returns pathname configuration variable using fpathconf().

name should be a constant under Etc which begins with PC_.

The return value is an integer or nil. nil means indefinite limit. (fpathconf() returns -1 but errno is not set.)

require 'etc'
IO.pipe {|r, w|
  p w.pathconf(Etc::PC_PIPE_BUF) #=> 4096
}

ios.pid → fixnum
#

Returns the process ID of a child process associated with ios. This will be set by IO.popen.

pipe = IO.popen("-")
if pipe
  $stderr.puts "In parent, child pid is #{pipe.pid}"
else
  $stderr.puts "In child, pid is #{$$}"
end

produces:

In child, pid is 26209
In parent, child pid is 26209

ios.pos → integer
#
An alias for tell

ios.pos = integer → integer
#

Seeks to the given position (in bytes) in ios. It is not guaranteed that seeking to the right position when ios is textmode.

f = File.new("testfile")
f.pos = 17
f.gets   #=> "This is line two\n"

pressed?(p1)
#
No documentation available

ios.print → nil

ios.print(obj, ...) → nil
#

Writes the given object(s) to ios. Returns nil.

The stream must be opened for writing. Each given object that isn’t a string will be converted by calling its to_s method. When called without arguments, prints the contents of $_.

If the output field separator ($,) is not nil, it is inserted between objects. If the output record separator ($\) is not nil, it is appended to the output.

$stdout.print("This is ", 100, " percent.\n")

produces:

This is 100 percent.

ios.printf(format_string [, obj, ...]) → nil
#

Formats and writes to ios, converting parameters under control of the format string. See Kernel#sprintf for details.

ios.putc(obj) → obj
#

If obj is Numeric, write the character whose code is the least-significant byte of obj, otherwise write the first byte of the string representation of obj to ios. Note: This method is not safe for use with multi-byte characters as it will truncate them.

$stdout.putc "A"
$stdout.putc 65

produces:

AA

ios.puts(obj, ...) → nil
#

Writes the given object(s) to ios. Writes a newline after any that do not already end with a newline sequence. Returns nil.

The stream must be opened for writing. If called with an array argument, writes each element on a new line. Each given object that isn’t a string or array will be converted by calling its to_s method. If called without arguments, outputs a single newline.

$stdout.puts("this", "is", ["a", "test"])

produces:

this
is
a
test

Note that puts always uses newlines and is not affected by the output record separator ($\).

io.raw(min: nil, time: nil) {|io| }
#

Yields self within raw mode.

STDIN.raw(&:gets)

will read and return a line without echo back and line editing.

You must require ‘io/console’ to use this method.

io.raw!(min: nil, time: nil)
#

Enables raw mode.

If the terminal mode needs to be back, use io.raw { … }.

You must require ‘io/console’ to use this method.

ios.read([length [, outbuf]]) → string, outbuf, or nil
#

Reads length bytes from the I/O stream.

length must be a non-negative integer or nil.

If length is a positive integer, read tries to read length bytes without any conversion (binary mode). It returns nil if an EOF is encountered before anything can be read. Fewer than length bytes are returned if an EOF is encountered during the read. In the case of an integer length, the resulting string is always in ASCII-8BIT encoding.

If length is omitted or is nil, it reads until EOF and the encoding conversion is applied, if applicable. A string is returned even if EOF is encountered before any data is read.

If length is zero, it returns an empty string ("").

If the optional outbuf argument is present, it must reference a String, which will receive the data. The outbuf will contain only the received data after the method call even if it is not empty at the beginning.

When this method is called at end of file, it returns nil or "", depending on length: read, read(nil), and read(0) return "", read(positive_integer) returns nil.

f = File.new("testfile")
f.read(16)   #=> "This is line one"

# read whole file
open("file") do |f|
  data = f.read   # This returns a string even if the file is empty.
  # ...
end

# iterate over fixed length records
open("fixed-record-file") do |f|
  while record = f.read(256)
    # ...
  end
end

# iterate over variable length records,
# each record is prefixed by its 32-bit length
open("variable-record-file") do |f|
  while len = f.read(4)
    len = len.unpack("N")[0]   # 32-bit length
    record = f.read(len)       # This returns a string even if len is 0.
  end
end

Note that this method behaves like the fread() function in C. This means it retries to invoke read(2) system calls to read data with the specified length (or until EOF). This behavior is preserved even if ios is in non-blocking mode. (This method is non-blocking flag insensitive as other methods.) If you need the behavior like a single read(2) system call, consider readpartial, read_nonblock, and sysread.

ios.read_nonblock(maxlen [, options]) → string

ios.read_nonblock(maxlen, outbuf [, options]) → outbuf
#

Reads at most maxlen bytes from ios using the read(2) system call after O_NONBLOCK is set for the underlying file descriptor.

If the optional outbuf argument is present, it must reference a String, which will receive the data. The outbuf will contain only the received data after the method call even if it is not empty at the beginning.

read_nonblock just calls the read(2) system call. It causes all errors the read(2) system call causes: Errno::EWOULDBLOCK, Errno::EINTR, etc. The caller should care such errors.

If the exception is Errno::EWOULDBLOCK or Errno::EAGAIN, it is extended by IO::WaitReadable. So IO::WaitReadable can be used to rescue the exceptions for retrying read_nonblock.

read_nonblock causes EOFError on EOF.

If the read byte buffer is not empty, read_nonblock reads from the buffer like readpartial. In this case, the read(2) system call is not called.

When read_nonblock raises an exception kind of IO::WaitReadable, read_nonblock should not be called until io is readable for avoiding busy loop. This can be done as follows.

# emulates blocking read (readpartial).
begin
  result = io.read_nonblock(maxlen)
rescue IO::WaitReadable
  IO.select([io])
  retry
end

Although IO#read_nonblock doesn’t raise IO::WaitWritable. OpenSSL::Buffering#read_nonblock can raise IO::WaitWritable. If IO and SSL should be used polymorphically, IO::WaitWritable should be rescued too. See the document of OpenSSL::Buffering#read_nonblock for sample code.

Note that this method is identical to readpartial except the non-blocking flag is set.

By specifying ‘exception: false`, the options hash allows you to indicate that read_nonblock should not raise an IO::WaitReadable exception, but return the symbol :wait_readable instead.

ios.readbyte → fixnum
#

Reads a byte as with IO#getbyte, but raises an EOFError on end of file.

ios.readchar → string
#

Reads a one-character string from ios. Raises an EOFError on end of file.

f = File.new("testfile")
f.readchar   #=> "h"
f.readchar   #=> "e"

ios.readline(sep=$/) → string

ios.readline(limit) → string

ios.readline(sep, limit) → string
#

Reads a line as with IO#gets, but raises an EOFError on end of file.

ios.readlines(sep=$/) → array

ios.readlines(limit) → array

ios.readlines(sep, limit) → array
#

Reads all of the lines in ios, and returns them in anArray. Lines are separated by the optional sep. If sep is nil, the rest of the stream is returned as a single record. If the first argument is an integer, or optional second argument is given, the returning string would not be longer than the given value in bytes. The stream must be opened for reading or an IOError will be raised.

f = File.new("testfile")
f.readlines[0]   #=> "This is line one\n"

ios.readpartial(maxlen) → string

ios.readpartial(maxlen, outbuf) → outbuf
#

Reads at most maxlen bytes from the I/O stream. It blocks only if ios has no data immediately available. It doesn’t block if some data available.

If the optional outbuf argument is present, it must reference a String, which will receive the data. The outbuf will contain only the received data after the method call even if it is not empty at the beginning.

It raises EOFError on end of file.

readpartial is designed for streams such as pipe, socket, tty, etc. It blocks only when no data immediately available. This means that it blocks only when following all conditions hold.

  • the byte buffer in the IO object is empty.

  • the content of the stream is empty.

  • the stream is not reached to EOF.

When readpartial blocks, it waits data or EOF on the stream. If some data is reached, readpartial returns with the data. If EOF is reached, readpartial raises EOFError.

When readpartial doesn’t blocks, it returns or raises immediately. If the byte buffer is not empty, it returns the data in the buffer. Otherwise if the stream has some content, it returns the data in the stream. Otherwise if the stream is reached to EOF, it raises EOFError.

r, w = IO.pipe           #               buffer          pipe content
w << "abc"               #               ""              "abc".
r.readpartial(4096)      #=> "abc"       ""              ""
r.readpartial(4096)      # blocks because buffer and pipe is empty.

r, w = IO.pipe           #               buffer          pipe content
w << "abc"               #               ""              "abc"
w.close                  #               ""              "abc" EOF
r.readpartial(4096)      #=> "abc"       ""              EOF
r.readpartial(4096)      # raises EOFError

r, w = IO.pipe           #               buffer          pipe content
w << "abc\ndef\n"        #               ""              "abc\ndef\n"
r.gets                   #=> "abc\n"     "def\n"         ""
w << "ghi\n"             #               "def\n"         "ghi\n"
r.readpartial(4096)      #=> "def\n"     ""              "ghi\n"
r.readpartial(4096)      #=> "ghi\n"     ""              ""

Note that readpartial behaves similar to sysread. The differences are:

  • If the byte buffer is not empty, read from the byte buffer instead of “sysread for buffered IO (IOError)”.

  • It doesn’t cause Errno::EWOULDBLOCK and Errno::EINTR. When readpartial meets EWOULDBLOCK and EINTR by read system call, readpartial retry the system call.

The latter means that readpartial is nonblocking-flag insensitive. It blocks on the situation IO#sysread causes Errno::EWOULDBLOCK as if the fd is blocking mode.

io.ready? → true, false or nil
#

Returns true if input available without blocking, or false. Returns nil if no information available.

ios.reopen(other_IO) → ios

ios.reopen(path, mode_str) → ios
#

Reassociates ios with the I/O stream given in other_IO or to a new stream opened on path. This may dynamically change the actual class of this stream.

f1 = File.new("testfile")
f2 = File.new("testfile")
f2.readlines[0]   #=> "This is line one\n"
f2.reopen(f1)     #=> #<File:testfile>
f2.readlines[0]   #=> "This is line one\n"

ios.rewind → 0
#

Positions ios to the beginning of input, resetting lineno to zero.

f = File.new("testfile")
f.readline   #=> "This is line one\n"
f.rewind     #=> 0
f.lineno     #=> 0
f.readline   #=> "This is line one\n"

Note that it cannot be used with streams such as pipes, ttys, and sockets.

scanf(str) { |current_match| ... }
#

Scans the current string until the match is exhausted, yielding each match as it is encountered in the string. A block is not necessary though, as the results will simply be aggregated into the final array.

"123 456".block_scanf("%d")
# => [123, 456]

If a block is given, the value from that is returned from the yield is added to an output array.

"123 456".block_scanf("%d") do |digit,| # the ',' unpacks the Array
  digit + 100
end
# => [223, 556]

See Scanf for details on creating a format string.

You will need to require ‘scanf’ to use IO#scanf.

ios.seek(amount, whence=IO::SEEK_SET) → 0
#

Seeks to a given offset anInteger in the stream according to the value of whence:

:CUR or IO::SEEK_CUR  | Seeks to _amount_ plus current position
----------------------+--------------------------------------------------
:END or IO::SEEK_END  | Seeks to _amount_ plus end of stream (you
                      | probably want a negative value for _amount_)
----------------------+--------------------------------------------------
:SET or IO::SEEK_SET  | Seeks to the absolute location given by _amount_

Example:

f = File.new("testfile")
f.seek(-13, IO::SEEK_END)   #=> 0
f.readline                  #=> "And so on...\n"

io.set_encoding(ext_enc) → io

io.set_encoding("ext_enc:int_enc") → io

io.set_encoding(ext_enc, int_enc) → io

io.set_encoding("ext_enc:int_enc", opt) → io

io.set_encoding(ext_enc, int_enc, opt) → io
#

If single argument is specified, read string from io is tagged with the encoding specified. If encoding is a colon separated two encoding names “A:B”, the read string is converted from encoding A (external encoding) to encoding B (internal encoding), then tagged with B. If two arguments are specified, those must be encoding objects or encoding names, and the first one is the external encoding, and the second one is the internal encoding. If the external encoding and the internal encoding is specified, optional hash argument specify the conversion option.

soak_up_spaces
#
No documentation available

ios.stat → stat
#

Returns status information for ios as an object of type File::Stat.

f = File.new("testfile")
s = f.stat
"%o" % s.mode   #=> "100644"
s.blksize       #=> 4096
s.atime         #=> Wed Apr 09 08:53:54 CDT 2003

ios.sync → true or false
#

Returns the current “sync mode” of ios. When sync mode is true, all output is immediately flushed to the underlying operating system and is not buffered by Ruby internally. See also IO#fsync.

f = File.new("testfile")
f.sync   #=> false

ios.sync = boolean → boolean
#

Sets the “sync mode” to true or false. When sync mode is true, all output is immediately flushed to the underlying operating system and is not buffered internally. Returns the new state. See also IO#fsync.

f = File.new("testfile")
f.sync = true

(produces no output)

ios.sysread(maxlen[, outbuf]) → string
#

Reads maxlen bytes from ios using a low-level read and returns them as a string. Do not mix with other methods that read from ios or you may get unpredictable results.

If the optional outbuf argument is present, it must reference a String, which will receive the data. The outbuf will contain only the received data after the method call even if it is not empty at the beginning.

Raises SystemCallError on error and EOFError at end of file.

f = File.new("testfile")
f.sysread(16)   #=> "This is line one"

ios.sysseek(offset, whence=IO::SEEK_SET) → integer
#

Seeks to a given offset in the stream according to the value of whence (see IO#seek for values of whence). Returns the new offset into the file.

f = File.new("testfile")
f.sysseek(-13, IO::SEEK_END)   #=> 53
f.sysread(10)                  #=> "And so on."

ios.syswrite(string) → integer
#

Writes the given string to ios using a low-level write. Returns the number of bytes written. Do not mix with other methods that write to ios or you may get unpredictable results. Raises SystemCallError on error.

f = File.new("out", "w")
f.syswrite("ABCDEF")   #=> 6

ios.tell → integer
#

Returns the current offset (in bytes) of ios.

f = File.new("testfile")
f.pos    #=> 0
f.gets   #=> "This is line one\n"
f.pos    #=> 17

ios.to_i → fixnum
#
An alias for fileno

ios.to_io → ios
#

Returns ios.

ios.tty? → true or false
#
An alias for isatty

ios.ungetbyte(string) → nil

ios.ungetbyte(integer) → nil
#

Pushes back bytes (passed as a parameter) onto ios, such that a subsequent buffered read will return it. Only one byte may be pushed back before a subsequent read operation (that is, you will be able to read only the last of several bytes that have been pushed back). Has no effect with unbuffered reads (such as IO#sysread).

f = File.new("testfile")   #=> #<File:testfile>
b = f.getbyte              #=> 0x38
f.ungetbyte(b)             #=> nil
f.getbyte                  #=> 0x38

ios.ungetc(string) → nil
#

Pushes back one character (passed as a parameter) onto ios, such that a subsequent buffered character read will return it. Only one character may be pushed back before a subsequent read operation (that is, you will be able to read only the last of several characters that have been pushed back). Has no effect with unbuffered reads (such as IO#sysread).

f = File.new("testfile")   #=> #<File:testfile>
c = f.getc                 #=> "8"
f.ungetc(c)                #=> nil
f.getc                     #=> "8"

io.wait → IO, true or nil

io.wait(timeout) → IO, true or nil
#

Waits until IO is readable without blocking and returns self, or nil when times out. Returns true immediately when buffered data is available.

io.wait_readable → IO, true or nil

io.wait_readable(timeout) → IO, true or nil
#
An alias for wait

io.wait_writable → IO

io.wait_writable(timeout) → IO or nil
#

Waits until IO is writable without blocking and returns self or nil when times out.

io.winsize → [rows, columns]
#

Returns console size.

You must require ‘io/console’ to use this method.

io.winsize = [rows, columns]
#

Tries to set console size. The effect depends on the platform and the running environment.

You must require ‘io/console’ to use this method.

ios.write(string) → integer
#

Writes the given string to ios. The stream must be opened for writing. If the argument is not a string, it will be converted to a string using to_s. Returns the number of bytes written.

count = $stdout.write("This is a test\n")
puts "That was #{count} bytes of data"

produces:

This is a test
That was 15 bytes of data

ios.write_nonblock(string) → integer

ios.write_nonblock(string [, options]) → integer
#

Writes the given string to ios using the write(2) system call after O_NONBLOCK is set for the underlying file descriptor.

It returns the number of bytes written.

write_nonblock just calls the write(2) system call. It causes all errors the write(2) system call causes: Errno::EWOULDBLOCK, Errno::EINTR, etc. The result may also be smaller than string.length (partial write). The caller should care such errors and partial write.

If the exception is Errno::EWOULDBLOCK or Errno::EAGAIN, it is extended by IO::WaitWritable. So IO::WaitWritable can be used to rescue the exceptions for retrying write_nonblock.

# Creates a pipe.
r, w = IO.pipe

# write_nonblock writes only 65536 bytes and return 65536.
# (The pipe size is 65536 bytes on this environment.)
s = "a"  #100000
p w.write_nonblock(s)     #=> 65536

# write_nonblock cannot write a byte and raise EWOULDBLOCK (EAGAIN).
p w.write_nonblock("b")   # Resource temporarily unavailable (Errno::EAGAIN)

If the write buffer is not empty, it is flushed at first.

When write_nonblock raises an exception kind of IO::WaitWritable, write_nonblock should not be called until io is writable for avoiding busy loop. This can be done as follows.

begin
  result = io.write_nonblock(string)
rescue IO::WaitWritable, Errno::EINTR
  IO.select(nil, [io])
  retry
end

Note that this doesn’t guarantee to write all data in string. The length written is reported as result and it should be checked later.

On some platforms such as Windows, write_nonblock is not supported according to the kind of the IO object. In such cases, write_nonblock raises Errno::EBADF.

By specifying ‘exception: false`, the options hash allows you to indicate that write_nonblock should not raise an IO::WaitWritable exception, but return the symbol :wait_writable instead.