Results for: "remove_const"

Net::HTTPExceptions

Net::HTTP exception class. You cannot use Net::HTTPExceptions directly; instead, you must use its subclasses.

OptionParser::Completion

Keyword completion module. This allows partial arguments to be specified and resolved against a list of acceptable values.

Complex

A complex number can be represented as a paired real number with imaginary unit; a+bi. Where a is real part, b is imaginary part and i is imaginary unit. Real a equals complex a+0i mathematically.

Complex object can be created as literal, and also by using Kernel#Complex, Complex::rect, Complex::polar or to_c method.

2+1i                 #=> (2+1i)
Complex(1)           #=> (1+0i)
Complex(2, 3)        #=> (2+3i)
Complex.polar(2, 3)  #=> (-1.9799849932008908+0.2822400161197344i)
3.to_c               #=> (3+0i)

You can also create complex object from floating-point numbers or strings.

Complex(0.3)         #=> (0.3+0i)
Complex('0.3-0.5i')  #=> (0.3-0.5i)
Complex('2/3+3/4i')  #=> ((2/3)+(3/4)*i)
Complex('1@2')       #=> (-0.4161468365471424+0.9092974268256817i)

0.3.to_c             #=> (0.3+0i)
'0.3-0.5i'.to_c      #=> (0.3-0.5i)
'2/3+3/4i'.to_c      #=> ((2/3)+(3/4)*i)
'1@2'.to_c           #=> (-0.4161468365471424+0.9092974268256817i)

A complex object is either an exact or an inexact number.

Complex(1, 1) / 2    #=> ((1/2)+(1/2)*i)
Complex(1, 1) / 2.0  #=> (0.5+0.5i)

String

A String object holds and manipulates an arbitrary sequence of bytes, typically representing characters. String objects may be created using String::new or as literals.

Because of aliasing issues, users of strings should be aware of the methods that modify the contents of a String object. Typically, methods with names ending in “!” modify their receiver, while those without a “!” return a new String. However, there are exceptions, such as String#[]=.

Encoding

An Encoding instance represents a character encoding usable in Ruby. It is defined as a constant under the Encoding namespace. It has a name and optionally, aliases:

Encoding::ISO_8859_1.name
#=> "ISO-8859-1"

Encoding::ISO_8859_1.names
#=> ["ISO-8859-1", "ISO8859-1"]

Ruby methods dealing with encodings return or accept Encoding instances as arguments (when a method accepts an Encoding instance as an argument, it can be passed an Encoding name or alias instead).

"some string".encoding
#=> #<Encoding:UTF-8>

string = "some string".encode(Encoding::ISO_8859_1)
#=> "some string"
string.encoding
#=> #<Encoding:ISO-8859-1>

"some string".encode "ISO-8859-1"
#=> "some string"

Encoding::ASCII_8BIT is a special encoding that is usually used for a byte string, not a character string. But as the name insists, its characters in the range of ASCII are considered as ASCII characters. This is useful when you use ASCII-8BIT characters with other ASCII compatible characters.

Changing an encoding

The associated Encoding of a String can be changed in two different ways.

First, it is possible to set the Encoding of a string to a new Encoding without changing the internal byte representation of the string, with String#force_encoding. This is how you can tell Ruby the correct encoding of a string.

string
#=> "R\xC3\xA9sum\xC3\xA9"
string.encoding
#=> #<Encoding:ISO-8859-1>
string.force_encoding(Encoding::UTF_8)
#=> "R\u00E9sum\u00E9"

Second, it is possible to transcode a string, i.e. translate its internal byte representation to another encoding. Its associated encoding is also set to the other encoding. See String#encode for the various forms of transcoding, and the Encoding::Converter class for additional control over the transcoding process.

string
#=> "R\u00E9sum\u00E9"
string.encoding
#=> #<Encoding:UTF-8>
string = string.encode!(Encoding::ISO_8859_1)
#=> "R\xE9sum\xE9"
string.encoding
#=> #<Encoding::ISO-8859-1>

Script encoding

All Ruby script code has an associated Encoding which any String literal created in the source code will be associated to.

The default script encoding is Encoding::UTF_8 after v2.0, but it can be changed by a magic comment on the first line of the source code file (or second line, if there is a shebang line on the first). The comment must contain the word coding or encoding, followed by a colon, space and the Encoding name or alias:

# encoding: UTF-8

"some string".encoding
#=> #<Encoding:UTF-8>

The __ENCODING__ keyword returns the script encoding of the file which the keyword is written:

# encoding: ISO-8859-1

__ENCODING__
#=> #<Encoding:ISO-8859-1>

ruby -K will change the default locale encoding, but this is not recommended. Ruby source files should declare its script encoding by a magic comment even when they only depend on US-ASCII strings or regular expressions.

Locale encoding

The default encoding of the environment. Usually derived from locale.

see Encoding.locale_charmap, Encoding.find(‘locale’)

Filesystem encoding

The default encoding of strings from the filesystem of the environment. This is used for strings of file names or paths.

see Encoding.find(‘filesystem’)

External encoding

Each IO object has an external encoding which indicates the encoding that Ruby will use to read its data. By default Ruby sets the external encoding of an IO object to the default external encoding. The default external encoding is set by locale encoding or the interpreter -E option. Encoding.default_external returns the current value of the external encoding.

ENV["LANG"]
#=> "UTF-8"
Encoding.default_external
#=> #<Encoding:UTF-8>

$ ruby -E ISO-8859-1 -e "p Encoding.default_external"
#<Encoding:ISO-8859-1>

$ LANG=C ruby -e 'p Encoding.default_external'
#<Encoding:US-ASCII>

The default external encoding may also be set through Encoding.default_external=, but you should not do this as strings created before and after the change will have inconsistent encodings. Instead use ruby -E to invoke ruby with the correct external encoding.

When you know that the actual encoding of the data of an IO object is not the default external encoding, you can reset its external encoding with IO#set_encoding or set it at IO object creation (see IO.new options).

Internal encoding

To process the data of an IO object which has an encoding different from its external encoding, you can set its internal encoding. Ruby will use this internal encoding to transcode the data when it is read from the IO object.

Conversely, when data is written to the IO object it is transcoded from the internal encoding to the external encoding of the IO object.

The internal encoding of an IO object can be set with IO#set_encoding or at IO object creation (see IO.new options).

The internal encoding is optional and when not set, the Ruby default internal encoding is used. If not explicitly set this default internal encoding is nil meaning that by default, no transcoding occurs.

The default internal encoding can be set with the interpreter option -E. Encoding.default_internal returns the current internal encoding.

$ ruby -e 'p Encoding.default_internal'
nil

$ ruby -E ISO-8859-1:UTF-8 -e "p [Encoding.default_external, \
  Encoding.default_internal]"
[#<Encoding:ISO-8859-1>, #<Encoding:UTF-8>]

The default internal encoding may also be set through Encoding.default_internal=, but you should not do this as strings created before and after the change will have inconsistent encodings. Instead use ruby -E to invoke ruby with the correct internal encoding.

IO encoding example

In the following example a UTF-8 encoded string “Ru00E9sumu00E9” is transcoded for output to ISO-8859-1 encoding, then read back in and transcoded to UTF-8:

string = "R\u00E9sum\u00E9"

open("transcoded.txt", "w:ISO-8859-1") do |io|
  io.write(string)
end

puts "raw text:"
p File.binread("transcoded.txt")
puts

open("transcoded.txt", "r:ISO-8859-1:UTF-8") do |io|
  puts "transcoded text:"
  p io.read
end

While writing the file, the internal encoding is not specified as it is only necessary for reading. While reading the file both the internal and external encoding must be specified to obtain the correct result.

$ ruby t.rb
raw text:
"R\xE9sum\xE9"

transcoded text:
"R\u00E9sum\u00E9"

Exception

Class Exception and its subclasses are used to communicate between Kernel#raise and rescue statements in begin ... end blocks.

An Exception object carries information about an exception:

Some built-in subclasses of Exception have additional methods: e.g., NameError#name.

Defaults

Two Ruby statements have default exception classes:

Global Variables

When an exception has been raised but not yet handled (in rescue, ensure, at_exit and END blocks), two global variables are set:

Custom Exceptions

To provide additional or alternate information, a program may create custom exception classes that derive from the built-in exception classes.

A good practice is for a library to create a single “generic” exception class (typically a subclass of StandardError or RuntimeError) and have its other exception classes derive from that class. This allows the user to rescue the generic exception, thus catching all exceptions the library may raise even if future versions of the library add new exception subclasses.

For example:

class MyLibrary
  class Error < ::StandardError
  end

  class WidgetError < Error
  end

  class FrobError < Error
  end

end

To handle both MyLibrary::WidgetError and MyLibrary::FrobError the library user can rescue MyLibrary::Error.

Built-In Exception Classes

The built-in subclasses of Exception are:

SignalException

Raised when a signal is received.

begin
  Process.kill('HUP',Process.pid)
  sleep # wait for receiver to handle signal sent by Process.kill
rescue SignalException => e
  puts "received Exception #{e}"
end

produces:

received Exception SIGHUP

StandardError

The most standard error types are subclasses of StandardError. A rescue clause without an explicit Exception class will rescue all StandardErrors (and only those).

def foo
  raise "Oups"
end
foo rescue "Hello"   #=> "Hello"

On the other hand:

require 'does/not/exist' rescue "Hi"

raises the exception:

LoadError: no such file to load -- does/not/exist

EncodingError

EncodingError is the base class for encoding errors.

Rational

A rational number can be represented as a pair of integer numbers: a/b (b>0), where a is the numerator and b is the denominator. Integer a equals rational a/1 mathematically.

In Ruby, you can create rational objects with the Kernel#Rational, to_r, or rationalize methods or by suffixing r to a literal. The return values will be irreducible fractions.

Rational(1)      #=> (1/1)
Rational(2, 3)   #=> (2/3)
Rational(4, -6)  #=> (-2/3)
3.to_r           #=> (3/1)
2/3r             #=> (2/3)

You can also create rational objects from floating-point numbers or strings.

Rational(0.3)    #=> (5404319552844595/18014398509481984)
Rational('0.3')  #=> (3/10)
Rational('2/3')  #=> (2/3)

0.3.to_r         #=> (5404319552844595/18014398509481984)
'0.3'.to_r       #=> (3/10)
'2/3'.to_r       #=> (2/3)
0.3.rationalize  #=> (3/10)

A rational object is an exact number, which helps you to write programs without any rounding errors.

10.times.inject(0) {|t| t + 0.1 }              #=> 0.9999999999999999
10.times.inject(0) {|t| t + Rational('0.1') }  #=> (1/1)

However, when an expression includes an inexact component (numerical value or operation), it will produce an inexact result.

Rational(10) / 3   #=> (10/3)
Rational(10) / 3.0 #=> 3.3333333333333335

Rational(-8) ** Rational(1, 3)
                   #=> (1.0000000000000002+1.7320508075688772i)

Struct

A Struct is a convenient way to bundle a number of attributes together, using accessor methods, without having to write an explicit class.

The Struct class generates new subclasses that hold a set of members and their values. For each member a reader and writer method is created similar to Module#attr_accessor.

Customer = Struct.new(:name, :address) do
  def greeting
    "Hello #{name}!"
  end
end

dave = Customer.new("Dave", "123 Main")
dave.name     #=> "Dave"
dave.greeting #=> "Hello Dave!"

See Struct::new for further examples of creating struct subclasses and instances.

In the method descriptions that follow, a “member” parameter refers to a struct member which is either a quoted string ("name") or a Symbol (:name).

StringIO

Pseudo I/O on String object, with interface corresponding to IO.

Commonly used to simulate $stdio or $stderr

Examples 

require 'stringio'

# Writing stream emulation
io = StringIO.new
io.puts "Hello World"
io.string #=> "Hello World\n"

# Reading stream emulation
io = StringIO.new "first\nsecond\nlast\n"
io.getc #=> "f"
io.gets #=> "irst\n"
io.read #=> "second\nlast\n"

StringScanner

StringScanner provides for lexical scanning operations on a String. Here is an example of its usage:

s = StringScanner.new('This is an example string')
s.eos?               # -> false

p s.scan(/\w+/)      # -> "This"
p s.scan(/\w+/)      # -> nil
p s.scan(/\s+/)      # -> " "
p s.scan(/\s+/)      # -> nil
p s.scan(/\w+/)      # -> "is"
s.eos?               # -> false

p s.scan(/\s+/)      # -> " "
p s.scan(/\w+/)      # -> "an"
p s.scan(/\s+/)      # -> " "
p s.scan(/\w+/)      # -> "example"
p s.scan(/\s+/)      # -> " "
p s.scan(/\w+/)      # -> "string"
s.eos?               # -> true

p s.scan(/\s+/)      # -> nil
p s.scan(/\w+/)      # -> nil

Scanning a string means remembering the position of a scan pointer, which is just an index. The point of scanning is to move forward a bit at a time, so matches are sought after the scan pointer; usually immediately after it.

Given the string “test string”, here are the pertinent scan pointer positions:

  t e s t   s t r i n g
0 1 2 ...             1
                      0

When you scan for a pattern (a regular expression), the match must occur at the character after the scan pointer. If you use scan_until, then the match can occur anywhere after the scan pointer. In both cases, the scan pointer moves just beyond the last character of the match, ready to scan again from the next character onwards. This is demonstrated by the example above.

Method Categories

There are other methods besides the plain scanners. You can look ahead in the string without actually scanning. You can access the most recent match. You can modify the string being scanned, reset or terminate the scanner, find out or change the position of the scan pointer, skip ahead, and so on.

Advancing the Scan Pointer

Looking Ahead

Finding Where we Are

Setting Where we Are

Match Data

Miscellaneous

There are aliases to several of the methods.

BasicObject

BasicObject is the parent class of all classes in Ruby. It’s an explicit blank class.

BasicObject can be used for creating object hierarchies independent of Ruby’s object hierarchy, proxy objects like the Delegator class, or other uses where namespace pollution from Ruby’s methods and classes must be avoided.

To avoid polluting BasicObject for other users an appropriately named subclass of BasicObject should be created instead of directly modifying BasicObject:

class MyObjectSystem < BasicObject
end

BasicObject does not include Kernel (for methods like puts) and BasicObject is outside of the namespace of the standard library so common classes will not be found without using a full class path.

A variety of strategies can be used to provide useful portions of the standard library to subclasses of BasicObject. A subclass could include Kernel to obtain puts, exit, etc. A custom Kernel-like module could be created and included or delegation can be used via method_missing:

class MyObjectSystem < BasicObject
  DELEGATE = [:puts, :p]

  def method_missing(name, *args, &block)
    return super unless DELEGATE.include? name
    ::Kernel.send(name, *args, &block)
  end

  def respond_to_missing?(name, include_private = false)
    DELEGATE.include?(name) or super
  end
end

Access to classes and modules from the Ruby standard library can be obtained in a BasicObject subclass by referencing the desired constant from the root like ::File or ::Enumerator. Like method_missing, const_missing can be used to delegate constant lookup to Object:

class MyObjectSystem < BasicObject
  def self.const_missing(name)
    ::Object.const_get(name)
  end
end

GetoptLong

The GetoptLong class allows you to parse command line options similarly to the GNU getopt_long() C library call. Note, however, that GetoptLong is a pure Ruby implementation.

GetoptLong allows for POSIX-style options like --file as well as single letter options like -f

The empty option -- (two minus symbols) is used to end option processing. This can be particularly important if options have optional arguments.

Here is a simple example of usage:

require 'getoptlong'

opts = GetoptLong.new(
  [ '--help', '-h', GetoptLong::NO_ARGUMENT ],
  [ '--repeat', '-n', GetoptLong::REQUIRED_ARGUMENT ],
  [ '--name', GetoptLong::OPTIONAL_ARGUMENT ]
)

dir = nil
name = nil
repetitions = 1
opts.each do |opt, arg|
  case opt
    when '--help'
      puts <<-EOF
hello [OPTION] ... DIR

-h, --help:
   show help

--repeat x, -n x:
   repeat x times

--name [name]:
   greet user by name, if name not supplied default is John

DIR: The directory in which to issue the greeting.
      EOF
    when '--repeat'
      repetitions = arg.to_i
    when '--name'
      if arg == ''
        name = 'John'
      else
        name = arg
      end
  end
end

if ARGV.length != 1
  puts "Missing dir argument (try --help)"
  exit 0
end

dir = ARGV.shift

Dir.chdir(dir)
for i in (1..repetitions)
  print "Hello"
  if name
    print ", #{name}"
  end
  puts
end

Example command line:

hello -n 6 --name -- /tmp

HTTPClientException

No documentation available

OptionParser

OptionParser

Introduction

OptionParser is a class for command-line option analysis. It is much more advanced, yet also easier to use, than GetoptLong, and is a more Ruby-oriented solution.

Features

  1. The argument specification and the code to handle it are written in the same place.

  2. It can output an option summary; you don’t need to maintain this string separately.

  3. Optional and mandatory arguments are specified very gracefully.

  4. Arguments can be automatically converted to a specified class.

  5. Arguments can be restricted to a certain set.

All of these features are demonstrated in the examples below. See make_switch for full documentation.

Minimal example 

require 'optparse'

options = {}
OptionParser.new do |parser|
  parser.banner = "Usage: example.rb [options]"

  parser.on("-v", "--[no-]verbose", "Run verbosely") do |v|
    options[:verbose] = v
  end
end.parse!

p options
p ARGV

Generating Help

OptionParser can be used to automatically generate help for the commands you write:

require 'optparse'

Options = Struct.new(:name)

class Parser
  def self.parse(options)
    args = Options.new("world")

    opt_parser = OptionParser.new do |parser|
      parser.banner = "Usage: example.rb [options]"

      parser.on("-nNAME", "--name=NAME", "Name to say hello to") do |n|
        args.name = n
      end

      parser.on("-h", "--help", "Prints this help") do
        puts parser
        exit
      end
    end

    opt_parser.parse!(options)
    return args
  end
end
options = Parser.parse %w[--help]

#=>
   # Usage: example.rb [options]
   #     -n, --name=NAME                  Name to say hello to
   #     -h, --help                       Prints this help

Required Arguments

For options that require an argument, option specification strings may include an option name in all caps. If an option is used without the required argument, an exception will be raised.

require 'optparse'

options = {}
OptionParser.new do |parser|
  parser.on("-r", "--require LIBRARY",
            "Require the LIBRARY before executing your script") do |lib|
    puts "You required #{lib}!"
  end
end.parse!

Used:

$ ruby optparse-test.rb -r
optparse-test.rb:9:in `<main>': missing argument: -r (OptionParser::MissingArgument)
$ ruby optparse-test.rb -r my-library
You required my-library!

Type Coercion

OptionParser supports the ability to coerce command line arguments into objects for us.

OptionParser comes with a few ready-to-use kinds of type coercion. They are:

We can also add our own coercions, which we will cover below.

Using Built-in Conversions

As an example, the built-in Time conversion is used. The other built-in conversions behave in the same way. OptionParser will attempt to parse the argument as a Time. If it succeeds, that time will be passed to the handler block. Otherwise, an exception will be raised.

require 'optparse'
require 'optparse/time'
OptionParser.new do |parser|
  parser.on("-t", "--time [TIME]", Time, "Begin execution at given time") do |time|
    p time
  end
end.parse!

Used:

$ ruby optparse-test.rb  -t nonsense
... invalid argument: -t nonsense (OptionParser::InvalidArgument)
$ ruby optparse-test.rb  -t 10-11-12
2010-11-12 00:00:00 -0500
$ ruby optparse-test.rb  -t 9:30
2014-08-13 09:30:00 -0400

Creating Custom Conversions

The accept method on OptionParser may be used to create converters. It specifies which conversion block to call whenever a class is specified. The example below uses it to fetch a User object before the on handler receives it.

require 'optparse'

User = Struct.new(:id, :name)

def find_user id
  not_found = ->{ raise "No User Found for id #{id}" }
  [ User.new(1, "Sam"),
    User.new(2, "Gandalf") ].find(not_found) do |u|
    u.id == id
  end
end

op = OptionParser.new
op.accept(User) do |user_id|
  find_user user_id.to_i
end

op.on("--user ID", User) do |user|
  puts user
end

op.parse!

Used:

$ ruby optparse-test.rb --user 1
#<struct User id=1, name="Sam">
$ ruby optparse-test.rb --user 2
#<struct User id=2, name="Gandalf">
$ ruby optparse-test.rb --user 3
optparse-test.rb:15:in `block in find_user': No User Found for id 3 (RuntimeError)

Store options to a Hash

The into option of order, parse and so on methods stores command line options into a Hash.

require 'optparse'

params = {}
OptionParser.new do |parser|
  parser.on('-a')
  parser.on('-b NUM', Integer)
  parser.on('-v', '--verbose')
end.parse!(into: params)

p params

Used:

$ ruby optparse-test.rb -a
{:a=>true}
$ ruby optparse-test.rb -a -v
{:a=>true, :verbose=>true}
$ ruby optparse-test.rb -a -b 100
{:a=>true, :b=>100}

Complete example

The following example is a complete Ruby program. You can run it and see the effect of specifying various options. This is probably the best way to learn the features of optparse.

require 'optparse'
require 'optparse/time'
require 'ostruct'
require 'pp'

class OptparseExample
  Version = '1.0.0'

  CODES = %w[iso-2022-jp shift_jis euc-jp utf8 binary]
  CODE_ALIASES = { "jis" => "iso-2022-jp", "sjis" => "shift_jis" }

  class ScriptOptions
    attr_accessor :library, :inplace, :encoding, :transfer_type,
                  :verbose, :extension, :delay, :time, :record_separator,
                  :list

    def initialize
      self.library = []
      self.inplace = false
      self.encoding = "utf8"
      self.transfer_type = :auto
      self.verbose = false
    end

    def define_options(parser)
      parser.banner = "Usage: example.rb [options]"
      parser.separator ""
      parser.separator "Specific options:"

      # add additional options
      perform_inplace_option(parser)
      delay_execution_option(parser)
      execute_at_time_option(parser)
      specify_record_separator_option(parser)
      list_example_option(parser)
      specify_encoding_option(parser)
      optional_option_argument_with_keyword_completion_option(parser)
      boolean_verbose_option(parser)

      parser.separator ""
      parser.separator "Common options:"
      # No argument, shows at tail.  This will print an options summary.
      # Try it and see!
      parser.on_tail("-h", "--help", "Show this message") do
        puts parser
        exit
      end
      # Another typical switch to print the version.
      parser.on_tail("--version", "Show version") do
        puts Version
        exit
      end
    end

    def perform_inplace_option(parser)
      # Specifies an optional option argument
      parser.on("-i", "--inplace [EXTENSION]",
                "Edit ARGV files in place",
                "(make backup if EXTENSION supplied)") do |ext|
        self.inplace = true
        self.extension = ext || ''
        self.extension.sub!(/\A\.?(?=.)/, ".")  # Ensure extension begins with dot.
      end
    end

    def delay_execution_option(parser)
      # Cast 'delay' argument to a Float.
      parser.on("--delay N", Float, "Delay N seconds before executing") do |n|
        self.delay = n
      end
    end

    def execute_at_time_option(parser)
      # Cast 'time' argument to a Time object.
      parser.on("-t", "--time [TIME]", Time, "Begin execution at given time") do |time|
        self.time = time
      end
    end

    def specify_record_separator_option(parser)
      # Cast to octal integer.
      parser.on("-F", "--irs [OCTAL]", OptionParser::OctalInteger,
                "Specify record separator (default \\0)") do |rs|
        self.record_separator = rs
      end
    end

    def list_example_option(parser)
      # List of arguments.
      parser.on("--list x,y,z", Array, "Example 'list' of arguments") do |list|
        self.list = list
      end
    end

    def specify_encoding_option(parser)
      # Keyword completion.  We are specifying a specific set of arguments (CODES
      # and CODE_ALIASES - notice the latter is a Hash), and the user may provide
      # the shortest unambiguous text.
      code_list = (CODE_ALIASES.keys + CODES).join(', ')
      parser.on("--code CODE", CODES, CODE_ALIASES, "Select encoding",
                "(#{code_list})") do |encoding|
        self.encoding = encoding
      end
    end

    def optional_option_argument_with_keyword_completion_option(parser)
      # Optional '--type' option argument with keyword completion.
      parser.on("--type [TYPE]", [:text, :binary, :auto],
                "Select transfer type (text, binary, auto)") do |t|
        self.transfer_type = t
      end
    end

    def boolean_verbose_option(parser)
      # Boolean switch.
      parser.on("-v", "--[no-]verbose", "Run verbosely") do |v|
        self.verbose = v
      end
    end
  end

  #
  # Return a structure describing the options.
  #
  def parse(args)
    # The options specified on the command line will be collected in
    # *options*.

    @options = ScriptOptions.new
    @args = OptionParser.new do |parser|
      @options.define_options(parser)
      parser.parse!(args)
    end
    @options
  end

  attr_reader :parser, :options
end  # class OptparseExample

example = OptparseExample.new
options = example.parse(ARGV)
pp options # example.options
pp ARGV

Shell Completion

For modern shells (e.g. bash, zsh, etc.), you can use shell completion for command line options.

Further documentation

The above examples should be enough to learn how to use this class. If you have any questions, file a ticket at bugs.ruby-lang.org.

ZeroDivisionError

Raised when attempting to divide an integer by 0.

42 / 0   #=> ZeroDivisionError: divided by 0

Note that only division by an exact 0 will raise the exception:

42 /  0.0   #=> Float::INFINITY
42 / -0.0   #=> -Float::INFINITY
0  /  0.0   #=> NaN

Comparable

The Comparable mixin is used by classes whose objects may be ordered. The class must define the <=> operator, which compares the receiver against another object, returning a value less than 0, returning 0, or returning a value greater than 0, depending on whether the receiver is less than, equal to, or greater than the other object. If the other object is not comparable then the <=> operator should return nil. Comparable uses <=> to implement the conventional comparison operators (<, <=, ==, >=, and >) and the method between?.

class SizeMatters
  include Comparable
  attr :str
  def <=>(other)
    str.size <=> other.str.size
  end
  def initialize(str)
    @str = str
  end
  def inspect
    @str
  end
end

s1 = SizeMatters.new("Z")
s2 = SizeMatters.new("YY")
s3 = SizeMatters.new("XXX")
s4 = SizeMatters.new("WWWW")
s5 = SizeMatters.new("VVVVV")

s1 < s2                       #=> true
s4.between?(s1, s3)           #=> false
s4.between?(s3, s5)           #=> true
[ s3, s2, s5, s4, s1 ].sort   #=> [Z, YY, XXX, WWWW, VVVVV]

Jacobian

require ‘bigdecimal/jacobian’

Provides methods to compute the Jacobian matrix of a set of equations at a point x. In the methods below:

f is an Object which is used to compute the Jacobian matrix of the equations. It must provide the following methods:

f.values(x)

returns the values of all functions at x

f.zero

returns 0.0

f.one

returns 1.0

f.two

returns 2.0

f.ten

returns 10.0

f.eps

returns the convergence criterion (epsilon value) used to determine whether two values are considered equal. If |a-b| < epsilon, the two values are considered equal.

x is the point at which to compute the Jacobian.

fx is f.values(x).

Newton

newton.rb

Solves the nonlinear algebraic equation system f = 0 by Newton’s method. This program is not dependent on BigDecimal.

To call:

  n = nlsolve(f,x)
where n is the number of iterations required,
      x is the initial value vector
      f is an Object which is used to compute the values of the equations to be solved.

It must provide the following methods:

f.values(x)

returns the values of all functions at x

f.zero

returns 0.0

f.one

returns 1.0

f.two

returns 2.0

f.ten

returns 10.0

f.eps

returns the convergence criterion (epsilon value) used to determine whether two values are considered equal. If |a-b| < epsilon, the two values are considered equal.

On exit, x is the solution vector.

Digest

This module provides a framework for message digest libraries.

You may want to look at OpenSSL::Digest as it supports more algorithms.

A cryptographic hash function is a procedure that takes data and returns a fixed bit string: the hash value, also known as digest. Hash functions are also called one-way functions, it is easy to compute a digest from a message, but it is infeasible to generate a message from a digest.

Examples 

require 'digest'

# Compute a complete digest
Digest::SHA256.digest 'message'       #=> "\xABS\n\x13\xE4Y..."

sha256 = Digest::SHA256.new
sha256.digest 'message'               #=> "\xABS\n\x13\xE4Y..."

# Other encoding formats
Digest::SHA256.hexdigest 'message'    #=> "ab530a13e459..."
Digest::SHA256.base64digest 'message' #=> "q1MKE+RZFJgr..."

# Compute digest by chunks
md5 = Digest::MD5.new
md5.update 'message1'
md5 << 'message2'                     # << is an alias for update

md5.hexdigest                         #=> "94af09c09bb9..."

# Compute digest for a file
sha256 = Digest::SHA256.file 'testfile'
sha256.hexdigest

Additionally digests can be encoded in “bubble babble” format as a sequence of consonants and vowels which is more recognizable and comparable than a hexadecimal digest.

require 'digest/bubblebabble'

Digest::SHA256.bubblebabble 'message' #=> "xopoh-fedac-fenyh-..."

See the bubble babble specification at web.mit.edu/kenta/www/one/bubblebabble/spec/jrtrjwzi/draft-huima-01.txt.

Digest algorithms

Different digest algorithms (or hash functions) are available:

MD5

See RFC 1321 The MD5 Message-Digest Algorithm

RIPEMD-160

As Digest::RMD160. See homes.esat.kuleuven.be/~bosselae/ripemd160.html.

SHA1

See FIPS 180 Secure Hash Standard.

SHA2 family

See FIPS 180 Secure Hash Standard which defines the following algorithms:

  • SHA512

  • SHA384

  • SHA256

The latest versions of the FIPS publications can be found here: csrc.nist.gov/publications/PubsFIPS.html.

JSON

JavaScript Object Notation (JSON)

JSON is a lightweight data-interchange format.

A JSON value is one of the following:

A JSON array or object may contain nested arrays, objects, and scalars to any depth:

{"foo": {"bar": 1, "baz": 2}, "bat": [0, 1, 2]}
[{"foo": 0, "bar": 1}, ["baz", 2]]

Using Module JSON

To make module JSON available in your code, begin with:

require 'json'

All examples here assume that this has been done.

Parsing JSON

You can parse a String containing JSON data using either of two methods:

where

The difference between the two methods is that JSON.parse! omits some checks and may not be safe for some source data; use it only for data from trusted sources. Use the safer method JSON.parse for less trusted sources.

Parsing JSON Arrays

When source is a JSON array, JSON.parse by default returns a Ruby Array:

json = '["foo", 1, 1.0, 2.0e2, true, false, null]'
ruby = JSON.parse(json)
ruby # => ["foo", 1, 1.0, 200.0, true, false, nil]
ruby.class # => Array

The JSON array may contain nested arrays, objects, and scalars to any depth:

json = '[{"foo": 0, "bar": 1}, ["baz", 2]]'
JSON.parse(json) # => [{"foo"=>0, "bar"=>1}, ["baz", 2]]

Parsing JSON Objects

When the source is a JSON object, JSON.parse by default returns a Ruby Hash:

json = '{"a": "foo", "b": 1, "c": 1.0, "d": 2.0e2, "e": true, "f": false, "g": null}'
ruby = JSON.parse(json)
ruby # => {"a"=>"foo", "b"=>1, "c"=>1.0, "d"=>200.0, "e"=>true, "f"=>false, "g"=>nil}
ruby.class # => Hash

The JSON object may contain nested arrays, objects, and scalars to any depth:

json = '{"foo": {"bar": 1, "baz": 2}, "bat": [0, 1, 2]}'
JSON.parse(json) # => {"foo"=>{"bar"=>1, "baz"=>2}, "bat"=>[0, 1, 2]}

Parsing JSON Scalars

When the source is a JSON scalar (not an array or object), JSON.parse returns a Ruby scalar.

String:

ruby = JSON.parse('"foo"')
ruby # => 'foo'
ruby.class # => String

Integer:

ruby = JSON.parse('1')
ruby # => 1
ruby.class # => Integer

Float:

ruby = JSON.parse('1.0')
ruby # => 1.0
ruby.class # => Float
ruby = JSON.parse('2.0e2')
ruby # => 200
ruby.class # => Float

Boolean:

ruby = JSON.parse('true')
ruby # => true
ruby.class # => TrueClass
ruby = JSON.parse('false')
ruby # => false
ruby.class # => FalseClass

Null:

ruby = JSON.parse('null')
ruby # => nil
ruby.class # => NilClass

Parsing Options

Input Options

Option max_nesting (Integer) specifies the maximum nesting depth allowed; defaults to 100; specify false to disable depth checking.

With the default, false:

source = '[0, [1, [2, [3]]]]'
ruby = JSON.parse(source)
ruby # => [0, [1, [2, [3]]]]

Too deep:

# Raises JSON::NestingError (nesting of 2 is too deep):
JSON.parse(source, {max_nesting: 1})

Bad value:

# Raises TypeError (wrong argument type Symbol (expected Fixnum)):
JSON.parse(source, {max_nesting: :foo})

Option allow_nan (boolean) specifies whether to allow NaN, Infinity, and MinusInfinity in source; defaults to false.

With the default, false:

# Raises JSON::ParserError (225: unexpected token at '[NaN]'):
JSON.parse('[NaN]')
# Raises JSON::ParserError (232: unexpected token at '[Infinity]'):
JSON.parse('[Infinity]')
# Raises JSON::ParserError (248: unexpected token at '[-Infinity]'):
JSON.parse('[-Infinity]')

Allow:

source = '[NaN, Infinity, -Infinity]'
ruby = JSON.parse(source, {allow_nan: true})
ruby # => [NaN, Infinity, -Infinity]
Output Options

Option symbolize_names (boolean) specifies whether returned Hash keys should be Symbols; defaults to false (use Strings).

With the default, false:

source = '{"a": "foo", "b": 1.0, "c": true, "d": false, "e": null}'
ruby = JSON.parse(source)
ruby # => {"a"=>"foo", "b"=>1.0, "c"=>true, "d"=>false, "e"=>nil}

Use Symbols:

ruby = JSON.parse(source, {symbolize_names: true})
ruby # => {:a=>"foo", :b=>1.0, :c=>true, :d=>false, :e=>nil}

Option object_class (Class) specifies the Ruby class to be used for each JSON object; defaults to Hash.

With the default, Hash:

source = '{"a": "foo", "b": 1.0, "c": true, "d": false, "e": null}'
ruby = JSON.parse(source)
ruby.class # => Hash

Use class OpenStruct:

ruby = JSON.parse(source, {object_class: OpenStruct})
ruby # => #<OpenStruct a="foo", b=1.0, c=true, d=false, e=nil>

Option array_class (Class) specifies the Ruby class to be used for each JSON array; defaults to Array.

With the default, Array:

source = '["foo", 1.0, true, false, null]'
ruby = JSON.parse(source)
ruby.class # => Array

Use class Set:

ruby = JSON.parse(source, {array_class: Set})
ruby # => #<Set: {"foo", 1.0, true, false, nil}>

Option create_additions (boolean) specifies whether to use JSON additions in parsing. See JSON Additions.

Generating JSON

To generate a Ruby String containing JSON data, use method JSON.generate(source, opts), where

Generating JSON from Arrays

When the source is a Ruby Array, JSON.generate returns a String containing a JSON array:

ruby = [0, 's', :foo]
json = JSON.generate(ruby)
json # => '[0,"s","foo"]'

The Ruby Array array may contain nested arrays, hashes, and scalars to any depth:

ruby = [0, [1, 2], {foo: 3, bar: 4}]
json = JSON.generate(ruby)
json # => '[0,[1,2],{"foo":3,"bar":4}]'

Generating JSON from Hashes

When the source is a Ruby Hash, JSON.generate returns a String containing a JSON object:

ruby = {foo: 0, bar: 's', baz: :bat}
json = JSON.generate(ruby)
json # => '{"foo":0,"bar":"s","baz":"bat"}'

The Ruby Hash array may contain nested arrays, hashes, and scalars to any depth:

ruby = {foo: [0, 1], bar: {baz: 2, bat: 3}, bam: :bad}
json = JSON.generate(ruby)
json # => '{"foo":[0,1],"bar":{"baz":2,"bat":3},"bam":"bad"}'

Generating JSON from Other Objects

When the source is neither an Array nor a Hash, the generated JSON data depends on the class of the source.

When the source is a Ruby Integer or Float, JSON.generate returns a String containing a JSON number:

JSON.generate(42) # => '42'
JSON.generate(0.42) # => '0.42'

When the source is a Ruby String, JSON.generate returns a String containing a JSON string (with double-quotes):

JSON.generate('A string') # => '"A string"'

When the source is true, false or nil, JSON.generate returns a String containing the corresponding JSON token:

JSON.generate(true) # => 'true'
JSON.generate(false) # => 'false'
JSON.generate(nil) # => 'null'

When the source is none of the above, JSON.generate returns a String containing a JSON string representation of the source:

JSON.generate(:foo) # => '"foo"'
JSON.generate(Complex(0, 0)) # => '"0+0i"'
JSON.generate(Dir.new('.')) # => '"#<Dir>"'

Generating Options

Input Options

Option allow_nan (boolean) specifies whether NaN, Infinity, and -Infinity may be generated; defaults to false.

With the default, false:

# Raises JSON::GeneratorError (920: NaN not allowed in JSON):
JSON.generate(JSON::NaN)
# Raises JSON::GeneratorError (917: Infinity not allowed in JSON):
JSON.generate(JSON::Infinity)
# Raises JSON::GeneratorError (917: -Infinity not allowed in JSON):
JSON.generate(JSON::MinusInfinity)

Allow:

ruby = [Float::NaN, Float::Infinity, Float::MinusInfinity]
JSON.generate(ruby, allow_nan: true) # => '[NaN,Infinity,-Infinity]'

Option max_nesting (Integer) specifies the maximum nesting depth in obj; defaults to 100.

With the default, 100:

obj = [[[[[[0]]]]]]
JSON.generate(obj) # => '[[[[[[0]]]]]]'

Too deep:

# Raises JSON::NestingError (nesting of 2 is too deep):
JSON.generate(obj, max_nesting: 2)
Output Options

The default formatting options generate the most compact JSON data, all on one line and with no whitespace.

You can use these formatting options to generate JSON data in a more open format, using whitespace. See also JSON.pretty_generate.

In this example, obj is used first to generate the shortest JSON data (no whitespace), then again with all formatting options specified:

obj = {foo: [:bar, :baz], bat: {bam: 0, bad: 1}}
json = JSON.generate(obj)
puts 'Compact:', json
opts = {
  array_nl: "\n",
  object_nl: "\n",
  indent: '  ',
  space_before: ' ',
  space: ' '
}
puts 'Open:', JSON.generate(obj, opts)

Output:

Compact:
{"foo":["bar","baz"],"bat":{"bam":0,"bad":1}}
Open:
{
  "foo" : [
    "bar",
    "baz"
],
  "bat" : {
    "bam" : 0,
    "bad" : 1
  }
}

JSON Additions

When you “round trip” a non-String object from Ruby to JSON and back, you have a new String, instead of the object you began with:

ruby0 = Range.new(0, 2)
json = JSON.generate(ruby0)
json # => '0..2"'
ruby1 = JSON.parse(json)
ruby1 # => '0..2'
ruby1.class # => String

You can use JSON additions to preserve the original object. The addition is an extension of a ruby class, so that:

This example shows a Range being generated into JSON and parsed back into Ruby, both without and with the addition for Range:

ruby = Range.new(0, 2)
# This passage does not use the addition for Range.
json0 = JSON.generate(ruby)
ruby0 = JSON.parse(json0)
# This passage uses the addition for Range.
require 'json/add/range'
json1 = JSON.generate(ruby)
ruby1 = JSON.parse(json1, create_additions: true)
# Make a nice display.
display = <<EOT
Generated JSON:
  Without addition:  #{json0} (#{json0.class})
  With addition:     #{json1} (#{json1.class})
Parsed JSON:
  Without addition:  #{ruby0.inspect} (#{ruby0.class})
  With addition:     #{ruby1.inspect} (#{ruby1.class})
EOT
puts display

This output shows the different results:

Generated JSON:
  Without addition:  "0..2" (String)
  With addition:     {"json_class":"Range","a":[0,2,false]} (String)
Parsed JSON:
  Without addition:  "0..2" (String)
  With addition:     0..2 (Range)

The JSON module includes additions for certain classes. You can also craft custom additions. See Custom JSON Additions.

Built-in Additions

The JSON module includes additions for certain classes. To use an addition, require its source:

To reduce punctuation clutter, the examples below show the generated JSON via puts, rather than the usual inspect,

BigDecimal:

require 'json/add/bigdecimal'
ruby0 = BigDecimal(0) # 0.0
json = JSON.generate(ruby0) # {"json_class":"BigDecimal","b":"27:0.0"}
ruby1 = JSON.parse(json, create_additions: true) # 0.0
ruby1.class # => BigDecimal

Complex:

require 'json/add/complex'
ruby0 = Complex(1+0i) # 1+0i
json = JSON.generate(ruby0) # {"json_class":"Complex","r":1,"i":0}
ruby1 = JSON.parse(json, create_additions: true) # 1+0i
ruby1.class # Complex

Date:

require 'json/add/date'
ruby0 = Date.today # 2020-05-02
json = JSON.generate(ruby0) # {"json_class":"Date","y":2020,"m":5,"d":2,"sg":2299161.0}
ruby1 = JSON.parse(json, create_additions: true) # 2020-05-02
ruby1.class # Date

DateTime:

require 'json/add/date_time'
ruby0 = DateTime.now # 2020-05-02T10:38:13-05:00
json = JSON.generate(ruby0) # {"json_class":"DateTime","y":2020,"m":5,"d":2,"H":10,"M":38,"S":13,"of":"-5/24","sg":2299161.0}
ruby1 = JSON.parse(json, create_additions: true) # 2020-05-02T10:38:13-05:00
ruby1.class # DateTime

Exception (and its subclasses including RuntimeError):

require 'json/add/exception'
ruby0 = Exception.new('A message') # A message
json = JSON.generate(ruby0) # {"json_class":"Exception","m":"A message","b":null}
ruby1 = JSON.parse(json, create_additions: true) # A message
ruby1.class # Exception
ruby0 = RuntimeError.new('Another message') # Another message
json = JSON.generate(ruby0) # {"json_class":"RuntimeError","m":"Another message","b":null}
ruby1 = JSON.parse(json, create_additions: true) # Another message
ruby1.class # RuntimeError

OpenStruct:

require 'json/add/ostruct'
ruby0 = OpenStruct.new(name: 'Matz', language: 'Ruby') # #<OpenStruct name="Matz", language="Ruby">
json = JSON.generate(ruby0) # {"json_class":"OpenStruct","t":{"name":"Matz","language":"Ruby"}}
ruby1 = JSON.parse(json, create_additions: true) # #<OpenStruct name="Matz", language="Ruby">
ruby1.class # OpenStruct

Range:

require 'json/add/range'
ruby0 = Range.new(0, 2) # 0..2
json = JSON.generate(ruby0) # {"json_class":"Range","a":[0,2,false]}
ruby1 = JSON.parse(json, create_additions: true) # 0..2
ruby1.class # Range

Rational:

require 'json/add/rational'
ruby0 = Rational(1, 3) # 1/3
json = JSON.generate(ruby0) # {"json_class":"Rational","n":1,"d":3}
ruby1 = JSON.parse(json, create_additions: true) # 1/3
ruby1.class # Rational

Regexp:

require 'json/add/regexp'
ruby0 = Regexp.new('foo') # (?-mix:foo)
json = JSON.generate(ruby0) # {"json_class":"Regexp","o":0,"s":"foo"}
ruby1 = JSON.parse(json, create_additions: true) # (?-mix:foo)
ruby1.class # Regexp

Set:

require 'json/add/set'
ruby0 = Set.new([0, 1, 2]) # #<Set: {0, 1, 2}>
json = JSON.generate(ruby0) # {"json_class":"Set","a":[0,1,2]}
ruby1 = JSON.parse(json, create_additions: true) # #<Set: {0, 1, 2}>
ruby1.class # Set

Struct:

require 'json/add/struct'
Customer = Struct.new(:name, :address) # Customer
ruby0 = Customer.new("Dave", "123 Main") # #<struct Customer name="Dave", address="123 Main">
json = JSON.generate(ruby0) # {"json_class":"Customer","v":["Dave","123 Main"]}
ruby1 = JSON.parse(json, create_additions: true) # #<struct Customer name="Dave", address="123 Main">
ruby1.class # Customer

Symbol:

require 'json/add/symbol'
ruby0 = :foo # foo
json = JSON.generate(ruby0) # {"json_class":"Symbol","s":"foo"}
ruby1 = JSON.parse(json, create_additions: true) # foo
ruby1.class # Symbol

Time:

require 'json/add/time'
ruby0 = Time.now # 2020-05-02 11:28:26 -0500
json = JSON.generate(ruby0) # {"json_class":"Time","s":1588436906,"n":840560000}
ruby1 = JSON.parse(json, create_additions: true) # 2020-05-02 11:28:26 -0500
ruby1.class # Time

Custom JSON Additions

In addition to the JSON additions provided, you can craft JSON additions of your own, either for Ruby built-in classes or for user-defined classes.

Here’s a user-defined class Foo:

class Foo
  attr_accessor :bar, :baz
  def initialize(bar, baz)
    self.bar = bar
    self.baz = baz
  end
end

Here’s the JSON addition for it:

# Extend class Foo with JSON addition.
class Foo
  # Serialize Foo object with its class name and arguments
  def to_json(*args)
    {
      JSON.create_id  => self.class.name,
      'a'             => [ bar, baz ]
    }.to_json(*args)
  end
  # Deserialize JSON string by constructing new Foo object with arguments.
  def self.json_create(object)
    new(*object['a'])
  end
end

Demonstration:

require 'json'
# This Foo object has no custom addition.
foo0 = Foo.new(0, 1)
json0 = JSON.generate(foo0)
obj0 = JSON.parse(json0)
# Lood the custom addition.
require_relative 'foo_addition'
# This foo has the custom addition.
foo1 = Foo.new(0, 1)
json1 = JSON.generate(foo1)
obj1 = JSON.parse(json1, create_additions: true)
#   Make a nice display.
display = <<EOT
Generated JSON:
  Without custom addition:  #{json0} (#{json0.class})
  With custom addition:     #{json1} (#{json1.class})
Parsed JSON:
  Without custom addition:  #{obj0.inspect} (#{obj0.class})
  With custom addition:     #{obj1.inspect} (#{obj1.class})
EOT
puts display

Output:

Generated JSON:
  Without custom addition:  "#<Foo:0x0000000006534e80>" (String)
  With custom addition:     {"json_class":"Foo","a":[0,1]} (String)
Parsed JSON:
  Without custom addition:  "#<Foo:0x0000000006534e80>" (String)
  With custom addition:     #<Foo:0x0000000006473bb8 @bar=0, @baz=1> (Foo)

OpenSSL

OpenSSL provides SSL, TLS and general purpose cryptography. It wraps the OpenSSL library.

Examples

All examples assume you have loaded OpenSSL with:

require 'openssl'

These examples build atop each other. For example the key created in the next is used in throughout these examples.

Keys

Creating a Key

This example creates a 2048 bit RSA keypair and writes it to the current directory.

key = OpenSSL::PKey::RSA.new 2048

open 'private_key.pem', 'w' do |io| io.write key.to_pem end
open 'public_key.pem', 'w' do |io| io.write key.public_key.to_pem end

Exporting a Key

Keys saved to disk without encryption are not secure as anyone who gets ahold of the key may use it unless it is encrypted. In order to securely export a key you may export it with a pass phrase.

cipher = OpenSSL::Cipher.new 'AES-256-CBC'
pass_phrase = 'my secure pass phrase goes here'

key_secure = key.export cipher, pass_phrase

open 'private.secure.pem', 'w' do |io|
  io.write key_secure
end

OpenSSL::Cipher.ciphers returns a list of available ciphers.

Loading a Key

A key can also be loaded from a file.

key2 = OpenSSL::PKey::RSA.new File.read 'private_key.pem'
key2.public? # => true
key2.private? # => true

or

key3 = OpenSSL::PKey::RSA.new File.read 'public_key.pem'
key3.public? # => true
key3.private? # => false

Loading an Encrypted Key

OpenSSL will prompt you for your pass phrase when loading an encrypted key. If you will not be able to type in the pass phrase you may provide it when loading the key:

key4_pem = File.read 'private.secure.pem'
pass_phrase = 'my secure pass phrase goes here'
key4 = OpenSSL::PKey::RSA.new key4_pem, pass_phrase

RSA Encryption

RSA provides encryption and decryption using the public and private keys. You can use a variety of padding methods depending upon the intended use of encrypted data.

Encryption & Decryption

Asymmetric public/private key encryption is slow and victim to attack in cases where it is used without padding or directly to encrypt larger chunks of data. Typical use cases for RSA encryption involve “wrapping” a symmetric key with the public key of the recipient who would “unwrap” that symmetric key again using their private key. The following illustrates a simplified example of such a key transport scheme. It shouldn’t be used in practice, though, standardized protocols should always be preferred.

wrapped_key = key.public_encrypt key

A symmetric key encrypted with the public key can only be decrypted with the corresponding private key of the recipient.

original_key = key.private_decrypt wrapped_key

By default PKCS#1 padding will be used, but it is also possible to use other forms of padding, see PKey::RSA for further details.

Signatures

Using “private_encrypt” to encrypt some data with the private key is equivalent to applying a digital signature to the data. A verifying party may validate the signature by comparing the result of decrypting the signature with “public_decrypt” to the original data. However, OpenSSL::PKey already has methods “sign” and “verify” that handle digital signatures in a standardized way - “private_encrypt” and “public_decrypt” shouldn’t be used in practice.

To sign a document, a cryptographically secure hash of the document is computed first, which is then signed using the private key.

signature = key.sign 'SHA256', document

To validate the signature, again a hash of the document is computed and the signature is decrypted using the public key. The result is then compared to the hash just computed, if they are equal the signature was valid.

if key.verify 'SHA256', signature, document
  puts 'Valid'
else
  puts 'Invalid'
end

PBKDF2 Password-based Encryption

If supported by the underlying OpenSSL version used, Password-based Encryption should use the features of PKCS5. If not supported or if required by legacy applications, the older, less secure methods specified in RFC 2898 are also supported (see below).

PKCS5 supports PBKDF2 as it was specified in PKCS#5 v2.0. It still uses a password, a salt, and additionally a number of iterations that will slow the key derivation process down. The slower this is, the more work it requires being able to brute-force the resulting key.

Encryption

The strategy is to first instantiate a Cipher for encryption, and then to generate a random IV plus a key derived from the password using PBKDF2. PKCS #5 v2.0 recommends at least 8 bytes for the salt, the number of iterations largely depends on the hardware being used.

cipher = OpenSSL::Cipher.new 'AES-256-CBC'
cipher.encrypt
iv = cipher.random_iv

pwd = 'some hopefully not to easily guessable password'
salt = OpenSSL::Random.random_bytes 16
iter = 20000
key_len = cipher.key_len
digest = OpenSSL::Digest.new('SHA256')

key = OpenSSL::PKCS5.pbkdf2_hmac(pwd, salt, iter, key_len, digest)
cipher.key = key

Now encrypt the data:

encrypted = cipher.update document
encrypted << cipher.final

Decryption

Use the same steps as before to derive the symmetric AES key, this time setting the Cipher up for decryption.

cipher = OpenSSL::Cipher.new 'AES-256-CBC'
cipher.decrypt
cipher.iv = iv # the one generated with #random_iv

pwd = 'some hopefully not to easily guessable password'
salt = ... # the one generated above
iter = 20000
key_len = cipher.key_len
digest = OpenSSL::Digest.new('SHA256')

key = OpenSSL::PKCS5.pbkdf2_hmac(pwd, salt, iter, key_len, digest)
cipher.key = key

Now decrypt the data:

decrypted = cipher.update encrypted
decrypted << cipher.final

PKCS #5 Password-based Encryption

PKCS #5 is a password-based encryption standard documented at RFC2898. It allows a short password or passphrase to be used to create a secure encryption key. If possible, PBKDF2 as described above should be used if the circumstances allow it.

PKCS #5 uses a Cipher, a pass phrase and a salt to generate an encryption key.

pass_phrase = 'my secure pass phrase goes here'
salt = '8 octets'

Encryption

First set up the cipher for encryption

encryptor = OpenSSL::Cipher.new 'AES-256-CBC'
encryptor.encrypt
encryptor.pkcs5_keyivgen pass_phrase, salt

Then pass the data you want to encrypt through

encrypted = encryptor.update 'top secret document'
encrypted << encryptor.final

Decryption

Use a new Cipher instance set up for decryption

decryptor = OpenSSL::Cipher.new 'AES-256-CBC'
decryptor.decrypt
decryptor.pkcs5_keyivgen pass_phrase, salt

Then pass the data you want to decrypt through

plain = decryptor.update encrypted
plain << decryptor.final

X509 Certificates

Creating a Certificate

This example creates a self-signed certificate using an RSA key and a SHA1 signature.

key = OpenSSL::PKey::RSA.new 2048
name = OpenSSL::X509::Name.parse '/CN=nobody/DC=example'

cert = OpenSSL::X509::Certificate.new
cert.version = 2
cert.serial = 0
cert.not_before = Time.now
cert.not_after = Time.now + 3600

cert.public_key = key.public_key
cert.subject = name

Certificate Extensions

You can add extensions to the certificate with OpenSSL::SSL::ExtensionFactory to indicate the purpose of the certificate.

extension_factory = OpenSSL::X509::ExtensionFactory.new nil, cert

cert.add_extension \
  extension_factory.create_extension('basicConstraints', 'CA:FALSE', true)

cert.add_extension \
  extension_factory.create_extension(
    'keyUsage', 'keyEncipherment,dataEncipherment,digitalSignature')

cert.add_extension \
  extension_factory.create_extension('subjectKeyIdentifier', 'hash')

The list of supported extensions (and in some cases their possible values) can be derived from the “objects.h” file in the OpenSSL source code.

Signing a Certificate

To sign a certificate set the issuer and use OpenSSL::X509::Certificate#sign with a digest algorithm. This creates a self-signed cert because we’re using the same name and key to sign the certificate as was used to create the certificate.

cert.issuer = name
cert.sign key, OpenSSL::Digest.new('SHA1')

open 'certificate.pem', 'w' do |io| io.write cert.to_pem end

Loading a Certificate

Like a key, a cert can also be loaded from a file.

cert2 = OpenSSL::X509::Certificate.new File.read 'certificate.pem'

Verifying a Certificate

Certificate#verify will return true when a certificate was signed with the given public key.

raise 'certificate can not be verified' unless cert2.verify key

Certificate Authority

A certificate authority (CA) is a trusted third party that allows you to verify the ownership of unknown certificates. The CA issues key signatures that indicate it trusts the user of that key. A user encountering the key can verify the signature by using the CA’s public key.

CA Key

CA keys are valuable, so we encrypt and save it to disk and make sure it is not readable by other users.

ca_key = OpenSSL::PKey::RSA.new 2048
pass_phrase = 'my secure pass phrase goes here'

cipher = OpenSSL::Cipher.new 'AES-256-CBC'

open 'ca_key.pem', 'w', 0400 do |io|
  io.write ca_key.export(cipher, pass_phrase)
end

CA Certificate

A CA certificate is created the same way we created a certificate above, but with different extensions.

ca_name = OpenSSL::X509::Name.parse '/CN=ca/DC=example'

ca_cert = OpenSSL::X509::Certificate.new
ca_cert.serial = 0
ca_cert.version = 2
ca_cert.not_before = Time.now
ca_cert.not_after = Time.now + 86400

ca_cert.public_key = ca_key.public_key
ca_cert.subject = ca_name
ca_cert.issuer = ca_name

extension_factory = OpenSSL::X509::ExtensionFactory.new
extension_factory.subject_certificate = ca_cert
extension_factory.issuer_certificate = ca_cert

ca_cert.add_extension \
  extension_factory.create_extension('subjectKeyIdentifier', 'hash')

This extension indicates the CA’s key may be used as a CA.

ca_cert.add_extension \
  extension_factory.create_extension('basicConstraints', 'CA:TRUE', true)

This extension indicates the CA’s key may be used to verify signatures on both certificates and certificate revocations.

ca_cert.add_extension \
  extension_factory.create_extension(
    'keyUsage', 'cRLSign,keyCertSign', true)

Root CA certificates are self-signed.

ca_cert.sign ca_key, OpenSSL::Digest.new('SHA1')

The CA certificate is saved to disk so it may be distributed to all the users of the keys this CA will sign.

open 'ca_cert.pem', 'w' do |io|
  io.write ca_cert.to_pem
end

Certificate Signing Request

The CA signs keys through a Certificate Signing Request (CSR). The CSR contains the information necessary to identify the key.

csr = OpenSSL::X509::Request.new
csr.version = 0
csr.subject = name
csr.public_key = key.public_key
csr.sign key, OpenSSL::Digest.new('SHA1')

A CSR is saved to disk and sent to the CA for signing.

open 'csr.pem', 'w' do |io|
  io.write csr.to_pem
end

Creating a Certificate from a CSR

Upon receiving a CSR the CA will verify it before signing it. A minimal verification would be to check the CSR’s signature.

csr = OpenSSL::X509::Request.new File.read 'csr.pem'

raise 'CSR can not be verified' unless csr.verify csr.public_key

After verification a certificate is created, marked for various usages, signed with the CA key and returned to the requester.

csr_cert = OpenSSL::X509::Certificate.new
csr_cert.serial = 0
csr_cert.version = 2
csr_cert.not_before = Time.now
csr_cert.not_after = Time.now + 600

csr_cert.subject = csr.subject
csr_cert.public_key = csr.public_key
csr_cert.issuer = ca_cert.subject

extension_factory = OpenSSL::X509::ExtensionFactory.new
extension_factory.subject_certificate = csr_cert
extension_factory.issuer_certificate = ca_cert

csr_cert.add_extension \
  extension_factory.create_extension('basicConstraints', 'CA:FALSE')

csr_cert.add_extension \
  extension_factory.create_extension(
    'keyUsage', 'keyEncipherment,dataEncipherment,digitalSignature')

csr_cert.add_extension \
  extension_factory.create_extension('subjectKeyIdentifier', 'hash')

csr_cert.sign ca_key, OpenSSL::Digest.new('SHA1')

open 'csr_cert.pem', 'w' do |io|
  io.write csr_cert.to_pem
end

SSL and TLS Connections

Using our created key and certificate we can create an SSL or TLS connection. An SSLContext is used to set up an SSL session.

context = OpenSSL::SSL::SSLContext.new

SSL Server

An SSL server requires the certificate and private key to communicate securely with its clients:

context.cert = cert
context.key = key

Then create an SSLServer with a TCP server socket and the context. Use the SSLServer like an ordinary TCP server.

require 'socket'

tcp_server = TCPServer.new 5000
ssl_server = OpenSSL::SSL::SSLServer.new tcp_server, context

loop do
  ssl_connection = ssl_server.accept

  data = connection.gets

  response = "I got #{data.dump}"
  puts response

  connection.puts "I got #{data.dump}"
  connection.close
end

SSL client

An SSL client is created with a TCP socket and the context. SSLSocket#connect must be called to initiate the SSL handshake and start encryption. A key and certificate are not required for the client socket.

Note that SSLSocket#close doesn’t close the underlying socket by default. Set SSLSocket#sync_close to true if you want.

require 'socket'

tcp_socket = TCPSocket.new 'localhost', 5000
ssl_client = OpenSSL::SSL::SSLSocket.new tcp_socket, context
ssl_client.sync_close = true
ssl_client.connect

ssl_client.puts "hello server!"
puts ssl_client.gets

ssl_client.close # shutdown the TLS connection and close tcp_socket

Peer Verification

An unverified SSL connection does not provide much security. For enhanced security the client or server can verify the certificate of its peer.

The client can be modified to verify the server’s certificate against the certificate authority’s certificate:

context.ca_file = 'ca_cert.pem'
context.verify_mode = OpenSSL::SSL::VERIFY_PEER

require 'socket'

tcp_socket = TCPSocket.new 'localhost', 5000
ssl_client = OpenSSL::SSL::SSLSocket.new tcp_socket, context
ssl_client.connect

ssl_client.puts "hello server!"
puts ssl_client.gets

If the server certificate is invalid or context.ca_file is not set when verifying peers an OpenSSL::SSL::SSLError will be raised.

FileTest

FileTest implements file test operations similar to those used in File::Stat. It exists as a standalone module, and its methods are also insinuated into the File class. (Note that this is not done by inclusion: the interpreter cheats).

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