Why does Rails console say "cannot load such file -- readline"?

Question

I am new to Ruby on Rails, and am using RVM to manage Ruby versions.

My laptop has Ruby1.8.7 installed, but my project is using RVM, Ruby1.9.3 and Rails 3.2.11.

I can't run rails c or rails console without it giving me the following error:

/home/phil/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p392/lib/ruby/1.9.1/irb/completion.rb:9:in `require': cannot load such file -- readline (LoadError)
from /home/phil/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p392/lib/ruby/1.9.1/irb/completion.rb:9:in `<top (required)>'
from /home/phil/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p392/gems/railties-3.2.11/lib/rails/commands/console.rb:3:in `require'
from /home/phil/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p392/gems/railties-3.2.11/lib/rails/commands/console.rb:3:in `<top (required)>'
from /home/phil/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p392/gems/railties-3.2.11/lib/rails/commands.rb:38:in `require'
from /home/phil/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p392/gems/railties-3.2.11/lib/rails/commands.rb:38:in `<top (required)>'
from script/rails:6:in `require'
from script/rails:6:in `<main>'

Which `rails` command are you running? What's the output of `which rails`? — Stuart M, Apr 01 '13 at 21:34

score 11 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 02 '13 at 16:10

11

You need to have the readline libraries installed when you compile Ruby.

If you are on CentOS/Redhat/Fedora Linux, install the package using:

sudo yum install readline-devel

Or, on Ubuntu, use:

sudo apt-get install libreadline6 libreadline6-dev

and then recompile Ruby.

edited Apr 02 '13 at 16:10

j_mcnally

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answered Apr 01 '13 at 21:36

johnkoht

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Thanks for responding Stuart and John. I run "rvm use 1.9.3" it displays back "ruby 1.9.3p392 (2013-02-22 revision 39386) [i686-linux]". Everything works fine, it's only when I run "rails c" or "rails console" I get the above error. I ran "sudo apt-get install libreadline6 libreadline6-dev" and installed them, but I still get the error unfortunately. – polarcare Apr 01 '13 at 21:59
johnkoht - when you say "then recompile ruby", what exactly do you mean? – polarcare Apr 01 '13 at 22:03
Then recompile ruby with "rvm uninstall [RUBYVERSION] followed by rvm install [RUBYVERSION]". That's working now, thanks a million johnkoht, legend! – polarcare Apr 01 '13 at 22:22
Glad you got it working (sorry I didn't see your other messages until now). – johnkoht Apr 01 '13 at 23:31

Why does Rails console say "cannot load such file -- readline"?

1 Answers1