The interpreter can be invoked with any of the following options to control the environment and behavior of the interpreter.
Option | Description |
-a | Used with -n or -p to split each line. Check -n and -p options. |
-c | Checks syntax only, without executing program. |
-C dir | Changes directory before executing (equivalent to -X). |
-d | Enables debug mode (equivalent to -debug). |
-F pat | Specifies pat as the default separator pattern ($;) used by split. |
-e prog | Specifies prog as the program from the command line. Specify multiple -e options for multiline programs. |
-h | Displays an overview of command-line options. |
-i [ ext] | Overwrites the file contents with program output. The original file is saved with the
extension ext. If ext isn't specified, the original file is deleted. |
-I dir | Adds dir as the directory for loading libraries. |
-K [ kcode] | Specifies the multibyte character set code (e or E for EUC (extended Unix code); s or
S for SJIS (Shift-JIS); u or U for UTF-8; and a, A, n, or N for ASCII). |
-l | Enables automatic line-end processing. Chops a newline from input lines and appends a newline to output lines. |
-n | Places code within an input loop (as in while gets; ... end). |
-0[ octal] | Sets default record separator ($/) as an octal. Defaults to \0 if octal not specified. |
-p | Places code within an input loop. Writes $_ for each iteration. |
-r lib | Uses require to load lib as a library before executing. |
-s | Interprets any arguments between the program name and filename arguments fitting
the pattern -xxx as a switch and defines the corresponding variable. |
-T [level] | Sets the level for tainting checks (1 if level not specified). |
-v | Displays version and enables verbose mode |
-w | Enables verbose mode. If programfile not specified, reads from STDIN. |
-x [dir] | Strips text before #!ruby line. Changes directory to dir before executing if dir is
specified. |
-X dir | Changes directory before executing (equivalent to -C). |
-y | Enables parser debug mode. |
--copyright | Displays copyright notice. |
--debug | Enables debug mode (equivalent to -d). |
--help | Displays an overview of command-line options (equivalent to -h). |
--version | Displays version. |
--verbose | Enables verbose mode (equivalent to -v). Sets $VERBOSE to true |
--yydebug | Enables parser debug mode (equivalent to -y). |
Single character command-line options can be combined. The following two lines express the same meaning: