= RI
+ri+ is a tool that allows Ruby documentation to be viewed on the command-line.
You can use +ri+ to look up information from either the command line or
interactively. When you run +ri+ without any arguments it will launch in
interactive mode. In interactive mode you can tab-complete class and method
names.
== Usage
To see information for a class, do:
ri ClassName
For example, for the Array class, do:
ri Array
To see information on a method on a class, do:
ri ClassName.method
This will show both instance and class methods. For example, the IO
class defines both IO::read and IO#read:
ri IO.read
To see information for an instance method, do:
ri ClassName#method_name
For example, for Array's +join+ method, do:
ri Array#join
To see information for a class method, do:
ri ClassName::method_name
For example, for Module's +private+ method, do:
ri Module::private
To read documentation for all +read+ methods, do:
ri read
== Options
+ri+ supports a variety of options, all of which can be viewed via +--help+.
Of particular interest, are:
[-f]
Outputs ri data using the selected formatter. You can see the available
formatters in ri --help
[-T]
Send output to stdout, rather than to a pager.
All options also can be specified through the +RI+ environment variable.
Command-line options always override those specified in the +RI+ environment
variable.
The +RI_PAGER+ environment variable allows you to choose a particular pager or
particular options for your pager.