How do I start IRB console from a rake task?

Question

I'm trying to write a rake task that will set up an environment mirroring my project.

task :environment do 
  require 'rubygems'
  require 'sequel'
  # require 'my_projects_special_files'
end

task :foo => [:environment] do
  require 'irb'
  IRB.start
end

Leads to irb complaining that "foo" doesn't exist (the name of the task)

10:28:01:irb_test >> rake foo --trace
(in /Users/mwlang/projects/personal/rake/irb_test)
** Invoke foo (first_time)
** Invoke environment (first_time)
** Execute environment
** Execute foo
rake aborted!
No such file or directory - foo
/opt/local/lib/ruby/1.8/irb/input-method.rb:68:in `initialize'
/opt/local/lib/ruby/1.8/irb/input-method.rb:68:in `open'
/opt/local/lib/ruby/1.8/irb/input-method.rb:68:in `initialize'
/opt/local/lib/ruby/1.8/irb/context.rb:80:in `new'
/opt/local/lib/ruby/1.8/irb/context.rb:80:in `initialize'
/opt/local/lib/ruby/1.8/irb.rb:92:in `new'
/opt/local/lib/ruby/1.8/irb.rb:92:in `initialize'
/opt/local/lib/ruby/1.8/irb.rb:57:in `new'
/opt/local/lib/ruby/1.8/irb.rb:57:in `start'
/Users/mwlang/projects/personal/rake/irb_test/Rakefile:9

Okapi

Answer 1

IRB.start is looking at ARGV which contains the task name(s) from the rake command line. Try clearing ARGV first.

require 'irb'
ARGV.clear
IRB.start

Melchor

That was indeed the problem! Thanks for answering – Okapi

Thanks too! @MichaelLang you should accept this answer already. – Arcuation

There is a more straightforward way to do this in Ruby 2.4.0; see my answer. – Agle

Answer 2

As of Ruby 2.4.0, you can do this:

require 'irb'
binding.irb

Agle

nice to know! I should probably note the original question and accepted answer solves for Ruby 1.8. – Okapi

Answer 3

I've had a similar problem when running my task like that. Setting it the default task solved the problem but it did not help with the bug. Here: what i did

task :console do
  exec 'irb -I lib -r startingscript.rb'
end

Fresh

Answer 4

The rake file contents are below and it is named Rakefile.
Run it from terminal with rake test:console

require 'rubygems'
require 'rake'

namespace :test do
desc "Test Task"

 desc "Load stuff in IRB."
 task :console do

   exec "irb -r rubygems -r sanitize" #require multiple gems by typing -r gemname

 end

 end

once you've executed the rake test:console, irb pops up and you can see that it works by using Sanitize's clean method.
Sanitize.clean "some text"

Willms

Answer 5

Apparently there must be a problem with how you defined your task. What happens if you change

task :foo => [:environment] do

to

task :foo => :environment do

Eleonoreleonora

Same thing happens whether I have [:environment], just :environment, or nothing at all. If I change the name of the task to "bar" then IRB fusses about "bar" not being found, so its somehow picking up on the task name and trying to find a file or folder for it. – Okapi