From: Pete Elmore <1337p337@...>
Date: 2007-10-21T05:28:42+09:00
Subject: [ANN] LiveConsole 0.1.0 -- eval code against a running program with IRB

I quit my job, and that can only mean one thing:  time to release a new gem.

About:

LiveConsole is a library for providing IRB over a TCP connection .  If
you add it to your application, you can run arbitrary code against
your application.  For example, you can:
        * Inspect the state of a running application
        * Change the state of the application
        * Patch code on the fly, without a restart.
        * Let anyone on the net 0wn you if you bind to anything other than
          localhost.  :)
It's useful as a diagnostic tool, a debugging tool, and a way to
impress your friends or get those Lisp guys off your back.  You know
the ones I mean.

Installation:

        gem install live_console

There's also rubyforge.org/projects/live-console , which has tar'd source.

Usage:

        lc = LiveConsole.new 1337 # Creates a LiveConsole on port 1337
Not yet accepting connections.
        lc.run  # Starts the LiveConsole thread
At this point, users can connect and get an IRB prompt.  It happens in
a different thread, so you get control back.
        lc.stop  # Kills the LiveConsole thread
Now, no one can connect.

Status:

It's alpha software for now.  There are some things missing, like an
authentication mechanism, some of the niceness of IRB on a real
console (readline, being able to hit ^D, etc.), the ability to use a
named pipe instead of TCP.  There shouldn't be any weird failures, but
I'm not ruling them out.