From: Brian Candler <b.candler@...>
Date: 2008-12-11T18:10:54+09:00
Subject: Re: to get help from inside irb console

Sijo Kg wrote:
> Hi
>    How to get help from inside irb console I would like to know what the
> following is
> 
> OpenSSL::Random.random_bytes
> 
> Thanks in advance
> Sijo

Unfortunately the OpenSSL Ruby extensions are not well documented, 
especially the C native parts. ri seems to know nothing about them. I 
usually dive into the C source, and/or guess based on the OpenSSL C API.

You'll get some documentation here:
http://www.ruby-doc.org/stdlib/

If you click on the 'openssl' link on the left, and then on 'random_key' 
in the top right, then on the 'source' link for random_key, you'll get 
an example which shows random_bytes in action:

      def random_key
        str = OpenSSL::Random.random_bytes(self.key_len)
        self.key = str
        return str
      end

But if you want to know exactly what random_bytes does, you'll need to 
look at OpenSSL's own documentation. man -k may help you search for it. 
In this case, "man RAND_bytes" looks like the one.

See also "man 3ssl ssl" or "man 3 ssl", also at 
http://www.openssl.org/docs/ssl/ssl.html

As for getting ri help from within irb, you could always do

  system "ri String"

or write something in .irbrc which does this. Google for "irbrc" or "ri 
in irbrc" for some ideas.

Often all I do is something like this:

    str = "abc"
    str.methods - Object.instance_methods - Enumerable.instance_methods
-- 
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