Plugins

Plugins

Quick Menu:

• What is a plugin?
• Loading and suppression (all plugins)
• Loading and suppression (per plugin)
• List installed plugins

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Overview

Pry can be extended by way of plugins. A plugin is very simple - it is just a gem that is automatically loaded when a Pry session starts. Plugins can be used to modify almost any aspect of Pry.

For a list of available plugins check out the Available Plugins wiki page.

What is a plugin?

A valid Pry plugin is a gem that has the pry- prefix (such as the pry-doc gem). There must also be a .rb file of the same name in the lib/ folder of the gem. The functionality provided by a plugin is typically implemented by way of the customization, hooks, and command system APIs.

In the following example, assume we have created a gem called pry-sample that has the file pry-sample.rb in the lib/ folder.

Example: Contents of lib/pry-sample.rb

Pry.config.prompt = proc { "Sample Plugin Prompt> " }

From above, the pry-sample gem is a valid Pry plugin. Once it is installed it will be required automatically by Pry and the Pry prompt will be set to Sample Plugin Prompt>

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Loading and suppression (all plugins)

If a Pry plugin is installed (i.e a gem with the pry- prefix is installed) it will be loaded automatically when a session starts. As stated in the .pryrc section, plugins are loaded after the .pryrc file is loaded but before history is loaded; this means that plugin loading can be controlled in the .pryrc file; it also means that plugins can control the configuration of history.

As plugins are loaded automatically, suppression of plugin loading must be explicit:

Command line suppression

From the command-line all plugin loading can be suppressed using the --no-plugins switch:

Example: Suppress all plugin loading from command line

crow:~ john$ pry --no-plugins

Runtime suppression

If invoking Pry at runtime you can disable Plugin loading by using the Pry.config.should_load_plugins configuration option:

Example: Disable plugin loading at runtime

Pry.config.should_load_plugins = false

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Loading and suppression (per plugin)

For finer grained control over plugins, individual plugin loading can be turned on and off. The following can be performed in either your .pryrc file or in the code before you start your session (when invoking at runtime).

Disabling a specific plugin

An individual plugin can be disabled (leaving other plugins enabled) by using the Pry.plugins API:

Example: Disable only the pry-doc plugin

Pry.plugins["doc"].disable!

Forcing activation of specific plugins

Alternatively, if you invoke the Pry executable with the --no-plugins switch you can still activate specific plugins.

Example:

Pry.plugins["doc"].activate!

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List installed plugins

Run gem list pry to display all installed plugins.

Example:

crow:~ john$ gem list pry
*** LOCAL GEMS ***

pry (0.14.1)
pry-byebug (3.10.1)
crow:~ john$

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