Is there a way I can find out why a module fails to load? some kind of trace/verbose mode?

Question

The ruby extensions in the "ext" directory of my ubuntu ruby interpreter i.e. zlib, etc, io, ... fail to load.

I mean they're recognized as extensions - I don't get a "no such file" error, yet they fail to load (i.e. return false).

Running this: puts require 'zlib'

prints "false"

Is there a way of tracking down why a module fails to load? some kind of trace or debug I could use?

Answer 1

You could try ruby-debug. It sounds like your problem is going to be the C libraries, either missing or not on a path where ruby can see them.

Answer 2

A return value of false does not mean that there was an error. It means that the library wasn't loaded again, because it was already loaded.

If there were an error, you would get a LoadError exception.