Run the last X commands from IRB's command history?

Question

I'm developing a ruby app with Vim in one screen, and in another I'm using irb to test the code I'm writing in Vim.
For the sake of this example, we'll say there are only 2 irb commands to test the code that I've written, a load and a method call.
Generally, it's more than 2 commands - if its just 2 I would tap the up arrow twice and hit enter, but generally its around 5 or 6 and that's up to 36 key presses just to run the last 6 commands. There must be an easier way.

Is there an easy way to execute the last X commands from the irb readline history buffer in the order they were executed, where X is the number of commands you want to run? Something like;

run_last_x_commands(i)

I'm pretty sure it would be a custom written piece of code, I'm just wondering if anyone already solved this problem or if this is something I'll need to write myself.

Answer 1

I would really store your test script in a file. It is less convenient than just typing it out, but at the same time, it's easier to edit and work with. Plus, if you're trying to define classes, you often get issues with IRB not able to redefine a class without doing things like Object.remove_const('MyClass'). I've had the same problem you're having, and I decided against using IRB for this task.

There may be some readline magic to do what you want though. Readline has all kinds of tricks and shortcuts I don't know about.

Answer 2

You may be interested in running Vim in IRB.

Gem.

Source.