Cleanest/One-liner way to require all files in directory in Ruby?

Question

When creating gems, I often have a directory structure like this:

|--lib
    |-- helpers.rb
    `-- helpers
        |-- helper_a.rb
        `-- helper_b.rb

Inside the helpers.rb, I'm just require-ing the files in the helpers directory. But I have to do things like this:

$:.push(File.dirname(__FILE__) + '/helpers')
require 'helper_a'
require 'helper_b'

Is there a way to make that one line so I never have to add to it? I just came up with this real quick:

dir = File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__), "helpers")
Dir.entries(dir)[2..-1].each { |file| require "#{dir}/#{file[0..-4]}" }

But it's two lines and ugly. What slick tricks have you done to make this a one liner?

Answer 1

project_root = File.dirname(File.absolute_path(__FILE__))
Dir.glob(project_root + '/helpers/*') {|file| require file}

Or to golf it a bit more:

Dir.glob(project_root + '/helpers/*', &method(:require))

Answer 2

I like require_relative:

Dir.glob('lib/**/*.rb') { |f| require_relative f }

The `&method(:require_relative) trick won't work with require_relative. I get:

`require_relative': cannot infer basepath (LoadError)

But it does save the hassle of computing project_root

I'm using ruby 2.0.0p247 (2013-06-27 revision 41674) [x86_64-darwin12.5.0]

Answer 3

Hi the cleanest way I have discovered is to use Dir.glob with wild cards.

Put the following in your rakefile:

gem.files = Dir.glob('lib/**/ *.rb')

It should work a treat.

Answer 4

# helpers.rb
Dir[__dir__ + '/helpers/*'].each &method(:require)