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mruby

Developer(s)	Yukihiro Matsumoto et al.
Initial release	April 20, 2012; 12 years ago (2012-04-20)
Stable release	3.3.0  / 14 February 2024; 10 months ago (14 February 2024)
Repository	github.com/mruby/mruby
Written in	C and Ruby
Operating system	Cross-platform
Standard(s)	ISO/IEC 30170:2012
Type	Ruby programming language interpreter
License	MIT License
Website	mruby.org

mruby is an interpreter for the Ruby programming language with the intention of being lightweight and easily embeddable. The project is headed by Yukihiro Matsumoto, with over 100 contributors currently working on the project.

Features

mruby 1.0 supports the Ruby 2.1 core API, but none of the standard library. As well as being able to execute most basic Ruby code, mruby also features a bytecode compiler and virtual machine, as well as the ability to be easily embedded and integrated into C or C++ code, in a similar manner to Lua or Tcl.

mruby 2.0.0 adds support for several Ruby 2.x methods beyond Ruby 2.1. v2.0.0 also changed to variable length bytecode instructions format.

mruby bytecode can be embedded in C code, and thus, can be compiled into a standalone executable.

mruby also aims to be compliant with the ISO/IEC 30170:2012 standard.

Examples

Calling mruby from C

#include <stdio.h>
#include <mruby.h>
#include <mruby/compile.h>
int main(void) {
    mrb_state *mrb = mrb_open();
    char code = "5.times { puts 'mruby is awesome!' }";
    printf("Executing Ruby code with mruby:\n");
    mrb_load_string(mrb, code);
    mrb_close(mrb);
    return 0;
}

Assuming that the mruby library and headers are installed, the program can be compiled and executed by running the following commands from the terminal:

$ cc example.c -lmruby -lm -o example
$ ./example

Precompiled Bytecode

mruby includes a minimalistic virtual machine used to execute mruby bytecode, nicknamed RiteVM:

$ mrbc test.rb
$ mruby -b test.mrb

The first command compiles Ruby code to mruby bytecode, creating a file called "test.mrb", which can then be executed by appending the "-b" flag to the normal interpreter arguments.

References

1. "Release 3.3.0".
2. "mruby 3.3.0 released".
3. "LICENSE". Github. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
4. ^ "mruby/mruby". GitHub. Retrieved 2018-04-30.
5. mruby and MobiRuby announced
6. "mruby 2.0.0 released". mruby.org. Retrieved 2019-04-01.
7. "Executing Ruby code with mruby". mruby.org. Retrieved 2019-04-01.
8. "ISO/IEC 30170:2012". ISO. Retrieved 2019-04-01.
9. Aimonetti, Matt (2012-04-25). "Getting started with mruby". Retrieved 2013-12-29.
10. geekmonkey (2012-10-30). "An introduction to Mini Ruby". Retrieved 2013-12-29.

v t e Ruby programming language
Implementations	Active Ruby MRI; YARV mruby JRuby RubyMotion Discontinued MacRuby IronRuby XRuby HotRuby MagLev Rubinius
IDE	Aptana Studio Komodo IDE RubyMine
Applications	Capistrano Hackety Hack Interactive Ruby Shell Pry Rake Redmine RSpec RubyGems RVM Chef Puppet Vagrant Homebrew CocoaPods
Libraries and frameworks	Adhearsion eRuby (RHTML) Merb Padrino RubyCocoa Ruby on Rails Shoes Sinatra QtRuby
Server software	mod_ruby Mongrel Phusion Passenger (mod_rails/mod_rack) Rack WEBrick
People	Yukihiro Matsumoto David Heinemeier Hansson why the lucky stiff Dave Thomas
Other	Document format why's (poignant) Guide to Ruby Ruby Central RubyKaigi RubyForge Ruby License
Category Commons

• Interpreters (computing)
• Ruby (programming language)
• Software using the MIT license