Metadata

ID: ruby-best-practices/global-stdout

Language: Ruby

Severity: Notice

Category: Best Practices

Description

The rule “Avoid standard constants” is important in Ruby development as it encourages the use of global variables over standard constants. In Ruby, standard constants like STDOUT and STDERR are not as flexible as their global counterparts $stdout and $stderr.

The main reason for avoiding standard constants is that they are not interchangeable in the same way that global variables are. This means they are less suited to situations where you might need to redirect output or error streams. For instance, in testing scenarios, you might want to redirect $stdout or $stderr to a different output stream.

Fortunately, Ruby provides an easy way to avoid this issue. Instead of using standard constants, you should use global variables. For example, replace STDOUT with $stdout and STDERR with $stderr. This allows for greater flexibility in your code and makes it more adaptable to different situations.

Non-Compliant Code Examples

STDOUT.puts('foo')

hash = { out: STDOUT, key: value }

def m(out = STDOUT)
  out.puts('foo')
end

Compliant Code Examples

$stdout.puts('foo')

hash = { out: $stdout, key: value }

def m(out = $stdout)
  out.puts('foo')
end

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