Debugging cucumber in Ruby error - ruby

Question

I was able to debug my code with no issues until today. I don't know what I changed that could have effected this but now my
require "ruby-debug"
in my env.rb is causing the following when i try to run a feature...
cannot load such file -- irb/init (LoadError)
/usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.9.1/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:45:in `require'
/usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.9.1/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:45:in `require'
/usr/lib/ruby/1.9.1/irb.rb:13:in `<top (required)>'
/usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.9.1/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:45:in `require'
/usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.9.1/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:45:in `require'
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/ruby-debug19-0.11.6/cli/ruby-debug/commands/irb.rb:1:in `<top (required)>'
/usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.9.1/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:45:in `require'
/usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.9.1/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:45:in `require'
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/ruby-debug19-0.11.6/cli/ruby-debug/command.rb:51:in `block in load_commands'
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/ruby-debug19-0.11.6/cli/ruby-debug/command.rb:50:in `each'
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/ruby-debug19-0.11.6/cli/ruby-debug/command.rb:50:in `load_commands'
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/ruby-debug19-0.11.6/cli/ruby-debug/command.rb:210:in `<module:Debugger>'
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/ruby-debug19-0.11.6/cli/ruby-debug/command.rb:5:in `<top (required)>'
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/ruby-debug19-0.11.6/cli/ruby-debug/processor.rb:2:in `require_relative'
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/ruby-debug19-0.11.6/cli/ruby-debug/processor.rb:2:in `<top (required)>'
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/ruby-debug19-0.11.6/cli/ruby-debug.rb:6:in `require_relative'
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/ruby-debug19-0.11.6/cli/ruby-debug.rb:6:in `<top (required)>'
/usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.9.1/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:110:in `require'
/usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.9.1/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:110:in `rescue in require'
/usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.9.1/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:35:in `require'
/cygdrive/c/zap2it.com_acceptance_tests/features/support/env.rb:10:in `<top (required)>'
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/cucumber-1.2.3/lib/cucumber/rb_support/rb_language.rb:137:in `load'
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/cucumber-1.2.3/lib/cucumber/rb_support/rb_language.rb:137:in `load_code_file'
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/cucumber-1.2.3/lib/cucumber/runtime/support_code.rb:180:in `load_file'
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/cucumber-1.2.3/lib/cucumber/runtime/support_code.rb:83:in `block in load_files!'
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/cucumber-1.2.3/lib/cucumber/runtime/support_code.rb:82:in `each'
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/cucumber-1.2.3/lib/cucumber/runtime/support_code.rb:82:in `load_files!'
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/cucumber-1.2.3/lib/cucumber/runtime.rb:182:in `load_step_definitions'
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/cucumber-1.2.3/lib/cucumber/runtime.rb:41:in `run!'
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/cucumber-1.2.3/lib/cucumber/cli/main.rb:43:in `execute!'
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/cucumber-1.2.3/lib/cucumber/cli/main.rb:20:in `execute'
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/cucumber-1.2.3/bin/cucumber:14:in `<top (required)>'
/usr/bin/cucumber:23:in `load'
/usr/bin/cucumber:23:in `<main>'
If I remove it everything runs fine but i still do not have debugging capabilities.
Any ideas on what could be causing this?
So weeks later and I'm still having this issue, I've tried uninstall-reinstall all my gems and tried ruby-debug19, ruby-debug-base19, and debugger. I've tried requiring 'debugger' or 'ruby-debug' in my env file but still same error. Could it be i'm missing another needed library?
Here is the GemFile.lock:
GEM
remote: https://rubygems.org/
specs:
archive-tar-minitar (0.5.2)
builder (3.2.0)
capybara (2.1.0)
mime-types (>= 1.16)
nokogiri (>= 1.3.3)
rack (>= 1.0.0)
rack-test (>= 0.5.4)
xpath (~> 2.0)
childprocess (0.3.9)
ffi (~> 1.0, >= 1.0.11)
columnize (0.3.6)
commonwatir (4.0.0)
cucumber (1.2.3)
builder (>= 2.1.2)
diff-lcs (>= 1.1.3)
gherkin (~> 2.11.6)
multi_json (~> 1.3)
diff-lcs (1.2.1)
ffi (1.5.0)
gherkin (2.11.6)
json (>= 1.7.6)
httpclient (2.3.2)
json (1.7.7)
linecache19 (0.5.12)
ruby_core_source (>= 0.1.4)
mime-types (1.23)
multi_json (1.7.1)
nokogiri (1.5.9)
rack (1.5.2)
rack-test (0.6.2)
rack (>= 1.0)
rake (10.0.3)
rspec (2.13.0)
rspec-core (~> 2.13.0)
rspec-expectations (~> 2.13.0)
rspec-mocks (~> 2.13.0)
rspec-core (2.13.1)
rspec-expectations (2.13.0)
diff-lcs (>= 1.1.3, < 2.0)
rspec-mocks (2.13.0)
ruby-debug-base19 (0.11.25)
columnize (>= 0.3.1)
linecache19 (>= 0.5.11)
ruby_core_source (>= 0.1.4)
ruby-debug19 (0.11.6)
columnize (>= 0.3.1)
linecache19 (>= 0.5.11)
ruby-debug-base19 (>= 0.11.19)
ruby_core_source (0.1.5)
archive-tar-minitar (>= 0.5.2)
rubyzip (0.9.9)
selenium-webdriver (2.31.0)
childprocess (>= 0.2.5)
multi_json (~> 1.0)
rubyzip
websocket (~> 1.0.4)
watir (4.0.2)
commonwatir (~> 4)
watir-webdriver
watir-webdriver (0.6.2)
selenium-webdriver (>= 2.18.0)
websocket (1.0.7)
xpath (2.0.0)
nokogiri (~> 1.3)
PLATFORMS
ruby
DEPENDENCIES
capybara
cucumber
httpclient
nokogiri
rake
rspec
ruby-debug19
selenium-webdriver
watir
watir-webdriver
And the GemFile:
source 'https://rubygems.org'
gem 'rake'
gem 'nokogiri'
gem 'httpclient'
group :test do
gem 'rspec'
gem 'cucumber'
gem 'watir'
gem 'watir-webdriver'
gem 'selenium-webdriver'
gem 'capybara'
end

Answer 1

Have you updated rails or ruby lately?
I do not remember which version update that causes problems but I think the error message looks like some I got after an update. After which the ruby-debug is no longer supported.
After some digging I found the following gems as substitution:
gem 'ruby-debug-base19x'
gem 'ruby-debug19'
These are however outdated, so maybe look into the debugger gem

Answer 2

The solution for this problem is to remove and install as here or
sudo apt-get install libreadline-dev
rvm remove 1.9.3
rvm install 1.9.3
Then add to your Gemfile:
gem 'rb-readline
as here