README.rdoc
May 3, 2026 ยท View on GitHub
= Erubi
Erubi is an ERB template engine for Ruby. It is a simplified fork of Erubis, using the same basic algorithm, with the following differences:
- Handles postfix conditionals when using escaping (e.g. <%= foo if bar %>)
- Supports frozen_string_literal: true in templates via :freeze option
- Works with Ruby's --enable-frozen-string-literal option
- Automatically freezes strings for template text when Ruby optimizes it (on Ruby 2.1+)
- Escapes ' (apostrophe) when escaping for better XSS protection
- Has 15x-6x faster escaping by using erb/escape or cgi/escape
- Has 81% smaller memory footprint (calculated using +ObjectSpace.memsize_of_all+)
- Does no monkey patching (Erubis adds a method to Kernel)
- Uses an immutable design (all options passed to the constructor, which returns a frozen object)
- Has simpler internals (1 file, <150 lines of code)
- Is not dead (Erubis hasn't been updated since 2011)
It is not designed with Erubis API compatibility in mind, though most Erubis ERB syntax works, with the following exceptions:
- No support for <%=== for debug output
= Installation
gem install erubi
= Source Code
Source code is available on GitHub at https://github.com/jeremyevans/erubi
= Usage
Erubi only has built in support for retrieving the generated source for a file:
require 'erubi' eval(Erubi::Engine.new(File.read('filename.erb')).src)
Most users will probably use Erubi via Rails or Tilt. Erubi is the default erb template handler in Tilt 2.0.6+ and Rails 5.1+.
== Capturing
Erubi does not support capturing block output into the template by default. It currently ships with two implementations that allow it.
=== Erubi::CaptureBlockEngine
The recommended implementation can be required via +erubi/capture_block+, which allows capturing to work with normal <%= and <%== tags.
<%= form do %> <% end %>
When using the capture_block support, capture methods should just return the text it emit into the template, and call +capture+ on the buffer value. Since the buffer variable is a local variable and not an instance variable by default, you'll probably want to set the +:bufvar+ variable when using the capture_block support to an instance variable, and have any methods used call capture on that instance variable. Example:
def form(&block) "
" endputs eval(Erubi::CaptureBlockEngine.new(<<-END, bufvar: '@_buf', trim: false).src) before <%= form do %> inside <% end %> after END
Output:
before
inside
after
To use the capture_block support with tilt:
require 'tilt' require 'erubi/capture_block' Tilt.new("filename.erb", :engine_class=>Erubi::CaptureBlockEngine).render
Note that the capture_block support, while very compatible with the default support, is not 100% compatible. One area where behavior differs is when using multiple statements inside <%= and <%== tags:
<%= 1; 2 %>
The default support will output 2, but the capture_block support will output 1.
=== Erubi::CaptureEndEngine
An alternative capture implementation can be required via +erubi/capture_end+, which supports it via <%|= and <%|== tags which are closed with a <%| tag:
<%|= form do %> <%| end %>
It is only recommended to use +erubi/capture_end+ for backwards compatibilty.
When using the capture_end support, capture methods (such as +form+ in the example above) should return the (potentially modified) buffer. Similar to the capture_block support, using an instance variable is recommended. Example:
def form @_buf << "
" @_buf endputs eval(Erubi::CaptureEndEngine.new(<<-END, bufvar: '@_buf').src) before <%|= form do %> inside <%| end %> after END
Output:
before
inside
after
Alternatively, passing the option :yield_returns_buffer => true will return the buffer captured by the block instead of the last expression in the block.
= Reporting Bugs
The bug tracker is located at https://github.com/jeremyevans/erubi/issues
= License
MIT
= Authors
Jeremy Evans code@jeremyevans.net kuwata-lab.com