At last, thanks to this message I have been able to make the extension
directly from /usr/src/ruby-1.8.5/ext/readline

http://blade.nagaokaut.ac.jp/cgi-bin/vframe.rb/ruby/ruby-talk/214784?214503-216256+split-mode-vertical

On 11/11/06, Jonathan MñÕillon <jmetillon / gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm trying to compile Ruby 1.8.5 on Debian Sarge with readline. After
> compilation I try irb and I get:
>
> irb(main):001:0> require "readline"
> LoadError: no such file to load -- readline
>         from (irb):1:in `require'
>         from (irb):1
>
> Also I have these readline related packages installed:
>
> $ dpkg -l | grep ^ii | grep readline
> ii  libreadline-ruby      1.8.2-1         Readline interface for Ruby
> ii  libreadline-ruby1.6   1.6.8-12sarge2  Readline interface for Ruby 1.6.x
> ii  libreadline-ruby1.8   1.8.5-3         Readline interface for Ruby 1.8
> ii  libreadline4          4.3-11          GNU readline and history
> libraries, run-time libraries
> ii  libreadline5          5.2-1           GNU readline and history
> libraries, run-time libraries
> ii  libreadline5-dev      5.2-1           GNU readline and history
> libraries, development files
> ii  readline-common       5.2-1           GNU readline and history
> libraries, common files
>
> Why ruby does not compile with readline? Thank you!
>
> Jonathan
>