Thank you matz! That exactly what I forget: calling ruby_init() first! I should have known this, because I did similar work for python, where I DO have to call Py_initialize() first. Thank you very much! I will try again. From matz: >Hmm, eval'ing Ruby's expression is very easy by > > rb_eval_string(char *str); > >You need to call ruby_init() first, though.