Bug #19168: "such file" is bad grammar

• Status: Closed
• Assignee: -
• Target version: -
• ruby -v: ruby 3.1.3p185 (2022-11-24 revision 1a6b16756e) [arm64-darwin22]
• Backport: 2.7: UNKNOWN, 3.0: UNKNOWN, 3.1: UNKNOWN

[masterleep2 (Bill Lipa)]

The error message for a missing required file has bad grammar:

$ irb
irb(main):001:0> require 'wuxx'
internal:/opt/local/lib/ruby3.1/3.1.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:85:in `require': cannot load such file -- wuxx (LoadError)

The "such" should be removed. "cannot load file" reads more normally in English.

[zzak (zzak _)]

Judging by the diff to produce this change, we would be breaking bundler -- which probably won't work 🤔

[nobu (Nobuyoshi Nakada)]

In general, libraries should use LoadError#path instead of parsing the messages.
In addition, .s in a regexp don’t seem intentional.

[rubyFeedback (robert heiler)]

Hmm. This reminds me a bit of File.exists? versus File.exist?.
Not that it is the same, mind you, but which variant is
"correct" depends on the point of view. For literal english
it would be "if file exists, do that". But from an object-centric
point of view, aka "object xyz, do you exist?" the second
variant is the more technically correct one. Just mentioning
this, even if it is not applicable in the case here.

Personally I don't mind either way really. I am so used to it
that I did not even notice it. I am more concerned with load
speed of .rb files content than any grammar-centric
consideration. ;)

[jeremyevans0 (Jeremy Evans)]

• Status changed from Open to Closed

@headius (Charles Nutter), @alanwu (Alan Wu), @ioquatix (Samuel Williams), and I agree this is not a bug.

[headius (Charles Nutter)]

Note that this verbiage is similar to the standard ENOENT message: "No such file or directory". I suspect this message was just modified for load/require purposes.

[masterleep2 (Bill Lipa)]

"No such file" is proper English, while "cannot load such file" is not. It seems like this message was written by a non native speaker. It's also one of the most common Ruby error messages that a new (or experienced) Ruby user will see.

Obviously, it is a cosmetic issue only, but I do think it would be better to have a correct grammatical message for this frequent case.