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title: GitHub - ruby-rice/rice: Ruby Interface for C++ Extensions
description: Rice is a header-only C++ library that simplifies creating Ruby bindings for C++ libraries and embedding Ruby in C++ projects. Similar to Boost.Python and...
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> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# GitHub - ruby-rice/rice: Ruby Interface for C++ Extensions

**[Ruby Flow](https://daily.dev/sources/rubyflow)** · 3 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments

## Summary

Rice is a header-only C++ library that simplifies creating Ruby bindings for C++ libraries and embedding Ruby in C++ projects. Similar to Boost.Python and pybind11, it minimizes boilerplate by automatically handling type conversions between C++ and Ruby, exception conversions, smart pointers for garbage collection, and wrappers for built-in types. It requires C++17 or later and supports Windows, macOS, and Linux. Version 4.x is the current header-only release, installable via `gem install rice`.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://github.com/ruby-rice/rice>

## Questions this post answers

### What C++ standard and Ruby version does Rice 4.x require?

Rice 4.x requires C++17 or later and Ruby 2.7 or later. It is a header-only library, so it does not need separate building and can simply be included in a C++ project. It is tested on Windows with MSVC and Mingw64, MacOS with Xcode/clang, and Linux with g++.

_daily.dev surfaces practical setup requirements like these for developers evaluating C++ to Ruby binding libraries._

### How do I install the Rice library for wrapping C++ classes in Ruby?

Install it with the command 'gem install rice'. Since Rice is header-only, after installing you include headers such as rice/rice.hpp and rice/stl.hpp directly in a C++ project rather than linking a compiled library, and running rake regenerates these combined headers and runs the test suite.

_developers building Ruby-C++ bindings can find setup guidance like this through daily.dev._

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---

Tags: [#c](https://daily.dev/tags/c), [#ruby](https://daily.dev/tags/ruby), [#c++](https://daily.dev/tags/c++)

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