lexdrill

The lexdrill gem installs a drill command that prints a vocabulary word or phrase on demand, tracking how often each one has been shown.

Installation

gem install lexdrill

drill: command not found after install?

This happens when the gem's executable directory isn't on your PATH — common with a plain system Ruby (no rbenv/rvm). Fix it in one step:

bash

echo "export PATH=\"$(ruby -e 'puts Gem.bindir'):\$PATH\"" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

zsh

echo "export PATH=\"$(ruby -e 'puts Gem.bindir'):\$PATH\"" >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

Using an rbenv-managed Ruby? Run rbenv rehash instead. Using rvm? You shouldn't hit this — rvm keeps gem executable directories on PATH automatically.

Usage

Create a .drill.txt file — one word or phrase per line — in your home directory, or in a specific project directory to give that project its own list:

apple
banana
cherry

Run drill next to print the current word and advance to the next one. Each line is printed as current/total: followed by a tab and the word, in a randomly-picked color, e.g.:

1/3:	apple
2/3:	banana
3/3:	cherry
1/3:	apple

Shell integration (one-time setup)

Add one line to your shell's rc file so the current word prints automatically before each prompt. This is a one-time step — the line stays in your rc file and takes effect in every new shell session from then on; you never need to run it again by hand.

Add it near the end of the file, after anything that sets up your PATH (rvm/rbenv init, Homebrew, etc.) — otherwise the shell may not know where drill lives yet when this line runs. Guarding it with command -v also means it never errors, even on a machine/session where drill isn't on PATH for some reason.

zsh — add to ~/.zshrc:

if command -v drill >/dev/null 2>&1; then
  eval "$(drill hook zsh)"
fi

bash — add to ~/.bashrc:

if command -v drill >/dev/null 2>&1; then
  eval "$(drill hook bash)"
fi

Then open a new shell (or source ~/.zshrc / source ~/.bashrc) to pick it up.

Hook not firing in new terminal windows/tabs (rvm users)?

Run drill inspect first — if it shows Toggle: enabled and a valid words file, the tool itself is fine and the problem is that the hook function never got registered in that session.

A common cause with rvm: rvm's installer sometimes puts its actual PATH-loading line ([[ -s "$HOME/.rvm/scripts/rvm" ]] && source "$HOME/.rvm/scripts/rvm") in ~/.zlogin (zsh) or ~/.bash_profile (bash). Those files only run for login shells — but many terminal emulators (e.g. kitty) open new windows/tabs as non-login interactive shells, which only source ~/.zshrc/~/.bashrc. So rvm's gemset bin/ directory (where drill lives) never makes it onto PATH in those sessions, even though everything looks correctly configured.

Fix: move that line into ~/.zshrc / ~/.bashrc (before the drill hook block above, so it runs first) instead of relying on it only being in ~/.zlogin / ~/.bash_profile. It's safe to leave it in both places.

Commands

Command	What it does
drill next	Print the current word and advance
drill start / drill stop	Pause/resume the automatic per-prompt hook (doesn't affect manual next)
drill inspect	Show the active .drill.txt/.drill.counter paths, word count, counter value, and toggle state
`drill hook zsh\	bash`	Print the shell integration snippet (used above)