Ruby Programming/RubyGems

RubyGems Rubygems is a packaging and "download" system for ruby libraries. Using it is typically as easy as $ gem install xxx where xxx is some gem name you'd like to install. More information about rubygems can be had here. How to display text to the end user after a gem is installed. Gem::Specification.new do |s| s.post_install_message = "Enjoy my gem!" end or "another example":http://github.com/tablatom/rubydoctest/blob/master/rubydoctest.gemspec How to set the main page for rdocs of a gem Gem::Specification.new do |s| ... s.rdoc_options = ["--title", "EventMachine", "--main", "README", "--line-numbers"] s.extra_rdoc_files = ["README", "RELEASE_NOTES", "COPYING", "GNU", "LEGAL", "TODO"] end or "another example":http://github.com/eventmachine/evma_httpserver/blob/master/eventmachine_httpserver.gemspec How to install different versions of gems depending on which version of ruby the installee is using Here's an example: create file ext/mkrf_conf.rb require 'rubygems' require 'rubygems/command.rb' require 'rubygems/dependency_installer.rb' begin Gem::Command.build_args = ARGV rescue NoMethodError end inst = Gem::DependencyInstaller.new begin if RUBY_VERSION < "1.9" inst.install "ruby-debug-base", "~> 0.10.3" else inst.install "ruby-debug-base19", "~> 0.11.24" end rescue exit(1) end f = File.open(File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__), "Rakefile"), "w") # create dummy rakefile to indicate success f.write("task :default\n") f.close http://groups.google.com/group/ruby-talk-google/browse_thread/thread/6a03451af53fb853/5d402de5b0da1adf?lnk=raot&pli=1 has a description Also add @gemspec.extensions = 'ext/mkrf_conf.rb'@ to your gemspec. How to install a gem programmatically see above. How to run configure from within an extconf.rb Here's an example, from rice's extconf.rb require 'rbconfig' require 'rubygems' require 'ruby/lib/version.rb' gem_name = "rice-#{Rice::VERSION}" prefix_dir = File.join(Gem.default_dir, "gems", gem_name, "ruby", "lib") with_ruby = File.join(Config::CONFIG["bindir"], Config::CONFIG["RUBY_INSTALL_NAME"]) other_opts = "" env = "" if RUBY_PLATFORM =~ /darwin10/ other_opts = "--disable-dependency-tracking" env = "ARCHFLAGS='-arch x86_64'" end system "#{env} ./configure --with-ruby=#{with_ruby} --prefix=#{prefix_dir} #{other_opts}" How to use a Rakefile instead of a Makefile By default if you list gemspec.extensions = 'ext/extconf.rb' it will expect a Makefile to have been created, and run Make against it, at install time. You can also list @gemspec.extensions = 'ext/mkrf_conf.rb'@ and it will run that, expect a Rakefile to have been created, and run rake against it. Plugins Rubygems now supports plugins, for adding new gem xxx commands, or executing on install and uninstall of gems. Known rubygems plugins Here's a list of plugins: gemcutter gem http://github.com/qrush/gemcutter/blob/master/gem/lib/gemcutter.rb lets you "push" your gem to gemcutter after it's ready graph gem http://blog.zenspider.com/2009/04/rubygems-now-has-plugins.html creates a graphviz of your local dependencies yard gem has a way to create yard docu after installing a gem (instead of the default rdoc). gem_file_conflict_checker gem: warns you when you install two gems whose lib files collide (which can cause serious problems, and is common for gem developers who install their own versions of gems, etc.) isit19 http://blog.segment7.net/articles/2009/08/19/rubygems-isit19-1-0 gem