[DRE-maint] Bug#588125: Bug#588125: Rubygems 1.3.7 broken with Ruby 1.9.2 in Debian -- help needed

[Joshua Timberman]

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Hello!

On Aug 28, 2010, at 12:56 AM, Lucas Nussbaum wrote:

> - Do we want to make the installation of rubygems optional with 1.9.1?
>  (as a separate package ?) That would probably be the right thing to do
>  since I think that we should make the use of external package managers
>  optional in Debian, but frankly, if we do that, some users are going
>  to complain, and I'm totally tired of hearing complains about ruby
>  packaging in Debian.

I think it can be a separate package as long as it behaves similar
to the upstream RubyGems. Changing the behavior is confusing to users and
this is one of the reasons why people think that Ruby(Gems) is broken on
Debian/Ubuntu.

> - Do we want to disable gem update --system? I think that we should
>  allow a way for the user to do it anyway. For example, we could add a
>  check for a "I_KNOW_WHAT_IM_DOING_ABOUT_GEM_UPDATE_SYSTEM" environment
>  variable (ok, name could be improved). We would still refuse to gem
>  update --system by default, but would accept it of the environment
>  variable was set.

I'm good with either an environment variable, or a state file (or both?) 
that tells the system that I know what I'm doing. If I break it, I'll keep
both parts.

> - Paths: until consensus emerge in #448639, we should continue to
>  install gems in /var. Those changes should be moved to 
>  rubygems/defaults/operating_system.rb, but we may do that later, and
>  just continue with 01_default_gem_path.diff for now.


I really wish a consensus would be reached on this, to using /usr/local.
The use of /var breaks the FHS as pointed out recently by Clint. It
is also inconsistent with other 3rd party packaging systems that are also
commonly used in Debian/Ubuntu; e.g., cpan, pypi/easy_install.
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