<div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Jul 28, 2009 at 2:01 AM, Lucas Nussbaum <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:lucas@lucas-nussbaum.net" target="_blank">lucas@lucas-nussbaum.net</a>></span> wrote:<br><div class="gmail_quote">
<div><div class="h5"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
(Added a Cc on <a href="mailto:debian-ruby@lists.debian.org" target="_blank">debian-ruby@lists.debian.org</a>, some interested people<br>
might not be subscribed to pkg-ruby-maintainers)<br>
<br>
Hi,<br>
<br>
First, thank you for contacting us on that topic.<br>
<div><br>
On 28/07/09 at 00:56 -0700, Yehuda Katz wrote:<br>
> Hey guys,<br>
> I recently read your position on Rubygems. I think we can probably find a<br>
> way to solve the problem if we can get some help from Debian.<br>
><br>
> It seems to me like you have the following problems:<br>
><br>
> 1) People have libraries that rely on Rubygems. I agree with this issue:<br>
> <a href="http://yehudakatz.com/2009/07/24/rubygems-good-practice/" target="_blank">http://yehudakatz.com/2009/07/24/rubygems-good-practice/</a><br>
><br>
> 2) You want a simple way to install packages without needing the full<br>
> rubygems. To be honest, while you can appeal to the community to provide<br>
> setup.rb, it would in fact be easier for us to provide you with a tiny<br>
> subset of rubygems that can help you extract the installation information<br>
> from the gem specification. You can then find the bin directories, as well<br>
> as instructions for installing any binary gems. This will enable you to<br>
> install the parts of the gem where you want, and make it trivial to make<br>
> debian packages from rubygems. I would be willing to write something that<br>
> could serve as the base for a Rubygems=>Debian package converter if one does<br>
> not already exist.<br>
<br>
</div>The point of setup.rb is that it enforces a layout that is sane. Of<br>
course, the same could be achieved by looking into the gem specification<br>
to extract the relevant info, as you suggested. I'm not very familiar<br>
with rubygems, but I have the impression that this solution might not<br>
apply to all current gems: it will still require a special organization<br>
of the files inside the gem to work. Can you give an example of the<br>
information from the gem spec that we will be able to use?</blockquote><div><br></div></div></div><div>Would it be acceptable to have the gem's lib directory inside another directory? What are the exact requirements for how a gem needs to be installed on the system?</div>
<div class="im">
<div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div>> 3) Rubygems binaries have shebang lines that don't work on Debian or none at<br>
> all. This is because Rubygems creates a wrapper file that points directly at<br>
> the binary with the appropriate shebang. A rubygems=>deb converter could use<br>
> the same technique and then stash the binary anywhere it wished. It could<br>
> also copy the contents of the file out and replace or add the appropriate<br>
> shebang. I'd note that /usr/bin/env ruby does not work on Windows and is<br>
> therefore not considered a general purpose solution.<br>
<br>
</div>That problem is really not a severe problem (contrary to (1) and (2)).<br>
Also, in the future, we might push (inside Debian) for a change from<br>
/usr/bin/env ruby to /usr/bin/ruby1.{8,9,9.1}, so that it is written in<br>
stone that one application wants to use a specific ruby version (and was<br>
not tested/would not work with another ruby version).<br>
<div><br>
> I understand that in a perfect world the Ruby community would conform with<br>
> Debian's desires here. In practice though, I think we can work toward a<br>
> solution that works for both communities with minimal fuss. I'm also<br>
> probably not the first person who's attempted this dialog. Some in the Ruby<br>
> community have decided to effectively write off Debian but I'm not willing<br>
> to do so.<br>
<br>
</div>Well, I tried to start this conversation some time ago, and then decided<br>
to stay away from this topic as much as possible, since several<br>
"poisonous people" in the Ruby community (like Austin Ziegler) totally<br>
discouraged me from continuing. But we can try again, of course.</blockquote><div><br></div></div><div>I don't know about the past, but let's get this resolved.</div><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<br>
<font color="#888888">--<div class="im"><br>
| Lucas Nussbaum<br>
| <a href="mailto:lucas@lucas-nussbaum.net" target="_blank">lucas@lucas-nussbaum.net</a> <a href="http://www.lucas-nussbaum.net/" target="_blank">http://www.lucas-nussbaum.net/</a> |<br>
| jabber: <a href="mailto:lucas@nussbaum.fr" target="_blank">lucas@nussbaum.fr</a> GPG: 1024D/023B3F4F |<br>
</div></font></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><div></div><div class="h5"><br>-- <br>Yehuda Katz<br>Developer | Engine Yard<br>(ph) 718.877.1325</div></div></div>