From: Bill Kelly <billk@...>
Date: 2008-07-25T17:21:02+09:00
Subject: [ruby-core:17961] Re: RUBY_ENGINE?


From: "Ryan Davis" <ryand-ruby@zenspider.com>
> On Jul 24, 2008, at 19:35 , Tanaka Akira wrote:
>>
>> What the usage of RUBY_ENGINE?
>>
>> I heard it is used to know command name at the IRC meeting.
>> I think it is not good idea.
> 
> not command name, but ruby "flavor": (mri) ruby, rubinius, jruby, etc.

From: http://ruby-design.pbwiki.com/f/ruby-core-20080430.txt

[2008/04/30 20:21:59] @ headius set topic http://ruby-design.pbwiki.com/Design20080430 - 
RUBY_ENGINE or similar constant to indicate implementation
// ...
[2008/04/30 20:33:31] <evan> can I bring up the root issue?
[2008/04/30 20:33:39] <evan> of wanting this constant
[2008/04/30 20:33:43] <headius> yes
[2008/04/30 20:33:46] <headius> do taht
[2008/04/30 20:33:49] <enebo> please
[2008/04/30 20:33:56] <evan> 99.9% of the time, it's because someone needs to know the name of the ruby command
thaht was issued to run the current program
[2008/04/30 20:34:06] <evan> so they'd use this to figure out ruby/rbx/jruby whatever.
[2008/04/30 20:34:06] <headius> that's already available
[2008/04/30 20:34:16] <evan> not in 1.8 it's not.
[2008/04/30 20:34:16] <akr> rbconfig
[2008/04/30 20:34:22] <evan> thats the installed location
[2008/04/30 20:34:25] <evan> not the current running one
[2008/04/30 20:34:37] <evan> an great example of that is doing ../../blah/bin/ruby
[2008/04/30 20:34:41] <lrz> $0 ?
[2008/04/30 20:34:45] <evan> $0 is the script
[2008/04/30 20:34:50] <evan> Rubinius implements this
[2008/04/30 20:35:00] <matz_> evan: keep going
[2008/04/30 20:35:00] <evan> by using getcwd() + argv[0] at start up
[2008/04/30 20:35:02] <akr> argv[0] is not trustable
[2008/04/30 20:35:08] <evan> to calculate the absolute path to the running binary

// ...

[2008/04/30 20:41:44] <matz_> I don't think RUBY_ENGINE should be used for feature check
// ...
[2008/04/30 20:42:09] <matz_> it must be used for something different
// ...
[2008/04/30 20:42:23] <ko1_> RUBY_ENGINE purpose: (1) search bin name, (2) check spec
[2008/04/30 20:42:28] <matz_> for example, choosing performance trick depends on implementation
[2008/04/30 20:42:29] <headius> people will use RUBY_ENGINE for feature set either way
[2008/04/30 20:42:29] <ko1_> any other reason?
[2008/04/30 20:42:32] <headius> I guarantee it
[2008/04/30 20:42:43] <ko1_> (3) show version
[2008/04/30 20:43:04] <MenTaLguY> I think there needs to be a more explicit way to determine the command name
the current Ruby interpreter was started with
[2008/04/30 20:43:06] <unak> (4) installing gems
// ...


Seems people had a number of use cases in mind, indeed including
determining the name of the actual ruby binary name.


Regards,

Bill