[ruby-core:17997] Re: RUBY_ENGINE?

ruby_install_name could be ruby1.8 if the install name is different than 
just "Ruby". There's currently no reliable variable that always says 
"ruby" under MRI, "jruby" under JRuby, "rbx" under Rubinius, and so on. 
The primary goal for this was to eliminate the confusion over which 
property to use to know "which ruby impl am I running under".

Vladimir Sizikov wrote:
> Hi Bill,
> 
> Ah, I forgot about that discussion...
> 
> Maybe I'm missing something here, but I always thought that this kind
> of functionality (detecting the path to the implementation that
> currently runs the code) *is* already available via 'rbconfig' lib:
> 
> RUBY = File.join(Config::CONFIG['bindir'], Config::CONFIG['ruby_install_name'])
> 
> Works fine with MRI 1.8 and 1.9, JRuby, Rubinius.
> 
> thanks,
>   --Vladimir
> 
> On Fri, Jul 25, 2008 at 10:21 AM, Bill Kelly <[e-mail]> wrote:
>> From: "Ryan Davis" <[e-mail]>
>>> 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
>>
>>
>>
>>
>