From: Jim Weirich <jim@...>
Date: 2004-10-10T08:50:49+09:00
Subject: Re: Definitive method for managing ruby installations

Mauricio Fern�ndez wrote:
> On Sun, Oct 10, 2004 at 05:09:21AM +0900, Jim Weirich wrote:
>>RubyGems 0.8.0 and later do not use library stubs.  They were abandoned 
>>because they prevented gems from managing multiple simultaneous versions 
>>of a library.
 >
> AFAIK RubyGems pre-0.8.0 could manage simultaneous versions fine.

Right. Prevented was too strong.  But they didn't interact well with 
RubyGems multiversion support.  So they are gone.

> I believed that the main problem with library stubs was... the stubs
> themselves, because they were essentially unmanaged and could be
> overwritten when installing manually etc (rpa-base never overwrites
> anything it doesn't own unless told to).
> 
>>However, if you install the *same* library with both RPA and Gems, it's 
>>a toss up one which one will actually be chosen at runtime.
> 
> The RubyGems version will always be chosen if the "require hack"
> (-rubygems or RUBYOPT=rubygems) is in place, if I have understood the
> code correctly.

And if they don't load rubygems, then the RPA version would be used. 
Hence, it's a toss-up (not a random one, but one relaying on information 
I didn't have ... sorry, should have been more specific).

-- 
-- Jim Weirich    jim@weirichhouse.org     http://onestepback.org
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct,
not tried it." -- Donald Knuth (in a memo to Peter van Emde Boas)