From: Johan Nilsson <johan.nilsson@...>
Date: 2005-01-21T17:00:58+09:00
Subject: Re: Rubygems, native ruby extensions (and their dependencies)


"Jim Weirich" <jim@weirichhouse.org> wrote in message 
news:200501190718.30178.jim@weirichhouse.org...
> On Wednesday 19 January 2005 03:41 am, Johan Nilsson wrote:
>> - How should I handle native ruby extensions (building them at install 
>> time
>> is not an option here). Part of the library is implemented natively 
>> (Win32
>> for now).
>
> I released my first binary gem yesterday.  What I did: I compiled the gem
> software locally on my own machine.  Then used the same gemspec I used for
> the source distribution with the following changes:
>
> (1) removed the extension

From what? It might be obvious, but please treat me like a total beginner.

> (2) added the arch directory in the lib list

Ok, sorry for being ignorant again, but what's the 'arch' directory?

> (3) included the .so file in the list of included files.
>
> It seems to be working.  It is the x10-cm17a gem for the windows platform 
> if
> anyone is interested in trying it.
>
> The rake task for building gems is broken with regard to binary gems. 
> I'll
> fix that for the next rake release.

Hmmm, I haven't looked at using rake at all; I was merely trying to put 
together a gemspec.

>
>> - How should I handle the native ruby extensions' dependencies (e.g.
>> myrubyext.dll depends on boost-regex-...dll)? Where would such files 
>> go[1]?
>
> There is a requirements field in the gemspec that where you can list the
> dependencies.  This is for comment purposes only, we don't do 
> autodetection
> of non-gem dependencies.

Could you expand on that a bit - do you mean that:

- The user would him/herself manually have to install such dependencies
- It's not possible to submit them as part of the gem?

>
>> - [a bit off-topic] Should/could I install applications through RubyGems 
>> as
>> well? Any special considerations with regards to application-specific
>> configuration files, invoking the application etc. Ideally I'd just like
>> the user to be able to run <myappname-without-rb-extension> from the
>> command line after installation.
>
> I've released applications as gems.  Rake is a prime example.

I'll take a look.


Many thanks // Johan