From: Friday <spamtrap@...>
Date: 2005-05-04T17:34:45+09:00
Subject: Re: Debian: coexistence of debs and gems?

Michael Schuerig wrote:
> I'm using Debian/Linux and have come upon tough rock while digging for
> rubies. Debian, like most Linux distos, manages installed software with
> a package management system. Ruby as well as several libs including
> Rails, in particular, are available as packages. That's great as it is.
> Nevertheless, of course there are libs that are not available as debian
> packages, but are available as gems.
> 
> Installing RubyGems is quick and easy, but from there on, I'm stuck with
> two problems:
> 
> * Files from gems are installed below /usr where they get intermixed
> with files from regular debian packages. I'd much prefer gems being
> installed below /usr/local.
> 
> * RubyGems does its own dependency management and is ignorant of
> anything installed as debian packages. As an effect, when I try to
> install a gem that depends on Rails, RubyGems wants to install the
> Rails gem, even though Rails is already installed.
> 
> Is there a way to make these to package managers play nicely?
> 
> Michael
> 

I'm also grappling with this issue.  For now, I'm using gems when the 
corresponding Debian package does not exist.  As ruby grows more 
popular, I'm sure this strategy will rear its ugly head.

Maybe the best solution is to have a new tool that wraps both gems and 
the OS's package manager.  This will allow gems to grow while ignoring 
the complexities of supporting apt, yum, etc.  And it will allow the 
wrapper to add support for package managers other than apt.