From: Gregory Seidman <gsslist+ruby@...>
Date: 2006-02-05T02:09:41+09:00
Subject: Re: Debian, gem(?) , and libraries

On Sat, Feb 04, 2006 at 01:58:18PM +0900, furufuru@ccsr.u-tokyo.ac.jp wrote:
} Hello all,
} 
} I'm using Ruby on Debian GNU/Linux.  Ruby itself
} and its standard library were installed as Debian
} packages.  Now, I want to add Ruby libraries
} which aren't standard part of Ruby.  What do
} people do?  I heard of "rubygem".  Is it a packaging
} system for Ruby?  How does it interact with the
} packaging system of Debian?
} 
} I could just download the sources of those libraries
} and install them under ~/lib/ruby or /usr/local/lib/ruby
} or some such places.  But, I guess there are better,
} more organized, and standard ways.

I spent a fair amount of time making RubyGems install properly into
/usr/local/bin on Debian and keep itself there. By default, unfortunately,
it really wants to install gems in /usr/lib regardless of where it has been
installed. To work around this shortcoming, I've developed an install
script for RubyGems. It isn't Debian-specific, but it certainly works well
on Debian. The script follows. PAY ATTENTION TO THE MESSAGE AT THE END!

} Regards,
} Ryo
--Greg

#!/bin/sh

if test $# -ne 1
then
	echo "Usage: $0 <destination dir>" >&2
	exit 1
elif test ! -r setup.rb
then
	echo "Please run from the toplevel RubyGems source directory" >&2
	exit 2
fi

GEM_HOME="$1/lib/site_ruby/gems"
export GEM_HOME

if test -d "$GEM_HOME"
then
	cat <<-EOF >&2

	The GEM_HOME directory already exists. Overwriting an existing
	install will not work well. If you intend to reinstall, please
	first remove $GEM_HOME

	EOF
	exit 3
elif ! mkdir -p "$GEM_HOME"
then
	cat <<-EOF >&2
	
	You do not have permission to install in the directory selected.
	Perhaps you meant to install as root?

	EOF
	exit 4
fi

while test ! -e "$GEM_HOME/bin"
do

	echo -n "Where should executables be installed [$GEM_HOME/bin]? " >&2
	read dest

	if test "$dest" = "" -a "$dest" = "$GEM_HOME/bin"
	then
		dest="$GEM_HOME/bin"
		mkdir "$dest"
	elif test -d "$dest"
	then
		ln -s "$dest" "$GEM_HOME/bin"
	else
		echo "You must choose an existing directory." >&2
	fi
done

ruby setup.rb config --prefix="$1" --siteruby=\$prefix/lib/site_ruby && \
ruby setup.rb install

cat <<EOF >&2

################################################################################

Be sure to set the GEM_HOME environment variable in your shell's
init/config file to '$GEM_HOME'

For Bourne shell derivatives, add the following lines to your
~/.profile or the system-wide /etc/profile:

	GEM_HOME="$GEM_HOME"
	export GEM_HOME

For C shell derivatives, add the following line to your ~/.cshrc
(or ~/.tcshrc) or the system-wide /etc/csh.cshrc:

	setenv GEM_HOME "$GEM_HOME"

################################################################################

EOF