From: Leslie Viljoen <leslieviljoen@...>
Date: 2008-06-11T04:01:14+09:00
Subject: Re: webby, ubuntu and gems

On Tue, Jun 10, 2008 at 8:10 PM, Eric Hodel <drbrain@segment7.net> wrote:
> On Jun 10, 2008, at 07:49 AM, miles.sterrett@gmail.com wrote:
>>
>> On Jun 10, 4:10 am, Martin DeMello <martindeme...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> I've recently switched distributions to ubuntu, and I'm having
>>> problems getting webby up and running. (I suspect this a general
>>> problem with gems that need to install executables). I ran gem install
>>> webby, and it installed happily enough into
>>> /var/lib/gems/1.8/gems/webby-0.8.4/, but didn't install the webby
>>> executable anywhere in path. I checked for an ubuntu package, but
>>> there wasn't one. Of course, I could simply install it all by hand,
>>> but that seems like the wrong thing to do - I'd rather figure out how
>>> to get my gems playing nicely with ubuntu.
>>>
>>> ruby -v: ruby 1.8.6 (2007-09-24 patchlevel 111) [i486-linux]
>>> gem -v: 0.9.4
>>> /etc/lsb-release:DISTRIB_CODENAME=hardy
>>>
>>> martin
>>
>> I am running Ubuntu 8.04.  I installed RubyGems from source.  I just
>> installed webby, and it placed an executable file in /usr/bin.
>>
>> Incidentally, it is acceptable, if not recommended, to install
>> RubyGems from source.  Because RubyGems can update itself, you can run
>> into issues with both apt/aptitude/Synaptic and RubyGems trying to
>> update RubyGems.
>
> I don't recommend installing RubyGems from source over a package.  Choose
> whichever makes you most comfortable.
>
> I do recommend only continuing to upgrade RubyGems however you initially
> installed it.   Upgrading RubyGems via `gem update --system` instead of
> through the packager you installed it with may lead to undesired behavior.

Oh? Perhaps 'gem update --system' should check if it was installed via Apt
and refuse to update then. Not realising the danger here, I have updated gem
in exactly this way quite a few times.

I haven't noticed any problems but I suppose if I tried to cleanly remove gem
with apt things would break? Actually I have been running and updating apt in
this way since two Ubuntu releases ago, and have done two Ubuntu upgrades
in between without noticing any problems!


Les