From: alexandre.abreu@... (Alexandre Abreu)
Date: 2002-01-11T14:03:53+09:00
Subject: When it comes to packing Ruby script files in one .exe under Windows.

Hi,

I am trying to pack into a single .exe file (i use Ruby 1.6.5 cygwin distrib 
under Windows2000) one Ruby application made up of several scripts that 
connect through some 'require'. 
I have parsed ruby-talk site in order to see what already existed to achieve
this :

- RubyWrap: Seems a good solution in my case but, I got problems when it 
comes to linking (with gcc) the first executable (memunwrap.c + the generated 
c file). The linker tells me that there is "illegal symbol index #{a_number} 
in relocs" with 'a_number' is a varying number. The problem comes from 
these lines in the rbwrap.rb script :

  # Inject wrapped data into object file
  wdo = ""
  File.open(tfilename + ".o", "r") {|f| wdo = f.read}
  wdo[wdo.index(matchstr), wrap_str.length] = wrap_str
  File.open(tfilename + ".o", "w") {|f| f.write wdo}


in method : exe_creator_uw_compile_wtdall(filewrap). When i comment these lines
an executable that seems to correspond to my main script filename is created
but it does nothing, i don't even know if it is a valid one and if it includes
my packed scripts.

- Ruby2exe: very simple to use but does not seem to support 'require' handling.
As my application is made of 4 .rb files that includes libraries too (telnet,
ftp, cgi) it is very annoying since these are not packed in the exe file.
One solution would be to manually inline all these dependancies in one single
script file but I though it would be wise to ask you if it was worth it.

So what would be the best and simplest solution to obtain a single executable
(the size does not matter that much) with a bunch of ruby scripts. It would
be great if it would embed the ruby interpreter too.

One other thing, after spending some time reading at ruby-talks regarding 
this executable packaging problem i found that the speed benefit was cited as 
being almost the only advantage and motivation to this type of manipulation.
I just want to add that this type of manipulation is also (and mostly) required
in a industrial environment. It IS necessary for Ruby to have that kind of
support so that it could be used by any commercial company. No company would
tell its customers to install Ruby in order to make its software work, 
and no company company would like to add one Ruby file interpreter+dlls in 
a simple software installation. Simplicity of use in the customer side is
one of the main goals.

Thank you very much for your help,

Alexandre Abreu

PS.: I just wanted to add a big big big thank and congratulations to matz for
its work. Sincerely.