From: Tom Cloyd <tomcloyd@...>
Date: 2008-07-19T07:34:31+09:00
Subject: compile from source - how difficult?

On a fresh install of Kubuntu Linux (ver. 8.04.01), I'm not having good 
day trying to get ruby and rubygems back and functional.

The Ruby-lang. website recommends using the package manager to install 
ruby, so I did that.

Then I installed rubygems 1.8 from the rubyforge tarball. I then 
installed several gems successfully, but the one I really had to have - 
webby - wouldn't install. I've not have this problem before, so it 
doesn't seem likely that it's a webby problem.

I didn't know how to uninstall the rubygems 1.8 install. I simply went 
to the adept package manager and installed rubygems from that.

But webby still won't install:

 > $ sudo gem install webby
 >
 >     [sudo] password for tomc:
 >     Building native extensions.  This could take a while...
 >     ERROR:  Error installing webby:
 >            ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.
 >
 >     /usr/bin/ruby1.8 extconf.rb install webby
 >     checking for main() in -lpthread... no
 >     *** extconf.rb failed ***
 >     Could not create Makefile due to some reason, probably lack of
 >     necessary libraries and/or headers.  Check the mkmf.log file for more
 >     details.  You may need configuration options.
 >
 >     Provided configuration options:
 >            --with-opt-dir
 >            --without-opt-dir
 >            --with-opt-include
 >            --without-opt-include=${opt-dir}/include
 >            --with-opt-lib
 >            --without-opt-lib=${opt-dir}/lib
 >            --with-make-prog
 >            --without-make-prog
 >            --srcdir=.
 >            --curdir
 >            --ruby=/usr/bin/ruby1.8
 >            --with-pthreadlib
 >            --without-pthreadlib
 >
 >
 >
 >     Gem files will remain installed in
 >     /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/eventmachine-0.12.0 for inspection.
 >     Results logged to
 >     /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/eventmachine-0.12.0/ext/gem_make.out
 >

On the webby list, it was suggested that I install ruby from source.

Is that really the best idea? I developed modest pascal programs from my 
own source code, years ago, but I have no idea how to compile ruby for 
what I presume is C source, on Kubuntu.

What should I do? If going from source is the best idea, can anyone 
point me to a resource which will bring me up to speed on how to do 
this? (I'm looking for this resource, and may find it, but suggestions 
are certainly welcome.)

Thanks!

t.


-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tom Cloyd,
Bellingham, Washington, U.S.A: (360) 920-1226
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~