From: Eric Hodel <drbrain@...7.net>
Date: 2009-05-22T05:54:57+09:00
Subject: Re: undefined method `empty?' for nil:NilClass in gem build

On May 20, 2009, at 18:08, Ken Bloom wrote:
> On Thu, 21 May 2009 04:11:27 +0900, Eric Hodel wrote:
>> On May 20, 2009, at 10:08, Ken Bloom wrote:
>>> I'm trying to build a rubygem, but I keep getting the following  
>>> error.
>>> Can anybody help?
>>>
>>> $ gem build wordnet.gemspec
>>> ERROR:  While executing gem ... (NoMethodError)
>>>   undefined method `empty?' for nil:NilClass
>
>> NOTE: DON'T be lazy, do it right!  You forgot to specify all these
>> things.  Filling them in is in the best interests of everyone.
>>
>> $ gem build wordnet.gemspec
>> WARNING:  no description specified
>> WARNING:  no homepage specified
>> WARNING:  no rubyforge_project specified
>>   Successfully built RubyGem
>>   Name: WordNet
>>   Version: 1.0.1
>>   File: WordNet-1.0.1.gem
>> $ gem env version
>> 1.3.3
>
> It was the missing homepage field.
>
> But failure to specify a homepage or rubyforge_project shouldn't be
> considered lazy, when some projects don't have one becuase they're not
> released yet,

That's why you only get a warning.

> or (for the rubyforge_probject) when they're released
> somehere other than Rubyforge, such as GitHub.

If a gem doesn't show up in `gem list -r` using RubyGems' default  
sources it's not released.