From: John <jhs408@...>
Date: 2009-08-03T00:45:08+09:00
Subject: Re: gem list -r -d *** generates Error*** on http://gems.github.com

On Jul 31, 3:49 pm, Eric Hodel <drbr...@segment7.net> wrote:
> On Jul 31, 2009, at 12:00, John wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > I'm using ruby 1.8.6 & gem 1.3.5  :
>
> > I receive and error trying to list the details of
>
> > C:\Users\spanton>gem source
> > *** CURRENT SOURCES ***
>
> >http://gems.github.com
>
> > C:\Users\spanton>gem list -r -d
>
> > *** REMOTE GEMS ***
>
> > ERROR:  While executing gem ... (ArgumentError)
> >    comparison of String with 3 failed
>
> > Error also occurs, when using    gem list -r -d a
>
> > Yet it works ok, when using       gem list -r -d b
>
> > Any ideas or workaround?
>
> $ rm -r ~/.gem/specs/gems.github.com%80/
>
> # I did this with just a as the search first and hit this gem:
>
> $ gem list -r -d --sourcehttp://gems.github.com-V andreasronge-neo4j
>
> *** REMOTE GEMS ***
>
> GET 200 OK:http://gems.github.com/latest_specs.4.8.gz
> GET 200 OK:http://gems.github.com/quick/Marshal.4.8/andreasronge-neo4j-0.0.4.gem...
> ERROR:  While executing gem ... (ArgumentError)
>      comparison of String with 3 failed
>
> So removing this gem from the index and rebuilding should fix the  
> problem.
>
> Anyhow, let's see why it's broken:
>
> $ curlhttp://gems.github.com/quick/Marshal.4.8/andreasronge-neo4j-0.0.4.gem...
>   > neo4j.gemspec.rz
>
> Let's dump it out:
>
> $ ruby -rubygems -e 'Marshal.load  
> Gem.inflate(File.read("neo4j.gemspec.rz"))'
> /Library/Ruby/Site/1.8/rubygems/specification.rb:296:in `>':  
> comparison of String with 3 failed (ArgumentError)
>         from /Library/Ruby/Site/1.8/rubygems/specification.rb:296:in `_load'
>         from -e:1:in `load'
>         from -e:1
>
> Yup, still fails, heavy artillery time!  Need to fake out the  
> Gem::Specification stuff and dump the spec:
>
> $ ruby -e 'module Gem; class Requirement; def marshal_load(arr) @arr =  
> arr; end; def inspect() @arr end; end; Version = Requirement; class  
> Specification; def self._load(str) p Marshal.load(str); nil end end;  
> end; Marshal.load File.read("neo4j.gemspec")'
> ["1.2.0", "2", "andreasronge-neo4j", 0.0.4, Wed Oct 22 15:00:00 -0700  
> 2008, "A graph database for JRuby", >=#<Gem::Requirement:0x34c60>,  
>  >=#<Gem::Requirement:0x34b98>, "ruby", [], "neo4j", "andreas.ro...@gmail.com
> ", ["Andreas Ronge"], "A graph database for JRuby", "http://github.com/andreasronge/neo4j/tree
> ", "true", "ruby", nil]
>
> Ok, so now we have a dump of the gem.  Let's look at where the error  
> came from in Gem::Specification:
>
>     285   ##
>     286   # Load custom marshal format, re-initializing defaults as  
> needed
>     287
>     288   def self._load(str)
>     289     array = Marshal.load str
>     290
>     291     spec = Gem::Specification.new
>     292     spec.instance_variable_set :@specification_version, array[1]
>     293
>     294     current_version = CURRENT_SPECIFICATION_VERSION
>     295
> -> 296           field_count = if spec.specification_version >  
> current_version then
>     297                      
> spec.instance_variable_set :@specification_version,
>     298                                                 current_version
>     299                      MARSHAL_FIELDS[current_version]
>     300                    else
>     301                      MARSHAL_FIELDS[spec.specification_version]
>     302                    end
>     303
>     304      if array.size < field_count then
>     305        raise TypeError, "invalid Gem::Specification format  
> #{array.inspec
> t}"
>     306      end
>     307
>     308      spec.instance_variable_set :@rubygems_version,          
> array[0]
>     309      # spec version
>     310      spec.instance_variable_set :@name,                      
> array[2]
>     311      spec.instance_variable_set :@version,                    
> array[3]
>
> So, specification_version is what's broken with the gem.  RubyGems  
> expects it to be a number, but we can clearly see in the above dump  
> that the second item is a String.  The version of the gem is stored in  
> the fourth field, 0.0.4
>
> Pulling down this project and looking through the history we find:
>
> $ git log --grep=release
> [...]
> commit 0e10242e2ef63addf3ac294bb2e932202fa900fc
> Author: Andreas Ronge <andreas.ro...@gmail.com>
> Date:   Mon Nov 17 23:05:26 2008 +0100
>
>      release 0.0.5, added CHANGELOG
>
> commit 0b283793ee2c8e0689274d85f049bb8c2cf4250c
> Author: andreas <andreas.ro...@gmail.com>
> Date:   Thu Oct 23 16:19:27 2008 +0200
>
>      released to rubyforge gem repository
>
> commit 22bd9de5a5a6874ec4903af60fb5a95606f229ee
> Author: andreas <andreas.ro...@gmail.com>
> Date:   Thu Oct 23 10:38:33 2008 +0200
>
>      prepare for rubyforge release of gem. Added license file
>
> commit 715e4384f0cc34a56580c2c52054e2756c5d06ac
> Author: andreas <andreas.ro...@gmail.com>
> Date:   Mon Oct 20 12:13:00 2008 +0200
>
>      released as 0.0.3. Updated documentation
>
> So it looks like 0b283793ee2c8e0689274d85f049bb8c2cf4250c is release  
> 0.0.4.
>
> $ git checkout 0b283793
> $ cat neo4j.gemspec
> # WARNING : RAKE AUTO-GENERATED FILE. DO NOT MANUALLY EDIT!
> # LAST UPDATED : Thu Oct 23 15:05:22 +0200 2008
> #
> # RUN : 'rake gem:update_gemspec'
>
> Gem::Specification.new do |s|
>   s.description = "A graph database for JRuby"
>   s.files = [
>   # ...
>   ]
>   s.rubygems_version = "1.2.0"
>   s.platform = "ruby"
>   s.date = "Thu Oct 23 00:00:00 +0200 2008" # <-- STRING?
>   s.homepage = "http://github.com/andreasronge/neo4j/tree"
>   s.rubyforge_project = "neo4j"
>   s.bindir = "bin"
>   s.summary = "A graph database for JRuby"
>   s.rdoc_options = [...]
>   s.specification_version = "2" # <-- STRING?
>   s.email = "andreas.ro...@gmail.com"
>   s.version = "0.0.4"
>   s.required_rubygems_version = ">= 0"
>   s.require_paths = ["lib"]
>   s.required_ruby_version = ">= 1.8.4"
>   s.extra_rdoc_files = ["README.rdoc"]
>   s.has_rdoc = "true"
>   s.name = "neo4j"
>   s.authors = ["Andreas Ronge"]
>   s.loaded = "false"
> end
>
> So the gemspec has a String for specification_version.  Also, why is  
> the date a String?  It should be a Time object!  It seems that this  
> was hand-built.
>
> There's a bunch of extra fields set here that RubyGems has defaults  
> for, like required_rubygems_version, required_ruby_version,  
> require_paths.
>
> Hrm, what's that Rake task look like?
>
> $ cat Rakefile
> # [...]
>    # Thanks to the Merb project for this code.
>    desc "Update Github Gemspec"
>    task :update_gemspec do
> # [...]
>      spec.instance_variables.each do |ivar|
>        value = spec.instance_variable_get(ivar)
>        name = ivar.split("@").last
> # [...]
>          case value
>          when Array
>            value = # ...
>          when String
>            value = # ...
>          else
>            value = value.to_s.inspect # WHAT?
>          end
>          result << " s.#{name} = #{value}\n"
>        end
>      end
>      result << "end"
>      File.open(File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__),  
> "#{spec.name}.gemspec"), "w"){|f
> | f << result}
>    end
>
> So the author of this gem isn't entirely to blame here.  What's  
> especially strange is that this is an especially broken implementation  
> of Gem::Specification#to_ruby which had RDoc all the way back to 0.8.11!
>
> Looking in the merb source, it seems this code was added here:
>
> commit 7d14e7e28be657c9a1a6b4f0730dd4f6d2f7031b
> Author: Daniel Neighman <has....@gmail.com>
> Date:   Fri Apr 25 13:07:49 2008 +1000
>
>      Adds Code for generating a gemspec for github
>
> http://github.com/wycats/merb/commit/7d14e7e28be657c9a1a6b4f0730dd4f6...
>
> So it looks like Daniel Neighman is to blame.  (He may not actually  
> be, since he doesn't say where he got this code from.)
>
> I'm not sure how this code was written without looking through  
> Gem::Specification, nor how the author missed  
> Gem::Specification#to_ruby (which is exactly what they wanted).
>
> It appears that there are other projects infected by this code:
>
> http://www.google.com/codesearch?q=skip_fields+new_platform+original_...
>
> So if you own one of these, please delete that code!
>
> Fortunately, I now have new things to protect gem repositories from!  
> (Ryan hit me for not protecting RubyGems enough)
>
> And again, a gemspec is not something that you just dump something on.  
> It's not a big truck.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Is there a workaround to this problem, which would allow me to
obtain the name & description for gems starting with "a".

Thanks,
John