From: Phillip Gawlowski <cmdjackryan@...>
Date: 2011-10-06T22:34:50+09:00
Subject: Re: a dream: gem require auto-installer

On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 3:19 PM, Regis d'Aubarede
<regis.aubarede@gmail.com> wrote:
> or I can do   that at the beginning of my script :
>
>        def my_require(gem,pack=nil)  require gem
>        rescue Exception => e
>            puts "loading #{pack||gem} from internet ..."
>            system("gem install  #{pack||gem} --no-ri --no-rdoc")  ;
>            require gem
>        end

Breaks if the user account doesn't have write permissions to the gem
installation directory.

Also: Who the hell do you think you are that you think you are allowed
to futz around with my OS during your script's runtime? What you are
doing *screams* malware behaviour (connecting to the internet and
downloading code; nobody can guarantee that you haven't done a
system("gem sources -a http://malicious.url") somewhere in there).

If you are unable or unwilling to bundle your dependencies into one
package, that's very much _your_ problem: You can build a custom
RubyInstaller for Windows and include your dependencies, and for *NIX
you can create a tarball for distribution that includes your
dependencies. Heck, the latter works for Windows, too, if you don't
include native extensions.

-- 
Phillip Gawlowski

gplus.to/phgaw | twitter.com/phgaw

A method of solution is perfect if we can forsee from the start,
and even prove, that following that method we shall attain our aim.
              -- Leibniz