From: Daniel Carrera <dcarrera@...>
Date: 2003-02-10T04:22:46+09:00
Subject: Re: How to build a ruby app that I can ship to somebody who doesn't have ruby?

For which OS?

Under Windows you can use exerb (but it makes very large files).
Under Unix, you could embed the ruby interpreter in a program.  I'm not 
sure if this still requires ruby to be installed.


I've been thinking about this problem for a while.  Here is one idea:
  * Create a tar.gz (or zip) file with a ruby executable as well as
    the libraries that your app needs.  Also include your app.
  * Optionally create an installer that copies all of this to certain 
    directory.
  * Write a script that simply wraps around your app.  For instance,
    if you wrote YourApp.rb, then write "YourApp.sh" which contains
    one line:  "./ruby YourApp.rb"

This is not the cleanest solution.  If a user downloads many such 
programs, they end up with many copies of Ruby.  But it would probably 
work.


On Mon, Feb 10, 2003 at 04:07:03AM +0900, Sam Roberts wrote:
> 
> Is there a way to bind a set of ruby source files into a self-running
> executable that doesn't require ruby already installed, like the unix
> #! mechanism does?
> 
> Thanks,
> Sam
> 
> 

-- 
Daniel Carrera
Graduate Teaching Assistant.  Math Dept.
University of Maryland.  (301) 405-5137