running merb locally

[Ezra Zygmuntowicz]

On Mar 13, 2007, at 10:56 AM, Luke Francl wrote:

> Stupid question, but is there a way to run merb locally, without  
> installing it as a gem? I don't mean freezing it into a merb app,  
> but checking out merb and being able to run it without installing  
> the gem first.
>
> The reason I ask is that I'm working on some debugging stuff and  
> it'd be helpful to be able to modify the source code, run it,  
> modify, run, and so on. (And yes, I am writing tests. ;-)
>
> Thanks,
> Luke Francl


Hey Luke-

	There is not really a way to do that without installing the gem  
first. You have to build the gem and then freeze the framework into  
your app. Then you can modify it easily. This is how I work with it.

$ rake install  #builds the gem and installs

# from your merb_root, not dist_root
$ rake freeze:merb

Then you need to use

$ script/merb

	Then you can uninstall the gem. This will create a dist/framework  
directory with the entire merb framework in it and you can modify it  
and use it without needing to rebuild gems all the time.  ALso if you  
do this to yoru app once, it creates the script/merb stub for you and  
makes the framework dir. You could then delete the framework dir and  
do a frsh svn co of trunk into your dist/fraemwork dir. That way if  
you make changes and want to send a patch its easy.

Cheers-
-- Ezra Zygmuntowicz 
-- Lead Rails Evangelist
-- ez at engineyard.com
-- Engine Yard, Serious Rails Hosting
-- (866) 518-YARD (9273)