[Rubygems-developers] packaging binary executables / etc

[Chad Fowler]

On 19-Feb-05, at 2:59 AM, Patrick May wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I am working on the next release of Narf.  This release of narf will  
> contain a customized version of the ruby interpreter[1].  The Narf  
> build scripts currently do a fine job of:
>
>   if windows
>     using a pre-compiled binary
>   else
>     compiling a new binary
>   end
>   installing this binary next to ruby.
>
> I saw these attributes in the gemspec:
>
>    
> http://rubygems.rubyforge.org/wiki/wiki.pl? 
> GemspecReference#executables
>    
> http://rubygems.rubyforge.org/wiki/wiki.pl?GemspecReference#extensions
>
> But I wasn't sure if they would fit my needs.  Narf.c embeds ruby in a  
> web-customized executable.  That executable is (and must be) a binary.  
>  How would I package the narf interpreter with a gem?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Patrick
>
> 1. You need to get into the interpreter to a.) run as a cgi and b.)  
> report syntax errors in cgi-scripts to the browser.
>
>


Hi Patrick,

"executables" is meant to be a list of executable programs that your  
gem will install (like the "rake" and "rails" scripts from their  
respective distributions).

"extensions" is a list of extconf.rb's that will be executed to create  
makefiles.

I don't think we have any way right now to have one of these  
executables 1) compile first or 2) be anything other than a Ruby  
script.  We'd have to do some hacking to allow it.

What's led you to distribute a customized ruby interpreter?

Chad