[Rubygems-developers] Pre 0.8.7 release & docs.rubygems.org announcement

[Jim Weirich]

I'm getting ready to make a 0.8.7 release of RubyGems.  There are a lot of 
changes in this release and would appreciate it if folks could download the 
current CVS tree and give it a try.  I plan to make the release Sunday night 
if there are no  objections.

Chad, there were a couple of things on our list that didn't make the cut.  The 
uninstall --with-dependencies didn't make it, mainly because of the potential 
of uninstalling a lot more than you expect.  I want some more thought on that 
one.

The other thing that didn't make it is the Robert Feldt issue (extensions in 
nested libraries).  I strongly suspect that can be address by a rake tasks 
and needn't be a gems issue.  But again, I need more time to investigate 
that.

In addition to 0.8.7, we are also announcing the RubyGems documentation 
website: http://docs.rubygems.org.  Take a look at that and quick feedback is 
appreciated.

Here are the release announcements (both 0.8.7 and docs.rubygems).  Please 
review.  

Thank you.

--BEGIN ANNOUNCEMENT-------------------------------------------------------
= Announce: RubyGems Release 0.8.7

Time passes quickly, and so does software developement.  Release 0.8.7
of RubyGems is availble for public release.  Although another point
release, you will find a number of very nice new features.

First the numbers, 220 different gems available, almost 22,000
downloads of RubyGems, and nearly 190,000 gems downloads.  Thanks to
everyone for their support.

== What's New

Even though it has only been a few weeks since that last release,
there are quite a number of new features in 0.8.7.  A complete list of
new features will be given below, but here is a summary of the hot
items.

* The bug that prevented some users from installing rails has been
  squashed.  A big thanks to Bill Guindon (aGorilla) for helping track
  that one down.

There are several new commands available on the gem command:

* gem cleanup GEMNAME -- Cleanup (uninstall) all the old versions of
  gem.  If the gem name is omitted, the entire repository is cleaned.

* gem dependency GEMNAME -- Show the dependencies for the named gems.
  This is really helpful when trying to figure out what gem needs what
  other gem.

There changes to the existing commands as well.

* gem uninstall is much smarter about removing gems from the
  repository.  Lists of gems are now uninstalled in proper dependency
  order (ie. if A depends on B, A is uninstalled first).  Also,
  warnings about broken dependencies occur only when removing the
  *last* gem that supports a dependency is removed.

Both gem install and gem uninstall support some new command line
options that can reduce the amount of yes/no queries given the user.
For install we have:

* --ignored-dependencies -- Only install requests gems, no
  dependendecies are automatically installed.
* --include-dependencies -- Automatically install dependencies,
  without confirmation.

For gem uninstall, the new options are:

* --all -- Uninstall all matching gems without confirmation.
* --ignore-dependencies -- Uninstall, even if dependencies are broken.
* --executables -- Remove executables without confirmation

And finally there is a new library file 'gemconfigure' to aid in
writing version sensitive applications (without undo dependencies on
RubyGems); and 'gemwhich', a short script to locate libraries in the
file system.  You can read more about them here:

* gemconfigure: http://docs.rubygems.org/read/chapter/4#page73
* gemwhich: http://docs.rubygems.org/read/chapter/17

== What is RubyGems?

RubyGems is a package management system for Ruby applications and
libraries.  RubyGems one command download makes installing Ruby software
fun and enjoyable again. (Ok, not really.)

Many gems are available for download from the RubyForge site.  Browse
the list of gems with a "gem list --remote" command and download what
you need with a simple "gem install <name-of-gem>".  RubyGems takes care
of the details of installing, not only the gem you requested, but also
any gems needed by the software you selected.

== How can I get all this great stuff?

Well, here's how ...

To download and install:

1. DOWNLOAD FROM: http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=126
2. UNPACK INTO A DIRECTORY AND CD THERE
3. INSTALL WITH:  ruby setup.rb all  (you may need admin/root privilege)

... or, if you have RubyGems version 0.8.5 or later ....

  $ gem update --system   (again, might need to be admin/root)

... If you don't have a recent RubyGems, you can still do the two-step ....

  $ gem install rubygems-update  (again, might need to be admin/root)
  $ update_rubygems              (... here too)

== Detailed Change List

This list touches on most of the user visible changes in the RubyGems
change log.  See the change log file for even more details.

* Fixed bug in cache manager that caused the cache to be reread every
  time on Windows.

* Removed annoying message about not finding .gemrc.

* Uninstall command will now accept the following options:
  * --all (uninstall all matches without query),
  * --ignore-dependencies (ignore dependency constraints while
    uninstalling),
  * --executables (remove the executables without querying).

* New command: "gem cleanup" will remove all old versions of the list
  gems (or the entire repository).

* Uninstalling now will only query if removing a gem actually will
  cause a dependency to be unfulfilled.

* A new library file "gemconfigure.rb" makes is easy to take advantage
  of dynamic versioning without becoming tied to using RubyGems.

* Source URIs given to the --source option will now assume an
  "http://" prefix if one is not given.

* New Command: "gem dependency" will show the dependency requirements
  of any installed gem.  Reverse dependencies are also supported.

== Thanks

Thanks to David Heinemeier Hansson for a number of suggestions that
made it into this release.  Also thanks go to Bill Guindon (aGorilla)
and Jim Freeze for feedback and testing of intermediate versions.

Keep those gems coming!

-- Jim & Chad (for the RubyGems team)

-- DOCS.RUBYGEMS.ORG ANNOUNCEMENT -------------------------------
== Announcing the RubyGems Documentation Site

http://docs.rubygems.org

Concurrent with RubyGems 0.8.7, I am very pleased to announce the
public release of the RubyGems documentation website.  This site is
built upon the excellent Hieraki application (the same one used to
document Ruby on Rails).

After fighting with wiki spammers and missing data, the RubyGems team
decided to move the documentation to something a little more durable
than a wiki page.  The content from the wiki pages have been reviewed,
reorganized, and moved to the docs.rubygems.org site.

The move is not complete, there is still information on the wiki that
has not made it into the RubyGems document set yet.  But we will
continue to convert the site as time goes on.

We feel the Hieraki application gives us a much better opportunity to
provide quality documentation for the RubyGems system.  We hope you
enjoy it.

Thanks to Tobias Lütke for Hieraki and to Bruce Williams for the
RubyGems icon.

If you are interested in helping with the RubyGems documentation,
please contact Jim Weirich (jim at weirichhouse.org) or Chad Fowler
(chad at chadfowler.com) about becoming an RubyGems document author.

-- END -----------------------------------------------------
-- 
-- Jim Weirich    jim at weirichhouse.org     http://onestepback.org
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"Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, 
not tried it." -- Donald Knuth (in a memo to Peter van Emde Boas)