[Rubygems-developers] [ rubygems-Feature Requests-25791 ] Shebang of executables should not expand symlinks

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Feature Requests item #25791, was opened at 2009-05-06 01:07
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Category: `gem install` command
Group: v1.3.x
Status: Open
Resolution: None
Priority: 3
Submitted By: Sven Schwyn (sschwyn)
Assigned to: Nobody (None)
Summary: Shebang of executables should not expand symlinks

Initial Comment:
Some distros (such as Gentoo or Debian) allow Ruby 1.8 and 1.9 to be installed both at the same time. Gentoo for instance creates the following files:

/usr/bin/ruby18
/usr/bin/ruby19
/usr/bin/ruby -> ruby18 or ruby19

In other words: /usr/bin/ruby is a symlink to the actual version of the ruby interpreter used.

Unfortunately, when "gem install" installs a gem with executable scripts, the Ruby interpreter written to the shebang is not the symlink (/usr/bin/ruby) but the expanded symlink (i.e. /usr/bin/ruby18).

Is there a reason for this?

If not, it would be a great help for package maintainers like me if you could teach RubyGems to use /usr/bin/ruby for the shebang even if it is a symlink.

Thanks a lot for considering this.

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