I wonder whether Gemfile is a rails-tied file or not. If I have something as:
require 'json'
in my ruby file, the user tries to run it, and he doesn't have that gem, what will happen? How do I make sure that someone's computer knows what gems to install before running my script? I know bundle install exists in Rails, but what about outside Rails?
Gemfile isn't a Rails-tied file. It's the file that you can use any Ruby-based project with bundler gem installed. Once you've run bundle install command, another file Gemfile.lock is generated or updated if exists. By the way, gems you'll use are linked with locations in your computer/server you're developing.
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I have a project that depends on Ruby to do something. I need to tell these people to install bundler, create a Gemfile (or update an existing one) and then run bundler install.
To be very clear, these people do not care about Ruby, they don't know what Ruby is and they don't need to know what Ruby is.
Currently my documentation is:
Run this command in terminal:
gem install bundler
Create a new file name Gemfile and add these contents:
source 'https://rubygems.org'
gem 'lightning_sites'
Or if there is already a Gemfile then edit that file and add the line gem 'lightning_sites' at the bottom.
Go back to the terminal and run:
bundle install --path vendor/bundle
I would like to replace the documentation for step 2 and preferable replace it with a command line. Is there a tool that ships by default with Ruby or bundler that accomplishes this?
If you want to avoid bundler you need to force-bundle all your dependencies inside your application. This is only really practical if none of your dependencies have compiled extensions, so if they're all pure Ruby you'll be able to do it.
What you end up doing is a bundle install --path gems/ for example, then package up everything including that directory as a deployable application. You may want to make a script that performs this step and creates a .zip file of the final result for distribution purposes.
This is a heavy-handed approach, so it's best to do this only if absolutely necessary.
You don't have to use Bundler to install gems, Ruby provides the gem command for installing gems individually.
You could simply run: gem install lightning_sites --install-dir lightning_sites and in whatever Ruby script is using the gem, programatically modify your GEM_PATH using Gem.paths before the require statement to include that install directory.
I forked a gem I use a lot in order to code some enhancements on it. I want it to be installed in a subfolder called ~/codebase/ruby, where I keep all my Ruby projects, arranged in subdirectories.
To do that, I built and installed the gem with the following commands:
gem build my_gem.gemspec
gem install mygem-x.x.gem -i./mygem
mygem is installed in ~/codebase/ruby/mygem. I can't get my client code (which is in another directory) to grab mygem from there.
I've tried all of the following without success:
Running ruby with argument -I<path_to_mygem>.
Adding <path_to_mygem> to PATH.
Putting :gempath: <path_to_mygem> into ~/.gemrc.
I know I could put the gem in ~/.gem/ruby/<version> (since it appears in gem env) and that would probably work, but that would break my existing directory structure of Ruby code, forcing me to code in a different directory only for mygem, which is something I want to avoid unless it's the only option.
Thoughts?
Hopefully you are using Bundler to load the required gems. Then you just specify the path to the gem file in your Gemfile:
gem 'my_gem', :path => '~/codebase/ruby/mygem'
Is it possibile to have something like a 'local' gem repository for Ruby?
I'm working on a custom Linux distribution without admin rights. Ruby is installed on the machine (v.1.8.7) but apparently no 'gem' or 'bundle' or whatever are installed. I need to use some Ruby gems like Nokogiri.
Is it possible to use Ruby gems without installing them through gem install?
Yes. Any gem can be used standalone. You just have to either download the source from github, or download the gem and extract its contents manually.
After you've done that you have to add the lib folder of the gem into the load path ($:) of Ruby. For example:
$:.unshift(File.expand_path("nokogiri-1.6.1/lib"))
require 'nokogiri'
Assuming you are running Ruby in the current directory and the Nokogiri source is in the folder nokogiri-1.6.1.
But remember that first you have to do the same with all Nokogiri prerequisites. I.e. all the libraries Nokogiri depends on.
Another option, which is what I would do, is to install RubyGems in your home directory. That can get a little bit tricky though, but it's possible by downloading the RubyGems package and running something like:
ruby setup.rb --prefix=/home/my_user_name/rubygems
Then you need to set up the ENV variables GEM_HOME and GEM_PATH to point to a location in your home directory where you want all your gems to be installed. See "What's the difference between GEM_HOME and GEM_PATH?" for a description of what they do.
You will also need to add something like /home/my_user_name/rubygems/bin to your PATH so that the gem command can be found by the shell.
I'm new to Ruby. I have a .bundle file. I put it in the source folder and did
require('my.bundle')
But when I call the methods in the bundle, the definition is not found. Do I have to install them or include them in some other way to access them?
I am on Ruby version 1.8.7 (latest version on Mac).
I highly recommend using RVM to manage your Ruby installation, including your gems, so if you don't already have that, get it and follow the instructions for installing it. Make sure you do the part about modifying your bash startup script or you'll see weird behavior, like the wrong Ruby being called. Also, use the steps in "RVM and RubyGems" to install your gems or you can run into weird behavior with gems being installed under the wrong or an unexpected Ruby.
Second, use the gem command to install gems:
gem install gem_to_install
replacing "gem_to_install" with the name of the gem you want, and it will be installed into the appropriate gem folder for your Ruby.
If you are on Ruby 1.92, and trying to require a gem to use as a module in your code, use:
require 'gemname'
if it is installed via the gem command. And, if it is a module you wrote or have in your program's directory or below it, use:
require_relative 'path/to/gem/gemname'
If you are on a Ruby < 1.9 you'll also need to add require 'rubygems' above your other require lines, then use require './path/to/gem/gemname'.
Thanks, but my .bundle is not in gems. How do I install/require a .bundle file I already have?
If you wrote it look into rubygems/gemcutter or bundler for info on bundling and managing gems.
You can install a gem without using the app by going into the directory containing the gem and running setup.rb. See http://i.loveruby.net/en/projects/setup/doc/usage.html for a decent writeup or the official docs at: http://docs.rubygems.org/read/chapter/3
I am trying to install the mechanize gem that is supposed to work with 1.9 from here: http://github.com/kemiller/mechanize but I do not know how to add it manually.
I am using Windows, I could just copy the folder to the gems directory, but how do I initialize it?
I'm not sure I understand the problem. gem install mechanize doesn't work? It produces version 0.9.3 for me, which matches the gemspec of the library you linked to.
EDIT: you're on 1.9. I knew that. Disregard my hasty post, not familiar enough with Windows to offer any help on building the extensions.
I would use the bundler gem using the command gem install bundler. This will create a file called Gemfile in your project directory where you can put your dependencies for the specific project that you are working on. In the Gemfile, you will need to specify gem mechanize. If you want a specific version include ~> VERSION after. After, run the command bundle install. This will install the gem you want and use it in your project.