Which Ruby Version for Watir on Windows? - windows

What version of Ruby should I be using on a windows environment?
I'm trying to use Watir on 1.9 and it does not work. Will work on 1.8.6.
Any recomendations on which version to use and reasons why Watir does not work on 1.9

Watir.com recommends using Ruby 1.8.6-26. I have not tried it, but there is a fork of Watir that claims to be compatible with Ruby 1.9:
http://github.com/vapir/vapir

I use this one and it works:
>ruby -v
ruby 1.8.6 (2007-09-24 patchlevel 111) [i386-mswin32]

There's no "correct" version. 1.8.6, 1.8.7 and 1.9.1 are all officially "recommended", which is not much help!
When 1.8.x gems don't work with 1.9.x under Windows, it's often the case that the gem - or one of its dependencies - includes a compiled element (a DLL, usually named with a .so extension) and that this component hasn't yet been compiled against mingw32, which is the standard for Ruby 1.9, whereas 1.8.6 and previous versions were compiled with the (old) MS Visual C.
Looking at the watir gem, I see it includes win32ole.so, which could be the problem. I'm not sure why that should have been necessary - it's part of the installed set for Windows. Perhaps the developers needed to ensure a fixed stable version so they forced a particular version rather than use the one from the library. Or maybe they fixed something? Dunno.
Beyond that, watir also depends on win32-api and nokogiri, both of which installed mswin32 versions on my machine and will need to have mingw32 versions to work with 1.9.
Not having a 1.9 instance to hand, I can't quickly tell if these versions exist.
Try looking for a mingw32 version of win32ole.so (probably somewhere like [ruby-dir]/lib/ruby/1.9/i386-mingw32) and putting it in place of the one used by watir.

It's best to use the mingw versions of Ruby as supplied with the RubyInstaller. The older mswin32 versions of Ruby are considered legacy. Some gems need to be compiled from source (RedCloth being a good example) and for this you'll need to install the DevKit; however, watir doesn't need anything to be compiled - all of its gem dependencies come pre-compiled with mingw32 extensions (nokogiri and win32-api).
You can install multiple versions of Ruby (including JRuby and IronRuby) on Windows using Pik. Once you've installed the Pik gem, you can easily install new versions of ruby by issuing commands such as pik install ruby 1.9.1 or pik install jruby. You can even do pik install devkit to install the DevKit for all installed copies of Ruby. Documentation and lots of examples of use can be found here.

To allow Watir (and FireWatir) to run on ruby 1.9.2
install devkit and follow procedures listed here : http://rubyinstaller.org/downloads/ Ruby Installer at GitHub
gem uninstall win32-api
gem install win32-api --platform=ruby

Related

How do I find which versions of ruby, gem and bundler are compatible?

I am using puppet to install ruby 1.9.3 as the system ruby on an Ubuntu Trusty Vagrant container. I also install Bundler. I am told that "gem" is installed as part of the installation of ruby.
How do I know which versions of gem go with this version of ruby?
How do I know which versions of bundler go with this version of ruby?
Here is a fragment of puppet code:
$other_reqs = [
...
'ruby1.9.3',
'ruby-bundler',
'rubygems-integration',
...
]
package{ $other_reqs: ensure => 'installed'} -> Package['percona-toolkit']
The package declaration will default to using apt-get to download packages. Clearly the line with 'ruby1.9.3' will get the 1.9.3 version of ruby. It also installed gem 1.8.23. Is this a compatible version of gem? How do I know?
The line with 'ruby-bundler' installed Bundler version 1.3.5. Is this a compatible version of Bundler? Or should I indicate a specific version in my requirements array? Where ought I look to find this information?
It might be helpful if you indicate the problem, or what you're trying to do. Nevertheless:
gem is a command that is built-in in ruby from 1.9+, so whatever comes installed with Ruby should be fine.
bunlder is a RubyGem, normally installed by doing gem install bundler. You can specify the version by doing gem install -v <version>. Either it gets installed correctly or you get an error. Can you install bundler doing that?
And lastly, unless you need it for a specific reason, 1.9 is very old :)

Compass, bootstrap-sass and ruby 1.8.7

after I finally managed to get Compass running on my hosted web space (no root access), there is a new problem when trying to install bootstrap-sass:
$ compass watch
LoadError on line 31 of /usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb: no such file to load -- bootstrap-sass
gem install bootstrap-sass
ERROR: Error installing bootstrap-sass:
execjs requires Ruby version >= 1.9.3.
Well, it is quite obvious what's going on: I need Ruby >= 1.9.3 while the server only offers 1.8.7. I already checked: It is not possible to use another ruby version on this server.
Is there any way/hack/solution to use bootstrap-sass?
When a gem depends on a specific (or newer) version of Ruby, then the reason is usually that the gem depends or uses a feature that did not exist in older versions.
There are many differences between Ruby 1.8.7 and 1.9.3: The new hash syntax, better UTF8 support and new methods or methods with changed behavior - just to name a few.
When a gem was build for 1.9.3 and you want to use tat gem with an older version, there is IMHO only on option: Fork that gem, review the source code and rewrite everything that is not compatible with 1.8.7.
You will very likely learn that such gems depend on other gems that also depend on more up-to-date versions of Ruby. Do the same for that gems...
I totally agree that still using Ruby 1.8.7 is not a good idea. I am not sure why my hoster still uses a version this old, but it is simply a fact I cannot change. Sure, I can move to another hoster but for now I was able to find a working solution. Maybe someone else has the same problem. So this worked for me:
gem install bootstrap-sass did not work because it requires execjs and the latest version requires Ruby > 1.9.3. Gladly bootstrap-sass does NOT require the latest version of execjs. So the solution is simple: Install a previous version of execjs which is happy with ruby 1.8.7:
gem install execjs -v 2.5.0
gem install bootstrap-sass

How to configure ruby version a gem uses? [duplicate]

When I install a gem, it gets installed in a directory named 1.9.1, despite that not being the version of Ruby I have installed:
$ ruby -v
ruby 1.9.3p327 (2012-11-10 revision 37606) [x86_64-darwin12.2.0]
$ gem which rails
.../ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/railties-3.2.9/lib/rails.rb
Why does this happen? I have no other Ruby versions installed (and certainly not v1.9.1).
Note that the following is also for all later Ruby versions as of this writing, not just 1.9.2.
Per the 1.9.2 release announcement:
Standard library is installed in /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.9.1
This version is a "library compatible version." Ruby 1.9.2 is almost 1.9.1 compatible, so the library is installed in the 1.9.1 directory.
Even though it is installed in a differently-numbered directory, it is using 1.9.2. RubyGems can show all the directories it’s using via gem env.
This ensures that a set of installed gems is only used by versions that they can actually run with (especially due to compiled C extensions), and that when upgrading to a newer, but “library compatible”, version, one doesn’t have to reinstall all gems.
I believe it's because they share the same standard library.
There were some significant upgrades in the 1.9.2 core, but I don't think anything in the standard library was changed, so they share the same path. It's nothing to worry about, though — as you said, everything is working fine.

Why are gems installed in a directory with a different Ruby version than I’m running?

When I install a gem, it gets installed in a directory named 1.9.1, despite that not being the version of Ruby I have installed:
$ ruby -v
ruby 1.9.3p327 (2012-11-10 revision 37606) [x86_64-darwin12.2.0]
$ gem which rails
.../ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/railties-3.2.9/lib/rails.rb
Why does this happen? I have no other Ruby versions installed (and certainly not v1.9.1).
Note that the following is also for all later Ruby versions as of this writing, not just 1.9.2.
Per the 1.9.2 release announcement:
Standard library is installed in /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.9.1
This version is a "library compatible version." Ruby 1.9.2 is almost 1.9.1 compatible, so the library is installed in the 1.9.1 directory.
Even though it is installed in a differently-numbered directory, it is using 1.9.2. RubyGems can show all the directories it’s using via gem env.
This ensures that a set of installed gems is only used by versions that they can actually run with (especially due to compiled C extensions), and that when upgrading to a newer, but “library compatible”, version, one doesn’t have to reinstall all gems.
I believe it's because they share the same standard library.
There were some significant upgrades in the 1.9.2 core, but I don't think anything in the standard library was changed, so they share the same path. It's nothing to worry about, though — as you said, everything is working fine.

Is it possible to install RubyGems on Ruby 1.8.6?

I'm trying to install RubyGems on a Fedora-based distribution that only has Ruby 1.8.6. I downloaded the RubyGems 1.6.2 package, unzipped and ran
$ ruby setup.rb
It bombs out with the rather unhelpful error message:
./lib/rubygems/custom_require.rb:54: warning: parenthesize argument(s) for future version
./lib/rubygems/custom_require.rb:57:in `require': undefined method `end_with?' for "no such file to load -- Win32API":String (NoMethod\
Error)
from ./lib/rubygems/config_file.rb:55
from ./lib/rubygems/custom_require.rb:36:in `gem_original_require'
from ./lib/rubygems/custom_require.rb:36:in `require'
from ./lib/rubygems/gem_runner.rb:8
from ./lib/rubygems/custom_require.rb:36:in `gem_original_require'
from ./lib/rubygems/custom_require.rb:36:in `require'
from setup.rb:25
Looking at the source of the exception, it seems that it first tries:
require "etc"
Etc.sysconfdir
and when that throws a NoMethodError it tries to require Win32API (which I assume isn't present on linux).
I'm guessing that this could be because I have an old version of Ruby, but I can't find the RubyGems version requirements documented anywhere. Can anyone suggest how to proceed with this?
How about installing RVM? Then you can manage multiple Ruby versions easily and, maybe, install a more recent version of Ruby. It works really well.
It is definitely possible to install RubyGems on Ruby 1.8.6, but not RubyGems 1.6.2. Support for Ruby 1.8.6 was dropped in RubyGems 1.4.0.
Why are you trying to circumvent your Linux distribution's package manager? They test interoperability between the packages they ship precisely to avoid situations like this.
In general, it is not a good idea to mix different package management systems. Ideally, you shouldn't be using RubyGems at all, when using Linux, since most distribution's package management systems are as good as RubyGems anyway. RubyGems is only needed on operating systems like Windows or OSX which are still stuck in the 1980s.
Thats what I do on my Redmine installation, for example: I just use the distribution packages of Rails, RedCloth, RMagick, Rack, Redmine, Ruby Enterprise Edition, Phusion Passenger, and whatever else I need. I don't even have RubyGems installed at all, neither from a distribution package nor from source.
If, however, for some reason, you need RubyGems, then you should move your entire Ruby environment out of the distribution package manager and manage it yourself. Just install whatever version and flavor of Rubinius, JRuby, IronRuby, YARV or whatever you want, install the latest version of RubyGems from source (or don't, since all of the above already ship with one pre-installed anyway) and install all of your Ruby libraries as Gems.
As was noted in other answers, RVM can be of help, but is generally unnecessary unless you want to manage multiple Ruby installations on the same machine.
You can't install RubyGems greater than 1.3.5 if you only have Ruby version 1.8.5.
RubyGems requires at least Ruby 1.8.6 to install.
My background:
- I have RubyGems 1.3.5 installed in
my CentOS Linux because Ruby is 1.8.6.
- What I did with Mac OS X, which comes
with Ruby 1.8.7, is to upgrade gem
from version 1.3.5 to version 1.6.2
by using the original gem.

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