# {Detached} Mysql Gem and beyond: Fixing, Supporting and Celebrating **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [September 21, 2010, 1:02pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/detached-mysql-gem-and-beyond-fixing-supporting-and-celebrating/195301 "2010-09-21T13:02:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ceekays](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/5f9b8f/32.png) [@ceekays](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ceekays)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2010, 1:02pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/detached-mysql-gem-and-beyond-fixing-supporting-and-celebrating/195301/1 "2010-09-21T13:02:42Z")
2010/9/20 Luis L. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) > Leopard, Leopard and even Windows. > > Please be more specific on what you mean by that. > > It is clear from the mkmf.log output that either the wrong mysql or > the wrong compilation options are attempted to be feed into the > compile process. > > – > Luis L. Sorry my fellow Rubyster. I did not intend to hurt you by this mail. I really appreciate every effort that each developer puts on the gems/plugins that we have around. For sure this cannot be taken for granted. But when I said “The whole gem is messed up seriously.”, I actually meant that. It might not be you, but something else beyond your imagination, something else beyond your control. It might be the change in the OS architecture that has “messed up” the cool gem. And above all, as you rightly put it, it might be the user’s way of installing essential applications and libraries. All these may “mess up” the nice mysql gem. All in all, I was necessarily pushing the whole blame on the developer. (May be my tone was wrong). I install ruby and mysql as follows: sudo apt-get install ruby mysql-server libmysql-ruby mysql-client mysql-server ruby libopenssl-ruby mysql-server-core rubygems I have a script I do not know if there is any problem in installing like this. I like using apt-get/aptitude to make sure install those packages that are recommended by Canonical/Debian. Personally, there was only one time mysql gem worked for me. It was last year, and the gem was an earlier version. Thereafter, it has never worked for me. When I googled, I found that other people had similar problems with the mysql gem (Check this one out: [mysql gem Failed to build gem native extension - Google Search](http://bit.ly/diSVJP)). Every Rubyster knows and appreciates that this gem is cool and significant. I think what is needed is to get more support from the Ruby community and work on the _“usual”_ errors ((RuntimeError) ERROR: _Failed to build gem native extension_). My feeling is any gem should be easy to install even for _“non-developers”_ (such as software deployment officers) just by the touch of the "_gem install"_ command. The gem should resolve all the dependencies and supporting libraries within itself. Let everyone get me clear, I am not blaming the mysql gem core-developer or anyone for anything. But I think we can help our fellow friend in fixing the gem. We can folk it on GitHub [http://github.com/luislavena/mysql-gem](http://github.com/luislavena/mysql-gem), play with it on our local machines and share our experiences with the core developer, just as other gems have received similar attention. Then we can celebrate the victory together as a fraternity. Regards, Edmond Software Developer | Baobab Health Trust ([http://www.baobabhealth.org/](http://www.baobabhealth.org/)) | Malawi Cell: +265 999 465 137 | +265 881 234 717 _“Every Rubygem has its own gemspec” – Edmond K._ ---
**Author:** ![ceekays](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/5f9b8f/32.png) [@ceekays](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ceekays)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2010, 2:14pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/detached-mysql-gem-and-beyond-fixing-supporting-and-celebrating/195301/2 "2010-09-21T14:14:43Z")
On Sep 21, 8:02 am, Edmond K. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > I install ruby and mysql as follows: > sudo apt-get install ruby mysql-server libmysql-ruby mysql-client > mysql-server ruby libopenssl-ruby mysql-server-core rubygems If you installed libmysql-ruby then you’re not using mysql gem but Debian packaged version of it which has been tailored for mysql dependencies. > Personally, there was only one time mysql gem worked for me. It was last > year, and the gem was an earlier version. Thereafter, it has never worked > for me. When I googled, I found that other people had similar problems with > the mysql gem (Check this one out:[mysql gem Failed to build gem native extension - Google Search](http://bit.ly/diSVJP)). There has been lot of problems where it mentions mysql gem, either on Windows or other platforms. But there has been more success than real reports of these failures. Actually a report of mysql gem bug in MySQL forum do not help get the issue fixed. Instead, reporting here (ruby-talk) is highly likely receive more attention. There has been lot of pain about maintaining a gem that is not even my code. Perhaps I should leave everybody using the extension directly, as tmtm (the author) did. Also note that mysql/ruby has been “dead” by the author for about 2 years. he decided to invest time on ruby/mysql library instead: > **[GitHub - tmtm/ruby-mysql: MySQL connector for Ruby. pure Ruby version.](https://github.com/tmtm/ruby-mysql)** > > MySQL connector for Ruby. pure Ruby version. Contribute to tmtm/ruby-mysql development by creating an account on GitHub. > Every Rubyster knows and appreciates that this gem is cool and significant. > I think what is needed is to get more support from the Ruby community and > work on the _“usual”_ errors ((RuntimeError) ERROR: _Failed to build gem > native extension_). My feeling is any gem should be easy to install even for > _“non-developers”_ (such as software deployment officers) just by the touch > of the "_gem install"_ command. The gem should resolve all the dependencies > and supporting libraries within itself. The usual errors are simple, but I believe people needs to understand what those are. For example, the lack of mysql development dependencies can make the compilation process fail. The lack of ruby development headers and libraries will make the compilation process fail. Even worse, the lack of compiler can make th ecompilation process fail (yes, you need build-essentials) So, you see, you get all that on Debian/Ubuntu distros, more than any other platform. > Let everyone get me clear, I am not blaming the mysql gem core-developer or > anyone for anything. But I think we can help our fellow friend in fixing the > gem. We can folk it on GitHub [http://github.com/luislavena/mysql-gem](http://github.com/luislavena/mysql-gem), play > with it on our local machines and share our experiences with the core > developer, just as other gems have received similar attention. Then we can > celebrate the victory together as a fraternity. Just to make it clear: there is no core developer, I just maintain the abandoned work from tmtm (the author). You can fork it and do whatever you want, I’ll happily integrate the changes, but notice that what you get by the mysql gem is pretty much exact experience of attempting to install the extension directly. The gem shape is just a skeleton to ease the usage. ---
**Author:** ![ceekays](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/5f9b8f/32.png) [@ceekays](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ceekays)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2010, 1:13am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/detached-mysql-gem-and-beyond-fixing-supporting-and-celebrating/195301/3 "2010-09-22T01:13:20Z")
On Sep 21, 2010, at 5:11 , Luis L. wrote: > On Sep 21, 8:02 am, Edmond K. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) > wrote: > > > But when I said “The whole gem is messed up seriously.”, I actually meant > > that. It might not be you, but something else beyond your imagination, > > I install ruby and mysql as follows: > > sudo apt-get install ruby mysql-server libmysql-ruby mysql-client > > mysql-server ruby libopenssl-ruby mysql-server-core rubygems > > If you installed libmysql-ruby then you’re not using mysql gem but > Debian packaged version of it which has been tailored for mysql > dependencies. Oh, good. I wasn’t sure if I’d badly misunderstood ‘gemology’ at first. I know there’s some kind of controversy about gems and the gem installer program. As I understand it, some people feel that optional Ruby components (aka “gems”) ought to be installed into Linux systems with the Linux installer (which for Ubuntu is “apt-get” or “aptitude” or, er, apparently there are a multiplicity of things to use (yes, I know ‘aptitude’ is a front end for ‘apt-get’. One of _many._ Which I do not see as a virtue.)). I certainly feel (personally), that if one doesn’t install a gem _with\_the\_gem\_installer_, one has no ground for complaining about it being messed up. It doesn’t look like Edmond did that. On the other hand, I don’t know all that much about that stuff (and try not to; I’d rather be learning other things), so I might be ranting from ignorance. Just sayin’. I think, generally, people give far too much weight to anecdotal evidence. With that caveat, I will say, again, personally, that besides the fact that ‘gem’ runs on, and has exhibited consistent behavior (to me at least) across a much wider range of platforms than any other package managment system I know, it also has actually worked correctly far more than any other that I’ve had to deal with, except for the native OSX installer. I have had very unpleasant experiences with MacPorts/DarwinPorts, apt-get, aptitude, fink, and iInstaller. So this is one vote for installing gems with “gem”, not with something else. Or, rather, one user who is much happier to find that a particular Ruby add-on or enhancement is available as a gem, and is dismayed and deterred if something is only available as a tarball or an .rpm or the like. (OK, “Homebrew” hasn’t mangled my system, corrupted libraries, or otherwise made things worse instead of better, yet. It’s def. my #3 favorite package manager.)