# Gem packaging documentation

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/gem-packaging-documentation/88317>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [March 9, 2007, 5:24pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/gem-packaging-documentation/88317 "2007-03-09T17:24:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![stickstone](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/6f9a4e/32.png) [@stickstone](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/stickstone)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2007, 5:24pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/gem-packaging-documentation/88317/1 "2007-03-09T17:24:54Z")

</div>

[http://rubygems.org/read/chapter/5](http://rubygems.org/read/chapter/5)  
“This is a skimpy overview; see the DeveloperGuide for the real meat.”

I’m probably being stupid, but I can’t find it. Can somebody point me in  
the  
right direction please?

(Problem I’m trying to solve: I need to package up ruby-oci8 into RPM. I  
need to decide whether I’d better served by packaging it as a gem, then  
using gem2spec; or just packaging it as a native RPM. I’ve never built a  
rubygem before so I need some “start here” documentation)

Thanks,

Brian.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![stickstone](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/6f9a4e/32.png) [@stickstone](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/stickstone)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2007, 7:00pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/gem-packaging-documentation/88317/2 "2007-03-09T19:00:42Z")

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On 3/9/07, Brian C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> [http://rubygems.org/read/chapter/5](http://rubygems.org/read/chapter/5)  
> “This is a skimpy overview; see the DeveloperGuide for the real meat.”
> 
> I’m probably being stupid, but I can’t find it. Can somebody point me in the  
> right direction please?

I don’t think it exists, see:

```
http://rubyforge.org/pipermail/rubygems-developers/2006-June/001995.html

```

I’ll defer to someone with more experience on the question of native  
RPM versus a gem2spec-based RPM.