Gems and require

Ruby
1

Finally gotten around to changing my ‘require_gem’ code, and I’ve
noticed that for many gems, the name of the file to “require” is not
the same as the gem’s name. Furthermore, there’s no way to find out
what file I do need to require other than looking at the directory
structure of the gem. An option to gem that would list all requirable
files would be a nice addition.

martin

2

Martin DeMello wrote:

Finally gotten around to changing my ‘require_gem’ code, and I’ve
noticed that for many gems, the name of the file to “require” is not
the same as the gem’s name. Furthermore, there’s no way to find out
what file I do need to require other than looking at the directory
structure of the gem. An option to gem that would list all requirable
files would be a nice addition.
Personally, I’d prefer that a require ‘gemname’ just loaded all files in
the gem’s lib directory, but that’s probably just me…

3

On 3/14/07, [email protected] [email protected] wrote:

On Wed, 14 Mar 2007, Alex Y. wrote:

Personally, I’d prefer that a require ‘gemname’ just loaded all files in the
gem’s lib directory, but that’s probably just me…

yikes! i’ve got about 80 libs installed!

considering that rails, for instance, takes about 1/2 second to load it’s libs,
we could be looking at tens of seconds of startup delay for every ruby
script on a large system

I think he meant the files in the individual gem’s
lib/ruby/gems/…/gemname/lib folder, not all the files in
lib/ruby/gems :slight_smile:

martin

4

On Mar 13, 2007, at 2:19 PM, Martin DeMello wrote:

load it’s libs,
we could be looking at tens of seconds of startup delay for
every ruby
script on a large system

I think he meant the files in the individual gem’s
lib/ruby/gems/…/gemname/lib folder, not all the files in
lib/ruby/gems :slight_smile:

But we still don’t want to do that. Some libraries provide alternate
interfaces or features based on which file you require.

James Edward G. II

5

On Wed, 14 Mar 2007, Alex Y. wrote:

Martin DeMello wrote:

Finally gotten around to changing my ‘require_gem’ code, and I’ve
noticed that for many gems, the name of the file to “require” is not
the same as the gem’s name. Furthermore, there’s no way to find out
what file I do need to require other than looking at the directory
structure of the gem. An option to gem that would list all requirable
files would be a nice addition.

Personally, I’d prefer that a require ‘gemname’ just loaded all files in the
gem’s lib directory, but that’s probably just me…

yikes! i’ve got about 80 libs installed!

considering that rails, for instance, takes about 1/2 second to load
it’s libs,
we could be looking at tens of seconds of startup delay for every
ruby
script on a large system

-a

6

On 3/14/07, James Edward G. II [email protected] wrote:

But we still don’t want to do that. Some libraries provide alternate
interfaces or features based on which file you require.

Yep. Which is why what I want is an argument to gem that will list a
gem’s requirable files.

martin

7

[email protected] wrote:

Personally, I’d prefer that a require ‘gemname’ just loaded all files
in the gem’s lib directory, but that’s probably just me…

yikes! i’ve got about 80 libs installed!
Not all the gems… just the named one :slight_smile:

F’rinstance, from my machine:

require ‘activerecord’

would load gems/activerecord-1.15-1/lib/active_record.rb, and

require ‘actionpack’

would load gems/actionpack-1.13.1/lib/{action_controller.rb,
action_pack.rb, action_view.rb}

and so on. It’s just one way around the disconnect between the gem’s
name and the name of the file you need to require, which keeps catching
me off guard. Mainly because I’m lazy.

8

On Wed, 14 Mar 2007, Martin DeMello wrote:

libs,
we could be looking at tens of seconds of startup delay for every ruby
script on a large system

I think he meant the files in the individual gem’s
lib/ruby/gems/…/gemname/lib folder, not all the files in
lib/ruby/gems :slight_smile:

ayyyyy

need more coffee…

-a

9

On Mar 13, 2007, at 05:41, Martin DeMello wrote:

Finally gotten around to changing my ‘require_gem’ code, and I’ve
noticed that for many gems, the name of the file to “require” is not
the same as the gem’s name.

99.9% of the time you don’t need require_gem.

Furthermore, there’s no way to find out
what file I do need to require other than looking at the directory
structure of the gem. An option to gem that would list all requirable
files would be a nice addition.

You mean “gem contents”?

$ gem help contents
Usage: gem contents [options]

Options:
-v, --version VERSION Specify version of gem to contents
-l, --list List the files inside a Gem
-s, --spec-dir a,b,c Search for gems under specific
paths
-V, --verbose Be verbose when showing status

Common Options:
–source URL Use URL as the remote source
for gems
-p, --[no-]http-proxy [URL] Use HTTP proxy for remote
operations
-h, --help Get help on this command
–config-file FILE Use this config file instead of
default
–backtrace Show stack backtrace on errors
–debug Turn on Ruby debugging

Summary:
Display the contents of the installed gems
$ gem contents memcache-client
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/memcache-client-1.3.0/History.txt
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/memcache-client-1.3.0/LICENSE.txt
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/memcache-client-1.3.0/Manifest.txt
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/memcache-client-1.3.0/README.txt
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/memcache-client-1.3.0/Rakefile
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/memcache-client-1.3.0/lib/memcache.rb
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/memcache-client-1.3.0/lib/
memcache_util.rb
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/memcache-client-1.3.0/test/
test_mem_cache.rb

10

James Edward G. II wrote:

But we still don’t want to do that. Some libraries provide alternate
interfaces or features based on which file you require.
Oh, I realise I’m not likely to get my wish - there’s too much code
already out there that wouldn’t work like I’m suggesting.

11

On 3/18/07, Eric H. [email protected] wrote:

Furthermore, there’s no way to find out
what file I do need to require other than looking at the directory
structure of the gem. An option to gem that would list all requirable
files would be a nice addition.

You mean “gem contents”?

test_mem_cache.rb
No - that just spits out everything in the gem. What’s needed is a
command that just lists those files in the directories that ‘gem’ adds
to $:

martin

12

On Mar 18, 2007, at 02:15, Martin DeMello wrote:

command that just lists those files in the directories that ‘gem’ adds
to $:

Have you filed a bug? I guarantee it won’t get added without it.