# General query about ruby libraries **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [June 2, 2008, 10:28pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/general-query-about-ruby-libraries/139321 "2008-06-02T22:28:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sandman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sandman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/sandman)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 10:28pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/general-query-about-ruby-libraries/139321/1 "2008-06-02T22:28:19Z")
Hi all, I would like to know where exactly to unpack external ruby libraries for future use. I’m using aaronp’s mechanize library (zip file)…and it uses the require ‘mechanize’ directive. Thanks, Sandip ---
**Author:** ![sandman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sandman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/sandman)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2008, 6:38am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/general-query-about-ruby-libraries/139321/2 "2008-06-03T06:38:45Z")
Sandip Gangakhedkar wrote: > Hi all, > > I would like to know where exactly to unpack external ruby libraries for > future use. I’m using aaronp’s mechanize library (zip file)…and it > uses the require ‘mechanize’ directive. > > Thanks, > Sandip I think the generally accepted way to install a 3rd party library is to use RubyGems: “RubyGems is a standardized packaging and installation framework for libraries and applications, making it easy to locate, install, upgrade, and uninstall Ruby packages.” pickaxe2 p 215. That’s what I do. You need to install RubyGems and learn how to use it. ---
**Author:** ![sandman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sandman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/sandman)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2008, 6:44am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/general-query-about-ruby-libraries/139321/3 "2008-06-03T06:44:10Z")
On Monday 02 June 2008 23:38:02 7stud – wrote: > Sandip Gangakhedkar wrote: > > I’m using aaronp’s mechanize library (zip file)…and it > > uses the require ‘mechanize’ directive. > I think the generally accepted way to install a 3rd party library is to > use RubyGems: Just to simplify: After installing rubyGems, the command you probably want is: gem install mechanize Or, on many Unix systems: sudo gem install mechanize ---
**Author:** ![sandman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sandman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/sandman)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2008, 5:45pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/general-query-about-ruby-libraries/139321/4 "2008-06-03T17:45:33Z")
David M. wrote: > On Monday 02 June 2008 23:38:02 7stud – wrote: > > > Sandip Gangakhedkar wrote: > > > > I’m using aaronp’s mechanize library (zip file)…and it > > > uses the require ‘mechanize’ directive. > > > I think the generally accepted way to install a 3rd party library is to > > use RubyGems: > > Just to simplify: After installing rubyGems, the command you probably > want is: > > gem install mechanize > > Or, on many Unix systems: > > sudo gem install mechanize What about tarballs? Or zip files? I am aware of RubyGems. However, lots of new and recent libraries, especially the ones hosted on github are not yet available as gems. Thanks, Sandip ---
**Author:** ![sandman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sandman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/sandman)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2008, 9:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/general-query-about-ruby-libraries/139321/5 "2008-06-03T21:01:49Z")
On Tuesday 03 June 2008, David M. wrote: > On Tuesday 03 June 2008 10:44:47 Sandip Gangakhedkar wrote: > > > What about tarballs? Or zip files? > > I am aware of RubyGems. However, lots of new and recent libraries, > > especially the ones hosted on github are not yet available as gems. > > If a library is new enough to not be available as a gem, I’m not sure I’d > want to install it system-wide. You can always put it somewhere in your > home directory and add it to the RUBYLIB environment variable. I wouldn’t be so categorical. There are libraries which are quite new and still, for various reasons, aren’t packaged as gems. One which comes immediately to my mind, because I use it, is qt-ruby, the ruby bindings for the Qt toolkit. Other are (I think) ruby-gtk2 and ruby-gnome. Then, there’s fastri, which offers both gem and tar.gz versions whose release note states: RubyGems adds a noticeable overhead to fri, making it run slower than if you installed it directly from the tarball with setup.rb. If someone is concerned about speed, he may choose to install the tar.gz version. So, there may be more than one reason for which a library is not released as gems, although I wouldn’t deny that in most cases your statement is correct. Stefano ---
**Author:** ![sandman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sandman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/sandman)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2008, 8:08pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/general-query-about-ruby-libraries/139321/6 "2008-06-03T20:08:15Z")
On Tuesday 03 June 2008 10:44:47 Sandip Gangakhedkar wrote: > What about tarballs? Or zip files? > I am aware of RubyGems. However, lots of new and recent libraries, > especially the ones hosted on github are not yet available as gems. If a library is new enough to not be available as a gem, I’m not sure I’d want to install it system-wide. You can always put it somewhere in your home directory and add it to the RUBYLIB environment variable. ---
**Author:** ![sandman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sandman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/sandman)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2008, 5:56pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/general-query-about-ruby-libraries/139321/7 "2008-06-03T17:56:49Z")
On Tuesday 03 June 2008, Sandip Gangakhedkar wrote: > What about tarballs? Or zip files? > I am aware of RubyGems. However, lots of new and recent libraries, > especially the ones hosted on github are not yet available as gems. > > Thanks, > Sandip To know where ruby looks for files, you can look at the contents of the $: global variable in ruby: ruby -e ‘puts $:’ On my (gentoo linux) system, the output is: /usr/lib/ruby/site\_ruby/1.8 /usr/lib/ruby/site\_ruby/1.8/i686-linux /usr/lib/ruby/site\_ruby /usr/lib/ruby/1.8 /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i686-linux . On other systems, the output may vary. I think that the most correct place to put user-installed libraries is under the site\_ruby/1.8 directory. An alternative could be to install them in any place you like and set the environment variable RUBYLIB to include that directory. For instance, if I decided to install some ruby libraries in /home/stefano/ruby\_libraries, I should put the line (assuming a bash shell) export RUBYLIB=/home/stefano/ruby\_libraries in my .bashrc file. At any rate, unless you have very good reasons to install the library in a custom place, I think you should use the site\_ruby directory, as I said above. I hope this helps Stefano ---
**Author:** ![sandman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sandman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/sandman)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2008, 6:31am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/general-query-about-ruby-libraries/139321/8 "2008-06-05T06:31:31Z")
On Tue, Jun 3, 2008 at 11:44 AM, Sandip Gangakhedkar [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > What about tarballs? Or zip files? > I am aware of RubyGems. However, lots of new and recent libraries, > especially the ones hosted on github are not yet available as gems. Github gems are all available via rubygems so long as the package maintainer enables the option. See [http://gems.github.com/](http://gems.github.com/) Do note the warning there, though. Permanently adding github as a gem source royally b0rked my rubygems installation. Stick with the manual source specification for now. E.g. sudo gem install mojombo-grit -s [http://gems.github.com](http://gems.github.com) – Avdi Home: [http://avdi.org](http://avdi.org) Developer Blog: [Avdi Grimm, Code Cleric](http://avdi.org/devblog/) Twitter: [http://twitter.com/avdi](http://twitter.com/avdi) Journal: [http://avdi.livejournal.com](http://avdi.livejournal.com)