# Platform independent distribution of Ruby apps

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/platform-independent-distribution-of-ruby-apps/174428>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [August 26, 2009, 6:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/platform-independent-distribution-of-ruby-apps/174428 "2009-08-26T18:07:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![pitosalas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/a4c791/32.png) [@pitosalas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pitosalas)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 6:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/platform-independent-distribution-of-ruby-apps/174428/1 "2009-08-26T18:07:30Z")

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I would like to take a Ruby app that I’ve written (that includes a bunch  
of .rb files and other resources) and to other platforms (I am using Mac  
OS X).

More particulary, I’d like to write as simple as possible instructions  
for ech of someone on Mac, Windows and Linux, to install and run my app.

My opening guess (which is probably wrong) is to have them:

- install ruby from the web site
- install ruby gems from the web site
- package my application as a ruby gem, including (somehow)  
specification of other dependent gems
- have them ‘gem install’ my app

First off, that’s already a bit geeky. And second of all, I am not sure  
it would be robust.

Can anyone point me to the latest best practices?

Thanks!!

Pito S.

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**Author:** ![pitosalas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/a4c791/32.png) [@pitosalas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pitosalas)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 9:18pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/platform-independent-distribution-of-ruby-apps/174428/2 "2009-08-26T21:18:52Z")

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On Wed, Aug 26, 2009 at 12:07 PM, Pito S.[removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> I would like to take a Ruby app that I’ve written (that includes a bunch  
> of .rb files and other resources) and to other platforms (I am using Mac  
> OS X).

A couple of resources to look at:

[http://rawr.rubyforge.org/](http://rawr.rubyforge.org/)  
[http://copiousfreetime.rubyforge.org/crate/](http://copiousfreetime.rubyforge.org/crate/)  
[http://www.erikveen.dds.nl/rubyscript2exe/index.html](http://www.erikveen.dds.nl/rubyscript2exe/index.html)

Of those, I have only ever used rubyscript2exe and that was quite  
awhile ago for a very simple app. I’ve looked at rawr since we use  
JRuby quite a lot these days, but haven’t actually had a use case yet.  
We only really distribute apps internally, and for that we build gems  
and serve them from an internal web server.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pitosalas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/a4c791/32.png) [@pitosalas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pitosalas)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 9:32pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/platform-independent-distribution-of-ruby-apps/174428/3 "2009-08-26T21:32:21Z")

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exerb is also an other option, but windows only I believe…  
[http://exerb.sourceforge.jp/index.en.html](http://exerb.sourceforge.jp/index.en.html)

2009/8/26 [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pitosalas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/a4c791/32.png) [@pitosalas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pitosalas)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 10:12pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/platform-independent-distribution-of-ruby-apps/174428/4 "2009-08-26T22:12:45Z")

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Pito S. wrote:

> - install ruby gems from the web site
> - package my application as a ruby gem, including (somehow)  
> specification of other dependent gems
> - have them ‘gem install’ my app
> 
> First off, that’s already a bit geeky. And second of all, I am not sure  
> it would be robust.
> 
> Can anyone point me to the latest best practices?

Use JRuby + Monkeybars + Rawr.

Rawr handles the cross-platform packaging, and Monkeybars makes it a  
snap to build robust, crossplatform GUI applications.

The .exe and .app files created with Rawr include everything but a JVM,  
which is pretty ubiquitous anyway. End users never need to bother with  
what language was used or gems or anything of the sort.

–  
James B.

[www.jamesbritt.com](http://www.jamesbritt.com) - Playing with Better Toys  
[www.ruby-doc.org](http://www.ruby-doc.org) - Ruby Help & Documentation  
[www.rubystuff.com](http://www.rubystuff.com) - The Ruby Store for Ruby Stuff  
[www.neurogami.com](http://www.neurogami.com) - Smart application development