# RAA, gems, and RubyForge (was Re: User Account Setup - Multi **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [May 23, 2006, 5:21pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/raa-gems-and-rubyforge-was-re-user-account-setup-multi/95165 "2006-05-23T17:21:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![softf5ajivanet](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@softf5ajivanet](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/softf5ajivanet)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2006, 5:21pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/raa-gems-and-rubyforge-was-re-user-account-setup-multi/95165/1 "2006-05-23T17:21:48Z")
On 5/23/06, Paul D. Kraus [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > On 5/23/06, Joey [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > > Umm, maybe [http://raa.ruby-lang.org/](http://raa.ruby-lang.org/) > > [snip] > > [snip] > > Oh and the biggest one… What the heck is GEM. 1. Is there a central repository of gems somewhere? That is, when you run “gem install -r …”, where does it get the gems from? 2. Rubyforge seems to have some non-obvious links that lead to lists of gems… (see [http://gems.rubyforge.org/](http://gems.rubyforge.org/)) Is there a connection between the RAA and Rubyforge? 3. With the current RubyGems 0.8.11, should we do require ‘rubygems’ require\_gem ‘foo’ or require ‘rubygems’ require ‘foo’ ? 1. For users (both devs creating gems, and folks installing and using them), what’s expected to change when RubyGems 0.9.0 gets released? “require\_gem”? ---
**Author:** ![softf5ajivanet](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@softf5ajivanet](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/softf5ajivanet)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2006, 5:24pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/raa-gems-and-rubyforge-was-re-user-account-setup-multi/95165/2 "2006-05-23T17:24:59Z")
On 5/23/06, John G. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > 1. Is there a central repository of gems somewhere? That is, when you > run “gem install -r …”, where does it get the gems from? RubyForge or RubyForge mirrors. > 1. Rubyforge seems to have some non-obvious links that lead to lists > of gems… (see [http://gems.rubyforge.org/](http://gems.rubyforge.org/)) Is there a connection > between the RAA and Rubyforge? Not between RAA and RubyForge. > 1. With the current RubyGems 0.8.11, should we do > > require ‘rubygems’ > require\_gem ‘foo’ > > or > > require ‘rubygems’ > require ‘foo’ Never use require\_gem unless you need to fix a gem version. Avoid using it anyway, if you can. > 1. For users (both devs creating gems, and folks installing and using > them), what’s expected to change when RubyGems 0.9.0 gets released? > “require\_gem”? Several things. Hopefully, an activate\_gem command will be added. -austin ---
**Author:** ![softf5ajivanet](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@softf5ajivanet](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/softf5ajivanet)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2006, 5:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/raa-gems-and-rubyforge-was-re-user-account-setup-multi/95165/3 "2006-05-23T17:59:46Z")
On 5/23/06, Austin Z. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > On 5/23/06, John G. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > > 1. Is there a central repository of gems somewhere? That is, when you > > run “gem install -r …”, where does it get the gems from? > > RubyForge or RubyForge mirrors. Thanks. After looking at the RubyGems user guide chapter 8 (“distributing gems” [http://docs.rubygems.org/read/chapter/6](http://docs.rubygems.org/read/chapter/6)), I see that RubyForge “will automatically deploy any .gem file you upload to a project download area.”. That sounds like a nice system. Also, on [http://rubyforge.org/docman/?group\_id=5](http://rubyforge.org/docman/?group_id=5) , the “mirror\_setup.html” link describes some more too. ---
**Author:** ![softf5ajivanet](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@softf5ajivanet](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/softf5ajivanet)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 5:16pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/raa-gems-and-rubyforge-was-re-user-account-setup-multi/95165/4 "2006-05-24T17:16:04Z")
Jim W. wrote: > (3) Support for supplying static configuration data with an installed > gem, and mechanisms for getting that data. This will make it easier for > developers to repackage a gem as an alternative OS specific package > (e.g. RPMs and Debian packages). I don’t think you’re implying this, but I just wanted to clarify: Does this mean that gem authors can package configuration files for applications now? (More likely meaning: “gem authors can now specify _gem_ configuration”) Patiently Awaiting Ability to Gem Up Diakonos; Pistos ---
**Author:** ![softf5ajivanet](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@softf5ajivanet](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/softf5ajivanet)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 1:12am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/raa-gems-and-rubyforge-was-re-user-account-setup-multi/95165/5 "2006-05-27T01:12:05Z")
On 5/23/06, Austin Z. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Never use require\_gem unless you need to fix a gem version. > Avoid using it anyway, if you can. Hmm. I seem to remember needing to use require\_gem in some situation. I started with require rubygems + require the\_gem\_I\_needed, because I was copying those lines from some other example. But that didn’t work until I changed the second “require” to “require\_gem”… ---
**Author:** ![softf5ajivanet](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@softf5ajivanet](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/softf5ajivanet)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2006, 7:09pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/raa-gems-and-rubyforge-was-re-user-account-setup-multi/95165/6 "2006-05-23T19:09:44Z")
Others have given good answers. I’ll just make a few additions … John G. wrote: > 1. Is there a central repository of gems somewhere? That is, when you > run “gem install -r …”, where does it get the gems from? As others have mentioned, the gems are supplied from RubyForge. In addition, you can select an althernative source by using the --source option. I often put beta versions of my software on my own site and people can grab it with: gem install rake --source [http://onestepback.org/betagems](http://onestepback.org/betagems) It’s easy to create and maintain an alternative gem server. > 1. With the current RubyGems 0.8.11, should we do > > require ‘rubygems’ > require\_gem ‘foo’ > > or > > require ‘rubygems’ > require ‘foo’ Always use the second unless you need a particular version of a gem. I recommend NEVER putting a require\_gem in your normal library code (mainly because you don’t want to have version dependencies scattered throughout your code base). Version dependencies should be gathered into a single location and made configurable by the end user (e.g. something similar to what Rails does with its environment file). The next version of RubyGems will have a simple “gem” directive that is similar to what require\_gem does now, but with less surprizing semantics. But the recommendation in the above paragraph will still apply. > 1. For users (both devs creating gems, and folks installing and using > them), what’s expected to change when RubyGems 0.9.0 gets released? > “require\_gem”? The next version of RubyGems will have: (1) Incremental downloads of the RubyForge index. You will only need to download the entire thing if you are too far out of date. (2) Support for the new “gem” directive (“require\_gem” will still work, we just won’t recommend it anymore). (3) Support for supplying static configuration data with an installed gem, and mechanisms for getting that data. This will make it easier for developers to repackage a gem as an alternative OS specific package (e.g. RPMs and Debian packages). (1) and (2) are done and ready to go. We are still ironing out some details on (3). Looking even farther out, we intend to unify the way RubyGems treats local and remote gems (for example, installing a local gem does not check dependencies). We will also support resolving dependencies across different servers. Thanks for asking. – – Jim W. ---
**Author:** ![softf5ajivanet](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@softf5ajivanet](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/softf5ajivanet)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 1:18am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/raa-gems-and-rubyforge-was-re-user-account-setup-multi/95165/7 "2006-05-27T01:18:47Z")
On 5/26/06, Garance A Drosehn [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > > require ‘foo’ > > > > Never use require\_gem unless you need to fix a gem version. > > Avoid using it anyway, if you can. > > Hmm. I seem to remember needing to use require\_gem > in some situation. I started with require rubygems + require > the\_gem\_I\_needed, because I was copying those lines > from some other example. But that didn’t work until I > changed the second “require” to “require\_gem”… I’ve had to use it when I didn’t have time to figure out what the actual rb file name was for a gem. An example of this is: require\_gem “rubyzip” # Works. require “rubyzip” # Blows up require “zip/zip” # Works, once you know it exists. ---
**Author:** ![softf5ajivanet](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@softf5ajivanet](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/softf5ajivanet)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 3:49pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/raa-gems-and-rubyforge-was-re-user-account-setup-multi/95165/8 "2006-05-27T15:49:47Z")
On 5/26/06, Wilson B. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > > > require ‘rubygems’ > > > > actual rb file name was for a gem. > > > > This uses behaviour that is being deprecated. I would suspect that by > > > > time RubyGems 1.0 is released, require\_gem (if it even exists for > > > > backward compatibility) will ignore autorequire because all gems at that > > > > point should no longer be using the autorequire functionality. #require\_gem should be used sparingly, and then only to fix a specific version until the next release of Rubygems when #gem will be introduced to do the same. > An example of this is: > require\_gem “rubyzip” # Works. > require “rubyzip” # Blows up > require “zip/zip” # Works, once you know it exists. Your first line will not work with any of the recent gems that I have released, nor any of the ones that I expect to release in the future. Even if you do “require\_gem ‘mime-types’”, you will still need to do “require ‘mime/types’” afterwards. This would be something that should encourage better documentation of gems. -austin