# Ruby 1.8.8dev stable snapshot?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-1-8-8dev-stable-snapshot/162624>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [March 12, 2009, 2:55am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-1-8-8dev-stable-snapshot/162624 "2009-03-12T02:55:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![benr75](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@benr75](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/benr75)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2009, 2:55am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-1-8-8dev-stable-snapshot/162624/1 "2009-03-12T02:55:22Z")

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Hello ~

Went to do a routine ruby install from source, grabbed a stable  
snapshot, and instead of getting an expected 1.8.7 I got:

$ ruby -v  
ruby 1.8.8dev (2009-03-11)

Should this really be the STABLE snapshot? It throws up trying to  
RubyGems installed:  
$ sudo ruby setup.rb  
Password:  
/home/deploy/src/rubygems-1.3.1/lib/rubygems/version.rb:53:in  
`initialize': Malformed version number string 1.8.8.-1 (ArgumentError) from /home/deploy/src/rubygems-1.3.1/lib/rubygems.rb:676:in`new’  
from /home/deploy/src/rubygems-1.3.1/lib/rubygems.rb:676:in  
`ruby\_version’  
from setup.rb:111

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![benr75](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@benr75](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/benr75)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2009, 3:11am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-1-8-8dev-stable-snapshot/162624/2 "2009-03-13T03:11:43Z")

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On Thu, Mar 12, 2009 at 10:52 AM, benr75 [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> Hello ~
> 
> Went to do a routine ruby install from source, grabbed a stable  
> snapshot, and instead of getting an expected 1.8.7 I got:
> 
> $ ruby -v  
> ruby 1.8.8dev (2009-03-11)
> 
> Should this really be the STABLE snapshot?

It’s stable, it runs and i think even the tests are passing. This  
tarball is made directly from the svn repo, and the ruby version in  
the repo is 1.8.8 since 1.8.7 was released already (that’s also why it  
says ‘dev’).

> It throws up trying to RubyGems installed:  
> $ sudo ruby setup.rb  
> Password:  
> /home/deploy/src/rubygems-1.3.1/lib/rubygems/version.rb:53:in  
> `initialize': Malformed version number string 1.8.8.-1 (ArgumentError) Â Â Â Â from /home/deploy/src/rubygems-1.3.1/lib/rubygems.rb:676:in `new’  
> Â Â Â Â from /home/deploy/src/rubygems-1.3.1/lib/rubygems.rb:676:in  
> `ruby\_version’  
> Â Â Â Â from setup.rb:111

rubygems/version.rb doesn’t allow anything but \d and . in the  
version string, so i guess this version would confuse it 🙂  
Don’t expect any libraries to work with a yet unreleased ruby version  
if you don’t want to get down, read and understand their code and get  
tweaking.

^ manveru

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![benr75](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@benr75](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/benr75)\
**Post date:** [March 16, 2009, 7:52pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-1-8-8dev-stable-snapshot/162624/3 "2009-03-16T19:52:15Z")

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On Mar 11, 2009, at 18:52, benr75 wrote:

> $ sudo ruby setup.rb  
> Password:  
> /home/deploy/src/rubygems-1.3.1/lib/rubygems/version.rb:53:in  
> `initialize': Malformed version number string 1.8.8.-1 (ArgumentError) from /home/deploy/src/rubygems-1.3.1/lib/rubygems.rb:676:in`new’  
> from /home/deploy/src/rubygems-1.3.1/lib/rubygems.rb:676:in  
> `ruby\_version’  
> from setup.rb:111

This is new behavior in the 1.8 branch, so RubyGems wasn’t equipped to  
deal with it until last week, when I checked a fix into trunk.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![benr75](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@benr75](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/benr75)\
**Post date:** [March 16, 2009, 8:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-1-8-8dev-stable-snapshot/162624/4 "2009-03-16T20:01:03Z")

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Eric H. wrote:

> This is new behavior in the 1.8 branch, so RubyGems wasn’t equipped to  
> deal with it until last week, when I checked a fix into trunk.

Excellent, we’ve had this issue with JRuby too, for versions like  
1.2.0RC1 or 1.3.0dev. What’s the new rules for version numbering?

- Charlie

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![benr75](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@benr75](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/benr75)\
**Post date:** [March 16, 2009, 9:16pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-1-8-8dev-stable-snapshot/162624/5 "2009-03-16T21:16:52Z")

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On Mar 16, 2009, at 11:57, Charles Oliver N. wrote:

> Eric H. wrote:
> 
> > This is new behavior in the 1.8 branch, so RubyGems wasn’t equipped  
> > to deal with it until last week, when I checked a fix into trunk.
> 
> Excellent, we’ve had this issue with JRuby too, for versions like  
> 1.2.0RC1 or 1.3.0dev. What’s the new rules for version numbering?

I’m not sure what the details are, I just applied this patch from  
Jeremy K.:

[http://rubyforge.org/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=24048&group\_id=126&atid=577](http://rubyforge.org/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=24048&group_id=126&atid=577)

Apparently if there’s an unreleased version, RUBY\_PATCHLEVEL is -1