# Ruby On Rails with small footprint **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [October 18, 2007, 10:54am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-on-rails-with-small-footprint/117590 "2007-10-18T10:54:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Marc\_Haisenko](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Marc\_Haisenko](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Marc_Haisenko)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2007, 10:54am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-on-rails-with-small-footprint/117590/1 "2007-10-18T10:54:36Z")
Hi folks, I was thinking about using Ruby On Rails to develop the web GUI for our products. However, since these are embedded systems with few space and memory (if compared to a desktop, at least ;-)) I wonder about a few things: 1. How small can I make RAR ? I just checked the gems and it seems the “normal” footprint is about 5MB (without examples and docs). But this is still too much and I think we don’t everything. Has someone experience with what’s necessary and what not ? We could live with a footprint of about 2MB and I think it’s possible. (Note that I have a lot of experience in packaging software and developing si I can also do dirty hacks and modify sources if that’s what takes it to make it this small). 2. A big concern to me is the memory footprint when uploading files (updates): we can’t afford to have a 20MB file three or four times in the memory, so does anyone know how uploads are handled ? Can I have it streamed directly to the disk to reduce the memory footprint ? Thanks a lot, Marc – Marc Haisenko Comdasys AG Rüdesheimer Str. 7 80686 München Germany Tel.: +49 (0)89 548 433 321 ---
**Author:** ![Marc\_Haisenko](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Marc\_Haisenko](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Marc_Haisenko)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2007, 11:01am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-on-rails-with-small-footprint/117590/2 "2007-10-18T11:01:39Z")
Marc Haisenko wrote: > software and developing si I can also do dirty hacks and modify sources if Hi Marc, You may want to look at Merb or Camping since those frameworks are smaller. On the other hand, as an embedded systems designer myself, I wonder if you’re perhaps considering the wrong tool for the job. Of course, a lot depends on what your embedded product is, so it’s still early to guess 🙂 If the web GUI isn’t very complex, it might be sensible to use something other than Rails. Do remember that Rails is very good for dynamic database-driven websites and not that great for general-purpose static sites, for example (of course, you know that, but it’s always worth reminding). Cheers, Mohit. 10/18/2007 | 4:59 PM. ---
**Author:** ![Marc\_Haisenko](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Marc\_Haisenko](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Marc_Haisenko)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2007, 11:25am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-on-rails-with-small-footprint/117590/3 "2007-10-18T11:25:03Z")
On 18 Oct 2007, at 09:54, Marc Haisenko wrote: > But this is > still too much and I think we don’t everything. Has someone > experience with > what’s necessary and what not ? We could live with a footprint of > about 2MB > and I think it’s possible. (Note that I have a lot of experience in > packaging > software and developing si I can also do dirty hacks and modify > sources if > that’s what takes it to make it this small). Well a base export of trunk is currently 6.5 megs. SInce you’re just a web gui you can junk docs, examples and the test suites, which gets me down to 4,4 megs. I’m guess since you;re a web gui you can do without activeresource, actionwebservice, actionmailer. You can also lose the changelogs and readmes There’s some stuff you’re not going need. eg generators, that can also go, and stuff for doing things like installing a plugin If you’re not going to be using prototype, ajax etc… you can get rid of the javascrpts. Even if you are, they’re their in 2 places, so you should be able to get rid of one You can junk the database adapters you don’t need, the support for the dispatch mechanisms you won;t need. There are also quite a few files in railties which are just templates: you don’t need them if you’re not generating new apps Having done all that, I’m down to 2.5 megs (occupying 3.3 on disk, what with a lot of the files being smalling the the min file size on my filesystem). Beyund that, the biggest win would be getting rid of the unicode tables (640k), if you don’t need that. Not sure how easy it is to removve that though. There are a lot of comments in the source (since that’s what all the rdoc) is generated from. Removing that gets me down to 1.7 megs, 2.6 megs occupied on disk. If you can junk the unicode table then you’re home and dry. > 1. A big concern to me is the memory footprint when uploading files > (updates): > we can’t afford to have a 20MB file three or four times in the > memory, so > does anyone know how uploads are handled ? Can I have it streamed > directly to > the disk to reduce the memory footprint ? Don’t know anything about that. Fred ---
**Author:** ![Marc\_Haisenko](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Marc\_Haisenko](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Marc_Haisenko)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2007, 11:08am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-on-rails-with-small-footprint/117590/4 "2007-10-18T11:08:06Z")
On Thursday 18 October 2007, Mohit S. wrote: > Marc Haisenko wrote: > > > Hi folks, > > I was thinking about using Ruby On Rails to develop the web GUI for our > > products. However, since these are embedded systems with few space and > > memory > > > (if compared to a desktop, at least ;-)) I wonder about a few things: > > > > 1. How small can I make RAR ? I just checked the gems and it seems > > the “normal” footprint is about 5MB (without examples and docs). But this > > is > > > still too much and I think we don’t everything. Has someone experience > > with > > > what’s necessary and what not ? We could live with a footprint of about > > 2MB > > > and I think it’s possible. (Note that I have a lot of experience in > > packaging > > > software and developing si I can also do dirty hacks and modify sources if > > that’s what takes it to make it this small). > > > > 1. A big concern to me is the memory footprint when uploading files > > (updates): > > > we can’t afford to have a 20MB file three or four times in the memory, so > > does anyone know how uploads are handled ? Can I have it streamed directly > > to > > smaller. On the other hand, as an embedded systems designer myself, I > > Cheers, > > Mohit. > > 10/18/2007 | 4:59 PM. I’m already considering Camping, but Rails has the advantage of a lot of good documentation (books) available. A colleague and I already know Rails, so Rails would be the preferred solution because of the information available. Our current GUI is a hand-crafted framework with C++ (using the CCGI library) which is a good (fast) solution for an embedded system but maintaining it just becomes more and more time consuming and we still can’t do a lot of things we’d like to do. So we now spend more time on maintaining our framework than actually working on the GUI which is why we start to think about moving to some established framework. Since we already have Ruby and activerecord on some products it would just make sense to use Rails 🙂 Marc – Marc Haisenko Comdasys AG Rüdesheimer Str. 7 80686 München Germany Tel.: +49 (0)89 548 433 321 ---
**Author:** ![Marc\_Haisenko](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Marc\_Haisenko](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Marc_Haisenko)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2007, 11:53am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-on-rails-with-small-footprint/117590/5 "2007-10-18T11:53:43Z")
On Thursday 18 October 2007, Frederick C. wrote: > rid of the javascrpts. Even if you are, they’re their in 2 places, so > it is to removve that though. > That’s a lot of good pointers, thanks a lot. Sounds like my guess that > it’s > possible to get down to 2 MB was not that wrong 🙂 > There are a lot of comments in the source (since that’s what all the > rdoc) is generated from. Removing that gets me down to 1.7 megs, 2.6 > megs occupied on disk. If you can junk the unicode table then you’re > home and dry. Hmmm, while this is a good idea technology-wise it might be a bad idea license-wise… need to have a look. Thank you for the feedback. Marc – Marc Haisenko Comdasys AG Rüdesheimer Str. 7 80686 München Germany Tel.: +49 (0)89 548 433 321 ---
**Author:** ![Marc\_Haisenko](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Marc\_Haisenko](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Marc_Haisenko)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2007, 11:19am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-on-rails-with-small-footprint/117590/6 "2007-10-25T11:19:00Z")
With the cost of micro-sd cards plumenting, I think rails would be great for a device interface, as well as a central management system. and with just ruby you do alot of other things. For updates, you should be able to use gem to pull down updates from a custom respository. And gem can pull it into your local flash file system. The inmemory can be minimized. I’m planning on doing a rails gui on a avr32 system under linux. Dont see alot of issues on license. ---
**Author:** ![Marc\_Haisenko](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Marc\_Haisenko](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Marc_Haisenko)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2007, 1:26pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-on-rails-with-small-footprint/117590/7 "2007-10-25T13:26:33Z")
glennswest wrote: > I’m planning on doing a rails gui on a avr32 system under linux. > > Dont see alot of issues on license. This thread does seem interesting to me. As an embedded systems guy myself, I wonder what you feel about the performance and memory consumption of Ruby. For what it’s worth, Toshiba seems to think that Ruby is a good way to go on the Cell processor! > **[日経クロステック（xTECH）](https://xtech.nikkei.com/)** > > テクノロジーの進化によって様々な業界の境界（クロス）領域で新たなビジネスが続々と誕生する今、どこの誰と、どう組めば新たなチャンスを掴むことができるのか。日経クロステック（xTECH）は、 ITから電機、自動車、建設、土木まで、今をえぐり、一歩先を照らす情報をお届けします。 Cheers, Mohit. 10/25/2007 | 7:25 PM.