> I'm not sure what non-global has to do with it (or even what it means).
I mean installing in /opt (or /usr/local for that matter) and allowing all users to have access, as opposed to installing in ~/bin or similar. > From the jruby.org web site (but also just about any other JRuby > documentation I read): > > 1. Extract JRuby into a directory. > 2. Add that directory's bin subdirectory to the end of your path. > 3. Test it: jruby -v "Yes" to the above, "no" to the below. They expect you to add a user writable directory to your path. This really isn't too different from how *any* *nix tool is distributed in binary form. We've gotten used to most things coming as source with an autoconf script generating a makefile, but there are still one or two useful packages which only provide pre-compiled binaries. In such cases, the distribution mechanism of choice is *usually* a tarball which is extracted into the required directory. Why would you need an installer to run two commands? >From what I know of the JRuby community, the conventional install follows one of two paths. For the personal development machine with one user (e.g. my laptop), it's usually easiest to install JRuby under the home directory, user read/write where changes can be made as necessary. I've edited the JRuby startup scripts on more than one occasion, and I used to actually work directly from the SVN sources. Both of these tasks are made a lot easier when I have easy read/write access to JRUBY_HOME. The other option is a server or a shared workstation. In either case, the conventional approach is to install JRuby just like any other *nix package: in /usr/local or /opt, according to taste. From there, the binaries can be symlinked into /usr/local/bin, or simply placed on the PATH. They (meaning the JRuby team) don't really *expect* one case or another. They have merely provided the simplest possible setup instructions. I think they probably assume that competent *nix hackers will be more than capable of placing the install wherever they please. Now, Eclipse on the other hand... ;-) Daniel
