I've inlined Nick Sieger's comments(+ responses) on the RoR ARC below . . .
> I think overall it looks great. /usr/ruby will be a new place to look for Ruby, but I guess that's following solaris conventions (/usr/java etc.), so shouldn't be a big deal. I believe there are issues with placing binaries in /usr/local/bin if the application is being bundled with Solaris, but one thing we were planning to add into the case is a symbolic link between /usr/bin and /usr/ruby/bin*, which would make ruby/rails/rake invokable without changing the system path. > I'm not sure what drove the inclusion of ruby-fcgi or redcloth. These days, fcgi bindings are all but discouraged in favor of mongrel. ruby-fgci was put in to play well with Apache and Lighttpd. How popular have you seen Apache and Lighty to be, as Rails Containers? We are looking at two things (1) native extensions for basic functionality( plus those for which functionality already existed on Solaris). (2) other components that any developer would need to use on Rails. It was thought that RedCloth fell into the latter. Also, the DHH tutorial on rubyonrails.org could not be completed without installing it(it was an unmentioned dependency). Thanks, -ps <StartNicksComments> I think overall it looks great. /usr/ruby will be a new place to look for Ruby, but I guess that's following solaris conventions (/usr/java etc.), so shouldn't be a big deal. As far as gems, I would think the following would be sufficient to bundle (+ any dependencies): * rake * rails * mongrel * mongrel_cluster I'm not sure what drove the inclusion of ruby-fcgi or redcloth. These days, fcgi bindings are all but discouraged in favor of mongrel. Redcloth is a good library, but only if you need it. I'd say the prevailing attitude of the community is one toward minimalism, so trimming down the bundled gems would be seen as a good thing. That said, I'd also consider pre-bundling sqlite3 and ruby-sqlite3 bindings, as they're commonly used for prototyping in the Ruby community. This would allow creation of a full database-backed application out of the box. /Nick </EndNicksComments> Prashant Srinivasan wrote: > Here's an ARC draft for the RubyOnRails components > and a request for comments. > > (I've also posted a copy at > http://wikis.sun.com/display/WebStack/RoR_ARC_Case ) > > Thanks, > -ps > > Including Ruby on Rails with Solaris - ARC Draft > > Prashant Srinivasan <Prashant.Srinivasan at Sun.COM> > 26 September 2007 > > 1. Summary and motivation > > This project delivers Ruby on Rails(RoR) set of components > into Solaris. Ruby, the scripting language[1], and Rails, > the associated web application framework[2], are fast gaining > popularity, and their inclusion into Solaris will enable it to > be a more attractive platform for Ruby/RoR developers and deployments. > > Certain extensions[section 3] to the Ruby language, and libraries > [section 3], are also included based on the necessity for an end user > to install such programs to have a functional Ruby/RoR stack. > > This case seeks Micro Release Binding. > > 2. Technical issues > 2.1. Key objects. > > /usr/ruby/1.8.6/bin/cgi-fcgi > /usr/ruby/1.8.6/bin/erb > /usr/ruby/1.8.6/bin/gem > /usr/ruby/1.8.6/bin/gem_mirror > /usr/ruby/1.8.6/bin/gem_server > /usr/ruby/1.8.6/bin/gemlock > /usr/ruby/1.8.6/bin/gemri > /usr/ruby/1.8.6/bin/gemwhich > /usr/ruby/1.8.6/bin/gpgen > /usr/ruby/1.8.6/bin/index_gem_repository.rb > /usr/ruby/1.8.6/bin/irb > /usr/ruby/1.8.6/bin/mongrel_rails > /usr/ruby/1.8.6/bin/rails > /usr/ruby/1.8.6/bin/rake > /usr/ruby/1.8.6/bin/rdoc > /usr/ruby/1.8.6/bin/redcloth > /usr/ruby/1.8.6/bin/ri > /usr/ruby/1.8.6/bin/ruby > /usr/ruby/1.8.6/bin/testrb > /usr/ruby/1.8.6/bin/update_rubygems > > > > All other objects will be contained within the > /usr/ruby/[<version>.<subversion>.<minor-subversion>] hierarchy. > > > > 2.2. Versioning > > The Ruby development processes follow the ubiquitous > "continuous development" model, typical of many Open Source projects. > Currently, versions 1.8.6 patch update 5000 is the latest stable > release. > Ruby 1.9 is under development, slated for release in December 2007. > > The versioning model for Ruby is > <version>.<subversion>.<minor-subversion>. > Ruby 1.8.6 patchupdate 5000 is being included into Solaris. > > 2.3. Directory Naming and Structure > > The proposed directory layout for RoR is: > /usr/ruby/[<version>.<subversion>.<minor-subversion>]/ > bin > include > lib > man > share > src > > /usr/ruby/ will expose bin, include, lib, man, share, and src > directories. > These will be symbolic links to corresponding directories in the > highest > numbered <version>.<subversion>.<minor-subversion> directory in > /usr/ruby, > hence, users will be able to use "/usr/ruby/bin/ruby" to invoke the > most > recent version. > > The detailed directory and file layout for RoR is provided in [7]. > > 2.4. Packaging and Delivery > > The current proposal allows for the inclusion and coexistence > of multiple versions of Ruby by keeping each installation under > a version-specific subdirectory. The proposed package, SUNWruby, > will contain all the Ruby interfaces and the extensions an libraries > that are installed into Ruby. The libraries(Ruby gems[4]) will be > upgradeable > using the gems package management interface over the internet, by > connecting > to a gem repository. This is a process similar to Perl's CPAN > architecture[6]. > Upgrades to the Ruby platform, when available will require upgrading > the > SUNWruby package. > It is expected that users will have different versions of the package > installed, > since releases are not guaranteed to be compatible, and upstream > applications > "certify" to a particular <version>.<subversion>.<minor-subversion> > of Ruby. > > > > > 3. Ruby Extensions and Gems. > > Ruby supports a loadable module interface(known in Ruby parlance > as "Extensions"), allowing the Ruby runtime to communicate with, > and bind to, external interfaces. Extensions are implemented using > a C interface. Extensions have an associated dynamically loadable > shared object(*.so), and quite often two, since the extension itself > usually loads another shared object. > Gems[5] are Ruby libraries that are installed using the "gem" > interface > such that they are located in the default search path of the Ruby > runtime. > Some Ruby gems also include native extensions(Mongrel is an example). > > 3.1. Included Ruby Extensions and Gems. > > The initial integration will provide the following, a subset of the > extant Ruby > extensions and Gems, in addition to gems that are dependent on Rails. > > > readline [command line support for Ruby and Rails] > openssl [HTTPS support] > readline [command line input processing for Ruby and > Rails] > > tk [to support the TK toolkit] > curses [terminal control library] > openssl [HTTPS support] > redcloth [Textile implementation] > ruby-fcgi [fcgi support] > rails [web application framework] > mongrel [HTTP Server] > redcloth [Textile parsing] > > > > > Additional extensions can be delivered subsequent to the initial > integration, depending on user community and customer requests. > > 4. Ruby and Rails Internationalization. > Ruby offers the ability to use different character sets based on the > value of a global variable, $KCODE. It does not have built in > features for > message localization. Rails, based on Ruby, offers the same support > for > Internationalization. > > 5. Ruby and Rails Documentation. > Ruby and Rails are well documented[3][4]. The API documentation and > a man page, > a subset of the comprehensive documentation available on the > internet, are > available with the Ruby installation by invoking "ri". > > 5.1. Manual Pages. > > Ruby provides a man page, which will be delivered in the appropriate > man directory > [/usr/ruby/[<version>.<subversion>.<minor-subversion>]/man], with > an appropriate symbolic link from /usr/ruby/man. The contents of this > man page is provided in Addendum 1. > A symbolic link will be created from the standard Solaris man page > location(/usr/share/man/man1/ruby.1) to > /usr/ruby/[<version>.<subversion>.<minor-subversion>]. > > 6. Interfaces > > 6.1. Interface Stability. > > The RoR stack, as a set of Open Source projects, is controlled by > a group of developers external of, and independent from, SMI. These > projects make no guarantees or promises of ABI or API compatibility > between releases. > > 6.2. Imported Interfaces. > > NAME STABILITY NOTES > > OpenSSL [Secure Sockets Layer] External/Volatile PSARC/2003/500 > Curses [CRT screen handling] Stable > Readline[functions to edit command lines](statically linked into the > Ruby executable) External > PSARC 2007/188 > Tcl/Tk Uncommitted PSARC 2007/317 > > > 6.3. Exported Interfaces. > There are no advertised programmatic interfaces. > NAME STABILITY NOTES > > SUNWruby Uncommitted Package Name > /usr/ruby/[version]/bin/cgi-fcgi Uncommitted > Executable > /usr/ruby/[version]/bin/erb Uncommitted > Executable > /usr/ruby/[version]/bin/gem Uncommitted > Executable > /usr/ruby/[version]/bin/gem_mirror Uncommitted > Executable > /usr/ruby/[version]/bin/gem_server Uncommitted > Executable > /usr/ruby/[version]/bin/gemlock Uncommitted > Executable > /usr/ruby/[version]/bin/gemri Uncommitted > Executable > /usr/ruby/[version]/bin/gemwhich Uncommitted > Executable > /usr/ruby/[version]/bin/gpgen Uncommitted > Executable > /usr/ruby/[version]/bin/index_gem_repository.rb Uncommitted > Executable > /usr/ruby/[version]/bin/irb Uncommitted > Executable > /usr/ruby/[version]/bin/mongrel_rails Uncommitted > Executable > /usr/ruby/[version]/bin/rails Uncommitted > Executable > /usr/ruby/[version]/bin/rake Uncommitted > Executable > /usr/ruby/[version]/bin/rdoc Uncommitted > Executable > /usr/ruby/[version]/bin/redcloth Uncommitted > Executable > /usr/ruby/[version]/bin/ri Uncommitted > Executable > /usr/ruby/[version]/bin/ruby Uncommitted > Executable > /usr/ruby/[version]/bin/testrb Uncommitted > Executable > /usr/ruby/[version]/bin/update_rubygems Uncommitted > Executable > > > Extensions and Libraries > NAME STABILITY NOTES > readline Uncommitted Library to process command line > input. > Tk Uncommitted Extension to support the TK > toolkit > curses Uncommitted The terminal control library > openssl Uncommitted HTTPS support > redcloth Uncommitted Textile implementation > ruby-fcgi Uncommitted fcgi for Apache/Lighttpd > support by Ruby > > > > > 7. References. > > [1] http://www.ruby-lang.org/ > [2] http://www.rubyonrails.org/ > [3] http://ruby-doc.org > [4] http://api.rubyonrails.org > [5] http://www.rubygems.org/ > [6] http://www.cpan.org/ > [7] > http://wikis.sun.com/display/WebStack/Directory_and_File_Layout > > > Addendum 1: Ruby man page. > UNIX RUBY(1) > > NAME > ruby - Interpreted object-oriented scripting language > > SYNOPSIS > ruby [--copyright] [--version] [-Sacdlnpswvy] [-0[octal]] > [-C directory] [-F pattern] [-I directory] [-K c] > [-T[level]] [-e command] [-i[extension]] [-r library] > [-x[directory]] [--] [program_file] [argument ...] > > DESCRIPTION > Ruby is an interpreted scripting language for quick and easy > object-oriented programming. It has many features to pro- > cess text files and to do system management tasks (as in > Perl). It is simple, straight-forward, and extensible. > > If you want a language for easy object-oriented programming, > or you don't like the Perl ugliness, or you do like the con- > cept of LISP, but don't like too much parentheses, Ruby may > be the language of your choice. > > FEATURES > Ruby's features are as follows: > > Interpretive > Ruby is an interpreted language, so you don't have to > recompile programs written in Ruby to execute them. > > Variables have no type (dynamic typing) > Variables in Ruby can contain data of any type. You > don't have to worry about variable typing. Conse- > quently, it has a weaker compile time check. > > No declaration needed > You can use variables in your Ruby programs without any > declarations. Variable names denote their scope, > local, global, instance, etc. > > Simple syntax > Ruby has a simple syntax influenced slightly from Eif- > fel. > > No user-level memory management > Ruby has automatic memory management. Objects no > longer referenced from anywhere are automatically col- > lected by the garbage collector built into the inter- > preter. > > December 3Last0change: Ruby Programmers Reference Guide 1 > > UNIX RUBY(1) > > Everything is an object > Ruby is the purely object-oriented language, and was so > since its creation. Even such basic data as integers > are seen as objects. > > Class, inheritance, and methods > Of course, as an object-oriented language, Ruby has > such basic features like classes, inheritance, and > methods. > > Singleton methods > Ruby has the ability to define methods for certain > objects. For example, you can define a press-button > action for certain widget by defining a singleton > method for the button. Or, you can make up your own > prototype based object system using singleton methods, > if you want to. > > Mix-in by modules > Ruby intentionally does not have the multiple inheri- > tance as it is a source of confusion. Instead, Ruby > has the ability to share implementations across the > inheritance tree. This is often called `Mix-in'. > > Iterators > Ruby has iterators for loop abstraction. > > Closures > In Ruby, you can objectify the procedure. > > Text processing and regular expression > Ruby has a bunch of text processing features like in > Perl. > > Bignums > With built-in bignums, you can for example calculate > factorial(400). > > Exception handling > As in Java(tm). > > Direct access to the OS > Ruby can use most UNIX system calls, often used in > > December 3Last0change: Ruby Programmers Reference Guide 2 > > UNIX RUBY(1) > > system programming. > > Dynamic loading > On most UNIX systems, you can load object files into > the Ruby interpreter on-the-fly. > > OPTIONS > Ruby interpreter accepts following command-line options > (switches). They are quite similar to those of perl(1). > > --copyright > Prints the copyright notice. > > --version > Prints the version of Ruby interpreter. > > -0[octal] > (The digit ``zero''.) Specifies the input record > separator ("$/") as an octal number. If no digit is > given, the null character is taken as the separator. > Other switches may follow the digits. -00 turns Ruby > into paragraph mode. -0777 makes Ruby read whole file > at once as a single string since there is no legal > character with that value. > > -C directory > Causes Ruby to switch to the directory. > > -F pattern > Specifies input field separator ("$;"). > > -I directory > Used to tell Ruby where to load the library scripts. > Directory path will be added to the load-path variable > ("$:"). > > -K kcode > Specifies KANJI (Japanese) encoding. > > -S Makes Ruby use the PATH environment variable to search > for script, unless if its name begins with a slash. > This is used to emulate #! on machines that don't > > December 3Last0change: Ruby Programmers Reference Guide 3 > > UNIX RUBY(1) > > support it, in the following manner: > > #! /usr/ruby/bin/ruby > # This line makes the next one a comment in Ruby \ > exec /usr/ruby/bin/ruby -S $0 $* > > -T[level] > Turns on taint checks at the specified level (default > 1). > > -a Turns on auto-split mode when used with -n or -p. In > auto-split mode, Ruby executes > $F = $_.split > at beginning of each loop. > > -c Causes Ruby to check the syntax of the script and exit > without executing. If there are no syntax errors, Ruby > will print ``Syntax OK'' to the standard output. > > -d > > --debug > Turns on debug mode. "$DEBUG" will be set to true. > > -e command > Specifies script from command-line while telling Ruby > not to search the rest of arguments for a script file > name. > > -h > > --help > Prints a summary of the options. > > -i extension > Specifies in-place-edit mode. The extension, if speci- > fied, is added to old file name to make a backup copy. > For example: > > % echo matz > /tmp/junk > % cat /tmp/junk > matz > % ruby -p -i.bak -e '$_.upcase!' /tmp/junk > % cat /tmp/junk > MATZ > > December 3Last0change: Ruby Programmers Reference Guide 4 > > UNIX RUBY(1) > > % cat /tmp/junk.bak > matz > > -l (The lowercase letter ``ell''.) Enables automatic > line-ending processing, which means to firstly set "$\" > to the value of "$/", and secondly chops every line > read using chop!. > > -n Causes Ruby to assume the following loop around your > script, which makes it iterate over file name arguments > somewhat like sed -n or awk. > > while gets > ... > end > > -p Acts mostly same as -n switch, but print the value of > variable "$_" at the each end of the loop. For exam- > ple: > > % echo matz | ruby -p -e '$_.tr! "a-z", "A-Z"' > MATZ > > -r library > Causes Ruby to load the library using require. It is > useful when using -n or -p. > > -s Enables some switch parsing for switches after script > name but before any file name arguments (or before a > --). Any switches found there are removed from ARGV > and set the corresponding variable in the script. For > example: > > #! /usr/local/bin/ruby -s > # prints "true" if invoked with `-xyz' switch. > print "true\n" if $xyz > > On some systems "$0" does not always contain the full > pathname, so you need the -S switch to tell Ruby to > search for the script if necessary. To handle embedded > spaces or such. A better construct than "$*" would be > ${1+"$@"}, but it does not work if the script is being > interpreted by csh(1). > > -v > > December 3Last0change: Ruby Programmers Reference Guide 5 > > UNIX RUBY(1) > > --verbose > Enables verbose mode. Ruby will print its version at > the beginning, and set the variable "$VERBOSE" to true. > Some methods print extra messages if this variable is > true. If this switch is given, and no other switches > are present, Ruby quits after printing its version. > > -w Enables verbose mode without printing version message > at the beginning. It sets the "$VERBOSE" variable to > true. > > -x[directory] > Tells Ruby that the script is embedded in a message. > Leading garbage will be discarded until the first that > starts with ``#!'' and contains the string, ``ruby''. > Any meaningful switches on that line will applied. The > end of script must be specified with either EOF, "^D" > ("control-D"), "^Z" ("control-Z"), or reserved word > __END__. If the directory name is specified, Ruby will > switch to that directory before executing script. > > -y > > --yydebug > Turns on compiler debug mode. Ruby will print a bunch > of internal state messages during compiling scripts. > You don't have to specify this switch, unless you are > going to debug the Ruby interpreter. > > ENVIRONMENT > RUBYLIB > A colon-separated list of directories that are added to > Ruby's library load path ("$:"). Directories from this > environment variable are searched before the standard > load path is searched. > > e.g.: > RUBYLIB="$HOME/lib/ruby:$HOME/lib/rubyext" > > RUBYOPT > Additional Ruby options. > > e.g. > RUBYOPT="-w -Ke" > > RUBYPATH > > December 3Last0change: Ruby Programmers Reference Guide 6 > > UNIX RUBY(1) > > A colon-separated list of directories that Ruby > searches for Ruby programs when the -S flag is speci- > fied. This variable precedes the PATH environment > variable. > > RUBYSHELL > The path to the system shell command. This environment > variable is enabled for only mswin32, mingw32, and OS/2 > platforms. If this variable is not defined, Ruby > refers to COMSPEC. > > PATH Ruby refers to the PATH environment variable on calling > Kernel#system. > > RUBYLIB_PREFIX > This variable is obsolete. > > AUTHORS > Ruby is designed and implemented by Yukihiro Matsumoto > <matz at netlab.jp>. > > December 3Last0change: Ruby Programmers Reference Guide 7 > > -- Prashant Srinivasan F/OSS Enthusiast Sun Microsystems, Inc. http://blogs.sun.com/prashant GnuPG key: http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x82FBDE5A
