[Nix-dev] nix + rubygems + sinatra

[Nicolas Pierron]

On Tue, Mar 3, 2009 at 08:16, Pjotr Prins <pjotr.public12 at thebird.nl> wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 02, 2009 at 07:17:59PM -0800, Jim Pick wrote:
>> I'd actually like to come up with an automated way of generating nix
>> expressions from Ruby gems, if that is possible.
>
> 3- Have gem work with ruby in Nix profile (current 'solution')
>    - Pro: works with right installation permissions
>                - Con: makes Nix Ruby package inconsistent - package installs in
>                        Ruby directory /nix/store/ruby-afd980... (BAD)

I think this might be what we should be looking at, I have already
talk about mutable install (like texlive) which can be handled in a
generic ways by the mean of packages handler to generate a ruby
install with the gem that you want.

We should try to follow default installation rules as close as
possible because this will ease the installation.  As Nix does the
installation, this should be done inside a Nix expression and not with
a user command which can change between multiple systems.

Modifying gem installer is not a good solution because we don't want
to have our own version of every special package manager.  Moreover we
don't have enough work force to track modifications made in all other
package manager to handle our problem.  Even if this solution may look
nicely integrated into Nix, this would be a nightmare to maintain
because this cannot scale on all projects.  On the other hand we can
provide a Nix wrapper which emulates the installer command line (less
work and no need to modify the original installer).

-- 
Nicolas Pierron
http://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolasbpierron
- If you are doing something twice then you should try to do it once.