Ruby Gems in Hoary

[Nicholas H.Tollervey]

Hi,

I want to make use of Ruby Gems in Hoary. After following the
instructions at:

http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-12109.html

I still can't get the thing to work.

I've tried compiling Ruby from source, grabbing the correct packages
from Hoary via apt and even the latest nightly snapshot from the ruby site.

Each time, ruby compiles and works fine. Yet when I run the:

ruby setup.rb

command from within the rubygems directory (rubygems is not in Hoary or
Debian AFAICT) I get the following output:

<code>

#ruby setup.rb
---> bin
<--- bin
---> lib
---> lib/rubygems
<--- lib/rubygems
<--- lib
---> bin
<--- bin
---> lib
---> lib/rubygems
<--- lib/rubygems
<--- lib
rm -f InstalledFiles
---> bin
mkdir -p /usr/local/bin/
install gemwhich /usr/local/bin/
install gem /usr/local/bin/
install gem_server /usr/local/bin/
install generate_yaml_index.rb /usr/local/bin/
install update_rubygems /usr/local/bin/
<--- bin
---> lib
mkdir -p /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/
install ubygems.rb /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/
install rubygems.rb /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/
install gemconfigure.rb /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/
---> lib/rubygems
mkdir -p /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems
install specification.rb /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems
install builder.rb /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems
install command.rb /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems
install config_file.rb /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems
install custom_require.rb /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems
install doc_manager.rb /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems
install format.rb /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems
install cmd_manager.rb /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems
install gem_runner.rb /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems
install installer.rb /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems
install loadpath_manager.rb /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems
install old_format.rb /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems
install open-uri.rb /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems
install package.rb /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems
install remote_installer.rb /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems
install rubygems_version.rb /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems
install source_index.rb /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems
install deployment.rb /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems
install timer.rb /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems
install user_interaction.rb /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems
install validator.rb /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems
install version.rb /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems
install gem_commands.rb /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems
install dependency_list.rb /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems
<--- lib/rubygems
<--- lib

As of RubyGems 0.8.0, library stubs are no longer needed.
Searching $LOAD_PATH for stubs to optionally delete (may take a while)...
...done.
No library stubs found.

/usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:18:in
`require__': no such file to load -- zlib (LoadError)
        from
/usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:18:in `require'
        from /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/package.rb:9
        from
/usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:18:in
`require__'
        from
/usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:18:in `require'
        from /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/builder.rb:1
        from
/usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:18:in
`require__'
        from
/usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:18:in `require'
        from /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems.rb:61:in
`manage_gems'
         ... 7 levels...
        from setup.rb:887:in `exec_install'
        from setup.rb:705:in `invoke'
        from setup.rb:674:in `invoke'
        from setup.rb:1352
root at ntoll:/usr/local/rubygems-0.8.10 #

</code>

Obviously there is a problem concerning zlib. However, I don't know
enough about the Ruby source-code or gems to hack it myself, and my
suspicion is that its a Hoary / Debian only thing as I know these
packages work in other linux distros. Neither do the Hoary ruby packages
(yes I checked the zlib-ruby package was installed) work either.

I want to use gems to be able to package and download gems from the
internet. I especially want to grab rails which isn't in Hoary (yet?).

Comments, help and suggestions are greatly appreciated. If you require
further info about the context of this problem just drop me a line.

Regards,

Nicholas