Kassis Netz / blog

This is my personal note on what needs to be done to create a new ruby gem and to update it during development process.

Updating the tools

First of all, let’s update our tools. Skip this step if you’re in a hurry or have updated recently

$ curl -L get.rvm.io | bash -s stable --ruby
$ 

This may take a while. However, this will nowadays install ruby 2.0. If you still stick to ruby 1.9.3, remove the --ruby switch and install the latest ruby version manually:

$ curl -L get.rvm.io | bash -s stable
$ rvm install 1.9.3
$ 

Create the gem

Choose a location for your source. I’ll put them in ~/Projects/Gems, so

$ cd ~/Projects/Gems
$ bundle gem ultimate-gemname
$ cd ultimate-gemname
$ git ci
$ 

This will commit the initially created structure as master commit. I use to add the commands I executed to the commit message, so my message looks like

Create new gem

Commands:
  bundle gem ultimate-gemname

Now we have our first commit saved locally. To push this to github we use the hub script

$ hub create
$ 

Assuming you have set up the necessary values for your github repo in ~/.gitconfig, you should see the new repository when browsing to https://github.com/.

Now it’s a good time to check the LICENSE.txt and edit the README.md file and push the changes afterwards with

$ git push -u origin master
$ 

Coding

Now write a test, let it fail, add the code, commit, refactor, commit, …

Then push it.

Using the gem

First install it locally

$ rake install
$ 

Then use it elsewhere. Be careful with using the same ruby version if you’re using rvm.

    require 'ultimate-gemname'

After a change, you have to uninstall it first.

$ gem uninstall ultimate-gemname
$ rake install
$ 

Releasing

Not tried yet, but a simple

$ rake release
$ 

should do the trick.