Comment 24 for bug 145267

On 28/05/2008, Lucas Nussbaum <email address hidden> wrote:
> For each Debian package where a gem also exists, you would have to
> modify the Debian package to use the alternatives system. That clearly
> doesn't work.

Why not?

Surely that should be part of the packaging wrapper for a package that
is also a rubygem and which generates executables. (which would
include putting the appropriate data files in the gem data area to
tell gem that the facility is installed so that gem dependencies work
correctly).

It's all about making the debian packages co-operate with gem. They
can co-operate through the alternatives system and avoid standing on
each others toes.

I would think that apt packages generated would be those where gem
normally compiles (like mongrel). In which case there is a dependency
on the ruby version and the binary should really be called
'mongrel_rails1.8' anyway.

I would suggest that gem installs its binaries in
/var/lib/gems/1.x/bin. Packaging creates packages for each version of
ruby (eg. mongrel1.8, mongrel1.9), installs the binaries as
/usr/bin/<whatever>1.x and alternatives is used to create
/usr/bin/<whatever>

--
Neil Wilson