Support binary builds (like RVM does)

[rkh]

That would be a killer feature.

[postmodern]

Rubinius is working on binary builds and JRuby/MagLev already supports them. MRI is the odd one out, unless we use RVM's builds. We should eventually add alternate functions for unpacking binary installs.

[postmodern]

This would entail adding a --binary option and BINARY_INSTALL env variable which would disable downloading/compiling the source archive.

[postmodern]

JRuby and Rubinius both have binary packages. RVM provides precompiled versions of MRI. http://rvm.io/binaries/

[postmodern]

Pushing this back to 0.3.0, since binary support will require changing a considerable amount of code. 0.2.0 already has enough new features as well.

[brndnblck]

Will this make it into 0.4.0?

[postmodern]

Possibly. The problem is that RVM only supports binary builds for the latest versions of OSes, which means we'll have to fall back to compiling if the binary cannot be downloaded.

[brndnblck]

I think a binary if you can approach, but fall back to compilation would be a very reasonable solution.

[havenwood]

Or failing if no binary is available is another option, which would mean having to remove the -b flag to compile when binary installation fails.

[rkh]

Can I use ruby-install to replace https://github.com/tokaido/tokaido-build?

[postmodern]

@rkh based on the build.sh and some grepping, rvm install --movable basically adds these ./configure options:

  (( ${rvm_movable_flag:-0} > 0 ))  || return 0
  case "${_system_type}" in
    (Darwin)
      rvm_configure_flags+=(
        --enable-load-relative --with-static-linked-ext
        --with-out-ext=dl/win32,fiddle/win32,tk/tkutil,tk,win32ole,-test-/win32/dln,-test-/win32/fd_setsize
      )
      rvm_patch_names+=( osx_static )
      ;;
    (*)
      rvm_configure_flags+=( --enable-load-relative )
      ;;
  esac
  rvm_configure_flags+=( --sysconfdir=/etc )
  rvm_make_flags+=( -j3 )

You should be able to replace rvm install ruby --movable with ruby-install -i /path/to/where_ever ruby -- --enable-static --enable-load-relative.

[rkh]

Thanks, I'll give this a try after the upcoming conference action.

[rkh]

I generally would not mind replacing rvm usage at Travis CI with something I understand.

[sarahhodne]

Opened a PR for this: #138.

[FranklinYu]

rvm/rvm#4298 could be related.

[postmodern]

Noticed that RVM's binaries haven't been updated recently. Not seeing binaries for newer versions of Ubuntu, Fedora, or OSX. https://rvm.io/binaries/ That seems like a blocker for average users not using ruby-install in an older VM or docker image.

[FranklinYu]

@postmodern Yes, and rvm/rvm#4298 has been talking about it. RVM team made barely any progress about this since last year though.

[rkh]

Note that rvm also downloads binaries from http://rubies.travis-ci.org/.

[FranklinYu]

@rkh Awesome! I’m curious whether they are path-dependent though. Will need some research.

I think it would help if one picks a binary from the page, and try it in a virtual machine. At least we can verify the Ubuntu binaries this way.

[rkh]

I'm not working with Ruby in a professional setting at the moment, so I don't think I'll have time to look into this any time soon, sorry.