nano RAILS: development, testing and hosting tidbits

Installing Rails on Mac OS X Tiger (10.4.8)

Posted on Mon Oct 16 17:56:00 UTC 2006

Just a few days ago, I had the opportunity to upgrade my iMac from a 20” to a 24”. Not only does it have more real estate on the screen, not only is the CPU slightly faster, but it also can take up to 3 Gb of RAM, from 2Gb, which is quite an improvement, especially if you like to run multiple VMs (using Parallel).

So it was quite a relief to us my notes to install Rails on Mac OS Tiger. Except that a lot has changed in the past 3 months since I last wrote that article, and before I update the page to make more sense to newcomers, I’ll just write down a few notes on what I had to do differently.

These reflect the installation on MacOS 10.4.8 and the latest version of MacPorts (as of 10/14/06).

First of all, Darwin Ports is no more: long live MacPorts!

Which means that here is a new location for darwin ports installer.

Then I uncovered a problem in the order of the steps:

Set the PATH before running “sudo port -d selfupdate”, not after as suggested.

One thing that I did not realize, is that you need to actually install a C compiler before you can get started! The easiest is to install XCode 2.4. There is a free registration you need to fill in.

I missed a sudo:

cp httpd.conf.sample httpd.conf => sudo cp httpd.conf.sample httpd.conf

The path to the launchctl file for apache2 has changed:

sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.macports.apache2.plist instead of sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.darwinports.apache2.plist

To initialize the database, you need to add:

add "sudo -u mysql mysql_install_db5"

The path to the launchctl file for mysql5 has changed as well:

sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.macports.mysql5.plist instead of sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.darwinports.mysql5.plist

replace rb-mysql5 with rb-mysql since rb-mysql supports both flavors

And that’s where it got a bit tricky. With that combination of MacOS 10.4.8 and the current version of MacPorts, rb-mysql fails to compile.

gcc -I. -I. -I/opt/local/lib/ruby/1.8/i686-darwin8.8.1 -I. -DHAVE_MYSQL_SSL_SET -DHAVE_MYSQL_H -I/opt/local/include/mysql5/mysql/ -I/usr/local/include -O -pipe -I/opt/local/include -fno-common -O -pipe -I/opt/local/include  -fno-common -pipe -fno-common  -c mysql.c
mysql.c: In function 'Init_mysql':
mysql.c:2015: error: 'ulong' undeclared (first use in this function)
mysql.c:2015: error: (Each undeclared identifier is reported only once
mysql.c:2015: error: for each function it appears in.)
mysql.c:2015: error: parse error before numeric constant
mysql.c:2018: error: parse error before numeric constant
{standard input}:6318:non-relocatable subtraction expression, "_cMysqlTime" minus "L00000000065$pb" 
{standard input}:6318:symbol: "_cMysqlTime" can't be undefined in a subtraction expression
{standard input}:5382:non-relocatable subtraction expression, "_cMysqlRowOffset" minus "L00000000045$pb" 
{standard input}:5382:symbol: "_cMysqlRowOffset" can't be undefined in a subtraction expression
{standard input}:5355:non-relocatable subtraction expression, "_cMysqlRowOffset" minus "L00000000044$pb" 
{standard input}:5355:symbol: "_cMysqlRowOffset" can't be undefined in a subtraction expression
{standard input}:5333:non-relocatable subtraction expression, "_cMysqlRowOffset" minus "L00000000044$pb" 
{standard input}:5333:symbol: "_cMysqlRowOffset" can't be undefined in a subtraction expression
{standard input}:4861:non-relocatable subtraction expression, "_cMysqlTime" minus "L00000000042$pb" 
{standard input}:4861:symbol: "_cMysqlTime" can't be undefined in a subtraction expression
{standard input}:4359:non-relocatable subtraction expression, "_cMysqlTime" minus "L00000000041$pb" 
{standard input}:4359:symbol: "_cMysqlTime" can't be undefined in a subtraction expression
{standard input}:4106:non-relocatable subtraction expression, "_eMysql" minus "L00000000041$pb" 
{standard input}:4106:symbol: "_eMysql" can't be undefined in a subtraction expression
{standard input}:3957:non-relocatable subtraction expression, "_cMysqlTime" minus "L00000000040$pb" 
{standard input}:3957:symbol: "_cMysqlTime" can't be undefined in a subtraction expression
{standard input}:3895:non-relocatable subtraction expression, "_eMysql" minus "L00000000040$pb" 
{standard input}:3895:symbol: "_eMysql" can't be undefined in a subtraction expression
{standard input}:3824:non-relocatable subtraction expression, "_eMysql" minus "L00000000039$pb" 
{standard input}:3824:symbol: "_eMysql" can't be undefined in a subtraction expression
{standard input}:3803:non-relocatable subtraction expression, "_eMysql" minus "L00000000038$pb" 
{standard input}:3803:symbol: "_eMysql" can't be undefined in a subtraction expression
{standard input}:3256:non-relocatable subtraction expression, "_cMysqlRowOffset" minus "L00000000023$pb" 
{standard input}:3256:symbol: "_cMysqlRowOffset" can't be undefined in a subtraction expression
{standard input}:3226:non-relocatable subtraction expression, "_cMysqlRowOffset" minus "L00000000022$pb" 
{standard input}:3226:symbol: "_cMysqlRowOffset" can't be undefined in a subtraction expression
{standard input}:3200:non-relocatable subtraction expression, "_cMysqlRowOffset" minus "L00000000022$pb" 
{standard input}:3200:symbol: "_cMysqlRowOffset" can't be undefined in a subtraction expression
{standard input}:2749:non-relocatable subtraction expression, "_eMysql" minus "L00000000019$pb" 
{standard input}:2749:symbol: "_eMysql" can't be undefined in a subtraction expression
{standard input}:2595:non-relocatable subtraction expression, "_eMysql" minus "L00000000018$pb" 
{standard input}:2595:symbol: "_eMysql" can't be undefined in a subtraction expression
{standard input}:2412:non-relocatable subtraction expression, "_cMysqlStmt" minus "L00000000016$pb" 
{standard input}:2412:symbol: "_cMysqlStmt" can't be undefined in a subtraction expression
{standard input}:973:non-relocatable subtraction expression, "_eMysql" minus "L00000000008$pb" 
{standard input}:973:symbol: "_eMysql" can't be undefined in a subtraction expression
{standard input}:290:non-relocatable subtraction expression, "_cMysqlField" minus "L00000000004$pb" 
{standard input}:290:symbol: "_cMysqlField" can't be undefined in a subtraction expression
{standard input}:232:non-relocatable subtraction expression, "_cMysqlRes" minus "L00000000003$pb" 
{standard input}:232:symbol: "_cMysqlRes" can't be undefined in a subtraction expression
{standard input}:190:non-relocatable subtraction expression, "_eMysql" minus "L00000000002$pb" 
{standard input}:190:symbol: "_eMysql" can't be undefined in a subtraction expression
make: *** [mysql.o] Error 1

At this point your are either stuck waiting for an update version, or if you are not afraid to dip into the code, you can arm-twist it into working by following these steps:

rb-mysql patch

These steps should be fairly simple to follow:

cd /opt/local/var/db/dports/build/_opt_local_var_db_dports_sources_rsync.rsync.darwinports.org_dpupdate_dports_ruby_rb-mysql/work/mysql-ruby-2.7.1
sudo ruby extconf.rb --with-mysql-include=/opt/local/include/mysql5/mysql/ --with-mysql-lib=/opt/local/lib/mysql5/mysql/

add '#include "my_global.h"' to mysql.c (as the first #include)
sudo make clean
sudo make
sudo make install

And voila. Running the tests will show 3 failing tests, mostly due to imprecisions, but I think you can live with them. Further testing with rails apps did not reveal any problems with MySQL access.

Note: I’ve contacted the maintainer of that port but I have not heard back yet. I will update this post when I do.

A few bonus gems I’ve found helpful, or can’t live without

And since you are in setup mode, you might as well add them to your collection.

sudo gem install acts_as_versioned ajax_scaffold_generator BlueCloth builder fastercsv ferret gettext  htmltools mocha payment radiant  radius rcov rdig RedCloth ruby-debug rubyful_soup selenium shipping
sudo gem install map_by_method what_methods

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Posted in Mac, Rails  |  Tags osx  |  8 comments

Switching back to MacOS

Posted on Mon Jun 19 17:07:00 UTC 2006

The main reason for switching back to MacOS is the switch back to Intel. That had been the main inhibitor for a long time. I have a few sotwares that only run on Windows and with Parallels, this looks like it is going to be easy to run them. So for father’s day, I got a shiny new 20” iMac (Thank you!). I have been quite impressed with Apple lately, both from a Design perspective, but also from their overall strategy and execution of that strategy. What a change from that near death experience. The iMac is really a neat machine. The screen quality is outstanding, and the speed is great; I haven’t done any benchmarks, but just judging by how Firefox behaves, that’s pretty impressive.

Over the years I’ve used computers, I have probably used the whole spectrum of personal computers. Primarily Windows and Linux for the past 10 years. Macs for the 5 years before that. I was never quite out of the Mac altogehter since my wife insisted that she needed a Mac (having worked at Apple and all that…), but that wasn’t mine, I was just doing the support if something went wrong.

My first Mac was a Mac IIx, with a whopping 1Mb of RAM, courtesy of Apple France, back in 1989. That wasn’t my first computer, that one was a ZX81 from Sinclair, with 2Kb of RAM. Seems hard to imagine now. Especially now that my shiny new iMac came with 512Mb, and I felt that wasn’t quite enough, so I had to go to Fry’s and get 2Gb. Now that’s better!

Installing the RAM was a no brainer. I only found that Apple article after the fact, but it was easy to figure out, plus underneath the base, there are some instructions too. There are only 2 apparent screws on the whole things, plus a couple or torx ones, but I started with the regular ones, and bingo, there was the RAM.

So now I’m off with my hair on fire running around and setting things up. I’ve got quite a long list of things to install, figure out and tinker with. Things like updating Ruby, install TextMate, get an Rails app running, … I’ve already scoped out a few pointers in case I run into trouble.

Oh, there’s one more thing I could not stand for very long: the single-button-no-wheel-mouse! As part of the same trip to Fry’s, I got a bluetooth mouse from macally, the BTMOUSEJR and I can now scroll, and context click right from the mouse. The Apple mouse is really slick looking, and totally unpractical too! Steve, do something please ;) I have had some trouble with that mouse after the system came back from sleep mode, because it was no longer paired, but after reading the FAQ, it was just a matter of clicking the left and right button for a few seconds, and the mouse wakes up and everything is fine.

So over the upcoming weeks, in addition to Debina/Ubuntu stories, you can expect to also see quite a few Mac related posts.

Now, back to my long list, starting with Windows and Dapper Drake… I’ll keep you posted!

Posted in Mac, News  |  Tags osx  |  0 comments