niczsoft

In /ruby you have a lot of flexibility in writing code, this includes possibility to not initialize an object.
I use this for testing my initializers, here are some examples how to do it.

Lets start with ruby class:

class TestMe
  attr_reader :value
  def initialize(value = nil)
    @value = value
  end
end

It’s a simple example where only initialize can set a value, usually you use more advanced code, but this is just a minimal example.

Now lets test it:

describe TestMe do
  subject do
    TestMe.allocate
  end

  it "has default value" do
    subject.send :initialize
    subject.value.must_equal nil
  end

  it "sets value" do
    subject.send :initialize, 3
    subject.value.must_equal 3
  end

end

For more real live examples of allocate check

• https://github.com/remote-exec/ruby-hooks/blob/master/test/ruby/hooks/hook_test.rb
• https://github.com/mpapis/contributors_stats/blob/master/test/contributors_stats/formatter_test.rb
• https://github.com/rvm/pluginator/blob/master/test/pluginator/autodetect_test.rb
• https://github.com/lsegal/yard/blob/master/spec/server/router_spec.rb

Hello Ruby Lovers,

First off, I want to thank everyone who has donated to the RVM 2.0 fundraiser so far. Every contribution counts and I appreciate them all, no matter how small! I would also like to thank EngineYard for their sponsorship of RVM over the last two years, which has allowed me to add:

• tests,
• stable releases,
• ruby binaries, and
• automatic dependency installation (autolibs)

…among many others.

Working solely on RVM 1.x for the last few years has given me a unique view into the Ruby community. I discovered some of the most common issues users run into and tried to address them in RVM by automating installation and configuration to improve everyone’s experience with Ruby (both newcomers and experienced developers).

It was also during this time that I realized that maintaining a huge project in shell (20,000 lines) isn’t possible — it’s hard to separate modules, it’s hard to test, and advanced algorithms either slow down or need to be simplified to shell coding limitations. All of these lead to the idea of rewriting RVM in Ruby.

Initially, I resisted the idea of rewriting RVM in Ruby since there were some ideas touching static ZSH. However, thanks to DRUG, I was convinced. It seemed all the elements were in place, most importantly, binary rubies which are required for easy bootstrapping. As such, I came up with the RVM 2.0 slogan: “with RVM 2.0, you get one Ruby for free”.

I believe in Ruby. I believe it can be used for more than just web applications. We have a vast ecosystem of gems and Ruby implementations and we are constantly discovering new ways to use Ruby, like Rubinius X, JRuby 9k and Shoes 4. I want RVM 2.0 to become one of those projects that shapes the future of Ruby, and with your help, it can.

If you use RVM personally, please show your support. If you use RVM at work, please encourage your employer to show their support. Everything counts!

https://www.bountysource.com/fundraisers/489-rvm-2-0

Cheers,
Michal

Security is hard, it requires knowing your system is vulnerable, you should assume it is, but many Ruby on Rails developers seem to forget about it.

I’m writing this because a security vulnerability is promoted and it has to be stopped. The problem is adding bin, ./bin or $pwd/bin to $PATH. This is extended version of the problem with . in $PATH described here http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Path-12.html.

When bin or it’s variation is in $PATH, attacker can place there executable that will be executed instead of system files and gives attacker possibility to run code on your system easily. This is described better here (for the . case): http://www.dankalia.com/tutor/01005/0100501004.htm.

So why would anyone advice us to jeopardize our system? The answer is bundle exec, it is so long to write and is required to run proper versions of gems placed in Gemfile. To avoid calling it the bundler gem introduces binstubs, many developers advised adding the bin variation to $PATH to simplify calling bin/binary to just binary.

I guess you are thinking now “how is it relevant, I do review my code before running any commands”, the question is “are you?”. There is a lot of tools and extensions to shell that run commands for you, the simplest would be using PS1 to display git status, something like \u@\h:\w $(git branch) > it will execute a git command when displaying the prompt. So when someone writes bin/git into the repository – it will be executed before you can review code after git pull. The prompt and pre command hooks are very popular now and give a lot of options for attackers when bin is in $PATH.

“What should I do then?”

First, you can stop being lazy and type bin/rake or bundle exec rake this way Bundler will be loaded without the possibility to add extra code to your $PATH.

Another solution that helps to fix this problem – I wrote a gem rubygems-bundler which automates calling bundle exec, it does check if the executed binary is part of Gemfile and automatically calls Bundler.setup when needed, this eliminates the need to use binstubs wrappers.

Two weeks ago I was asked to review book “Instant Sinatra Starter”, usually I get bored by technical books so I try to avoid them, this time I thought I can give it a try.

I need to point out on beginning that my review might be biased as I am maintainer of RVM, which got very low coverage in the book. It would cut few pages of unnecessary instructions that are system specific if RVM was used in the book.

Although I do not agree with few technical explanations and encouraged practices I found the book quite good and it guided me nice through Sinatra. The book goes into deep details about explaining every aspect of working with Sinatra, starting with very simple examples and extending progressively to the point where user can build full web app based on database. With more advanced topics the instructions get more tight missing some interesting details.

The book does not only focus on building the application but also on online hosting sources and application itself so it can be shared with others – the opensource model. Unfortunately the book in some categories goes into deep detail describing something like in case of templates, I think some diversity would help a bit, like beginning with basics of ERB templates and then going into detail of Slim templates, where now it starts and ends with Slim.

I would recommend this book for people wanting to start with ruby, it gives an easy start with great effects and multiple possibilities to play around and share results with friends. As good the book is for beginners I do not think more advanced users would consider it much useful, the book does end up to early not showing a bit more advanced topics like testing or modularization. Finally as tempting it is to use very small framework any app with few database tables, authentication and authorization will require reimplementing rails – so keep it small with Sinatra, for any bigger projects pick Rails.

It’s a bit over a year as I work as RVM maintainer with over one and half year (19 months) of contributing to the project.

As I work on the project it was always improved, we spent a lot of time responding to user requests. At first I was helping Wayne E. Seguin the original author and later I took over as maintainer. We have been working hard in our free time to improve the first ruby environment switcher. We also had a lot of ideas how to make things better, but because it was our free time we were not always able to make all the ideas happen even implementing them would be as simple as just few lines change.

Today I want to share history of one of that ideas, automatic environment switching using a shell hook PROMPT_COMMAND => http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Bash-Prompt-HOWTO/x264.html, it is very easy idea allowing to execute piece of code every time user prompt is to be displayed. It was supposed to solve some limitations of overwriting builtin change directory command – cd, especially not rereading project file when it’s updated.

Before we were able to implement it a new project come to life – rbenv, it was also intended to do the environment switching but a lot simpler. Among of a lot of promotional keywords rbenv was accusing rvm of overwriting cd, which is considered harmful by rbenv author. To not feed the propaganda of a new tool rvm team has dropped all ideas related to accusations from rbenv. Among other interesting ideas rvm dropped also the idea of using PROMPT_COMMAND.

As time passes a lot of new tools was created to do the same thing – switching ruby environments. One of the tools is chruby, one of the most minimalistic implementations. I was helping from time to time the author with shell code, with understanding the problem of switching environment or just discussing various aspects of the tools we work on.

Of course there was also a need for automated switching of environment in chruby, the author started with cd function implementation as this is one of the easiest ways to archive this functionality. But then I have remembered of PROMPT_COMMAND and proposed use of it, which after quick test appeared to be better solution.

Seeing the idea working I have decided to implement it also for rvm, as initially expected this is a lot simpler code and solves some of the issues. We could have this code available for rvm users one year ago, possibly we could have a lot more of good solutions if the problems were discussed instead of throwing accusations as it was done by rbenv author.

So I wanted to sum the situation here, I wanted to disapprove the method of promoting opensource in cost of other opensource software without bringing discussion, without opening not a single ticket for the project. This are practices that you use fighting “corporate” world, as opensource authors we can choose to work together put aside all the politics, and do our work together for common benefit.

On the end I would thank postmodern the author of chruby for bringing up the discussion and working towards standardizing our software.