rubyforge & mirrors

[Frank Reiff]

Hi,

I apologize in advance if this is a typical newbie question and has been
answered a million times already. I have searched the group and the
internet for a solution but found nothing that works.

It looks like rubyforge is down (once again) and I'm getting a bit sick
of putting my projects on hold for a while until the rubyforge server
problems have been sorted out.. BTW why is this down half the time and
isn't it time to build some kind of redunancy into gem?

Now I'm telling myself "Why not use a mirror?" I'm getting none too far
with this idea though, presumably because I don't have a reliable list
of mirrors.. (this is probably on rubyforge?)

I try something like:

gem install fcgi -- --source http://rubyforge.planetargon.com/
--with-fcgi-include=/usr/local/include --with-fcgi-lib=/usr/local/lib

only to get

ERROR: While executing gem ... (OpenURI::HTTPError)
404 Not Found

Could somebody help with a real mirror url or correct my command line?

Thanks a lot for your time.

Best regards,

Frank

 

[Vincent Fourmond]

It looks like rubyforge is down (once again) and I'm getting a bit sick
of putting my projects on hold for a while until the rubyforge server
problems have been sorted out..

Well, if you had read the (recent) postings, you would have come
across this one

http://blade.nagaokaut.ac.jp/cgi-bin/scat.rb/ruby/ruby-talk/225758

Moreover, I'd like to remind you that rubyforge is providing free
services... you can't expect it to be always working as you would like
it to. But if you think it is really down too often, consider donating ?

[...]

As for the rest of your question, I'm not a gem wizard.

Vince

 

[Jan Svitok]

Hi,

I apologize in advance if this is a typical newbie question and has been
answered a million times already. I have searched the group and the
internet for a solution but found nothing that works.

It looks like rubyforge is down (once again) and I'm getting a bit sick
of putting my projects on hold for a while until the rubyforge server
problems have been sorted out.. BTW why is this down half the time and
isn't it time to build some kind of redunancy into gem?

Now I'm telling myself "Why not use a mirror?" I'm getting none too far
with this idea though, presumably because I don't have a reliable list
of mirrors.. (this is probably on rubyforge?)

I try something like:

gem install fcgi -- --source http://rubyforge.planetargon.com/
--with-fcgi-include=/usr/local/include --with-fcgi-lib=/usr/local/lib

only to get

ERROR: While executing gem ... (OpenURI::HTTPError)
404 Not Found

Could somebody help with a real mirror url or correct my command line?

Thanks a lot for your time.

1. how to use the planetargon mirror:

from: http://www.robbyonrails.com/articles/2005/10/18/rubygems-mirror-to-kill-the-wait
gem install --source
http://rubyforge.planetargon.com/gems.rubyforge.org whatever
but it seems a bit* outdated (* = 1 year)

2. the default sources are specified in 'source' gem. It seems that
you can specify more sources there (rubygems/remote_installer.rb:472;
the --source option allows only one: rubygems/command.rb:242)

 

[Tom Copeland]

It looks like rubyforge is down (once again) and I'm getting a bit sick
of putting my projects on hold for a while until the rubyforge server
problems have been sorted out.. BTW why is this down half the time

Hi Frank -

Yup, RubyForge has been spotty lately. Here's a post from yesterday
discussing some of the recent problems and plans to make things better:

http://blade.nagaokaut.ac.jp/cgi-bin/scat.rb/ruby/ruby-talk/225701

and
isn't it time to build some kind of redunancy into gem?

Yup, that's in the works too.

Folks who are interested in listening in and contributing to RubyForge
admin discussions, please join this new list:

http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/support-admins

I'll try to post any ongoing problems there and would appreciate input
from more experienced sysadmins.

Now I'm telling myself "Why not use a mirror?" I'm getting none too far
with this idea though, presumably because I don't have a reliable list
of mirrors.. (this is probably on rubyforge?)

Sad but true! However, I put a link to one of the mirrors here:

http://tomcopeland.blogs.com/juniordeveloper/2006/10/rubyforge_down.html

so that when RubyForge is down you can still get files.

Yours,

Tom

 

[Tom Copeland]

1. how to use the planetargon mirror:

from: http://www.robbyonrails.com/articles/2005/10/18/rubygems-mirror-to-kill-the-wait
gem install --source
http://rubyforge.planetargon.com/gems.rubyforge.org whatever
but it seems a bit* outdated (* = 1 year)

Yup, I'd suggest using the mirror listed here, which is rsync'd whenever
a new gem is released:

http://tomcopeland.blogs.com/juniordeveloper/2006/10/rubyforge_down.html

But it doesn't have the gem indexing data, so you'll need to download
the files manually rather than with the gem client. I'll see what I can
do about generating a gem index there.

Yours,

Tom

 

[Frank Reiff]

Thanks for everybody who replied. I got it working now and have my first
fast-cgi served ruby app up and running

I don't mean to disparage Tom or anybody else on this list: I'm very
thankful for your help and respect your commitment.

 

[Tom Copeland]

Thanks for everybody who replied. I got it working now and have my first
fast-cgi served ruby app up and running

I don't mean to disparage Tom or anybody else on this list: I'm very
thankful for your help and respect your commitment.

No offense taken; I know it's frustrating to try to install something
and for the server to be down. Growing pains and all that; we'll get it
sorted out...

Yours,

Tom

 

[Tom Copeland]

Yup, that's in the works too.

OK, now you can install gems from one of the gem mirrors; just use:

===================
gem install --source http://gems.rubyforge.vm.bytemark.co.uk some_gem
===================

I've posted this on my "rubyforge down" blog entry as well.

Thanks to Bytemark for continuing to host this mirror!

Yours,

Tom

 

[Jan Svitok]

gem install --source http://gems.rubyforge.vm.bytemark.co.uk some_gem

Just an idea: what about issue a new version of sources gem with all
the mirrors added to it?

Pros: automatic failover - the gem will be installed/updated from any of them
Cons: slower operation (more index updates), more network traffic

Possible variations: sources could randomly choose one source,
override from ENV, etc...

 

[Tom Copeland]

Just an idea: what about issue a new version of sources gem with all
the mirrors added to it?

Pros: automatic failover - the gem will be installed/updated from any of them
Cons: slower operation (more index updates), more network traffic

Another tricky bit is that currently if someone wants to stop serving
gems we can just remove them from the mirror redirect. Storing the
server list on the client complicates that a bit.

Also, with a centralized list we can balance the load, so if it's too
heavy on one of the gems we can reduce the redirections to the mirror.

But really, neither of those problems have come up yet, so they may not
be a big deal.

Yours,

tom

 

[Jan Svitok]

Another tricky bit is that currently if someone wants to stop serving
gems we can just remove them from the mirror redirect. Storing the
server list on the client complicates that a bit.

Also, with a centralized list we can balance the load, so if it's too
heavy on one of the gems we can reduce the redirections to the mirror.

But really, neither of those problems have come up yet, so they may not
be a big deal.

Yours,

tom

It could be enough for the 'removed' server to serve empty index, if
that's acceptable - still the url has to be up, but the bandwith is
much lower...

 

[Tom Copeland]

It could be enough for the 'removed' server to serve empty index, if
that's acceptable - still the url has to be up, but the bandwith is
much lower...

Yup, not a bad idea at all...

Yours,

Tom