Isolate

home: github.com/jbarnette/isolate

Description

Isolate is a very simple RubyGems sandbox. It provides a way to express and automatically install your project’s Gem dependencies.

Wha?

When Isolate runs, it uses GEM_HOME, GEM_PATH, and a few other tricks to separate your code from the system’s RubyGems configuration, leaving it free to run in blissful solitude.

Isolate is very, very, very stupid simple. For a much more full-featured Gem bundler, check out Yehuda Katz and Carl Lerche’s Bundler: It does a lot of fancy AOT dependency resolution, supports non-gem (including git) resources, and is probably a better fit for you.

Requirements

RubyGems 1.8.2 or better, Ruby 1.8.7 or better.

Getting Started

Rails 2

In config/preinitializer.rb:

require "rubygems"
require "isolate/now"

In Isolate:

gem "rails", "2.3.5"
gem "aasm",  "2.0.0"

env :development, :test do
  gem "sqlite3-ruby", "1.2.5"
end

env :production do
  gem "memcached", "0.19.2"
end

Try running rake environment. Before anything else happens, Isolate will make sure you have copies of every gem you need (extend the example above to cover all your dependencies). If they’re already installed on your system Isolate will use them, otherwise a private copy will be installed under tmp/isolate.

Rails 3

In config/boot.rb:

require "rubygems"
require "isolate/now"

Construct your Isolate file as above. Be sure to remove any references to Bundler.setup and Bundler.require from config/boot.rb and config/application.rb.

Don’t forget to require files from your isolated gems in the appropriate places. Unlike bundler isolate does not automatically require any files.

Sinatra, Rack, and Anything Else

There’s nothing special about Rails, it’s just an easy first example. You can use Isolate with any library or framework by simply putting an Isolate file in the root of your project and requiring isolate/now as early as possible in the startup process.

When you’re starting up, Isolate tries to determine its environment by looking at the ISOLATE_ENV, RACK_ENV, and RAILS_ENV env vars. If none are set, it defaults to development.

Library Development

If you’re using Hoe to manage your library, you can use Isolate’s Hoe plugin to automatically install your lib’s development, runtime, and test dependencies without polluting your system RubyGems, and run your tests/specs in total isolation.

Assuming you have a recent Hoe and Isolate is installed, it’s as simple as putting:

Hoe.plugin :isolate

before the Hoe.spec call in your Rakefile.

If you’re not using Hoe, you can use an Isolate.now! block at the top of your Rakefile. See the RDoc for details.

Rake

Isolate provides a few useful Rake tasks. If you’re requiring isolate/now, you’ll get them automatically when you run Rake. If not, you can include them by requiring isolate/rake.

isolate:env

This task shows you the current Isolate settings and gems.

$ rake isolate:env

     path: tmp/isolate/ruby-1.8
      env: development
    files: Isolate

  cleanup? true
  enabled? true
  install? true
multiruby? true
   system? true
  verbose? true

[all environments]
gem rails, = 2.3.5
gem aasm, = 2.0.0

[development, test]
gem sqlite3-ruby, = 1.2.5

[production]
gem memcached, = 0.19.2

isolate:sh

This task allows you to run a subshell or a command in the isolated environment, making any command-line tools available on your PATH.

# run a single command in an isolated subshell
$ rake isolate:sh['gem list']

# run a new isolated subshell
$ rake isolate:sh

isolate:stale

This task lists gems that have a more recent released version than the one you’re using.

$ rake isolate:stale
aasm (2.0.0 < 2.1.5)

Not Gonna Happen

Autorequire. Unlike config.gems or other solutions, Isolate expects you to be a good little Rubyist and manually require the libraries you use.
Support for Git or other SCMs. You’re welcome to write an extension that supports ‘em, but Isolate itself is focused on packaged, released gems.

Installation

$ gem install isolate

License

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the ‘Software’), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ‘AS IS’, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.