Installation

Installing from a gem

gem install port

Manual installation – if you have rake.

rake
sudo rake install

To uninstall: sudo rake uninstall

Manual installation – if you do NOT have rake.

change directory to ext sub-directory.
ruby extconf.rb  -> generates the Makefile.
make -> compiles the extension. Requires gcc .
copy port.so to:
 /usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/i386-linux 
 or another path in your ruby $LOAD_PATH .

Usage

If installed via gem:

require 'rubygems'
require 'port'

otherwise

require 'port'

will suffice.

Example

For an example run. time.rb as follows:

sudo ./time.rb

time.rb is in the example sub-directory. This requires root permissions to access the IO ports.

time.rb listing:

:include:example/time.rb

Who wrote port?

Port was written by Loh Siu Yin <siuyin@beyondbroadcast.com> as he needed to control external hardware devices and he wanted to do it from ruby.