This is an installer for Rails applications. It’s designed to allow users to install Rails apps onto their own systems with a minimum amount of effort.

This installer was originally part of Typo (typosphere.org).

Adding the installer to your Rails app

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To add the installer to your application, copy the ‘installer` file from the examples directory into your project’s ‘bin` directory, and rename it to match your application name. For example, Typo’s installer lives in ‘bin/typo`. Then modify your installer as needed, customizing the application name, support address, and required Rails version. Once this is complete, create an `installer` directory for your app and copy `examples/rails_installer_defaults.yml` into it. You can probably use it unchanged.

You should now be able to test the installer like this:

$ ruby ./bin/my_installer install /tmp/foo cwd

This will try to install your app in ‘/tmp/foo` using the current directory as a template. If you leave off the `cwd` option at the end, then the installer will look for the most recent Ruby GEM for your app, using the `application_name` line from the installer as the gem name.

Creating a Gem

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Using the installer

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