RUBYC(1) BSD General Commands Manual RUBYC(1)
NAME
rubyc -- MacRuby Ahead-of-Time Compiler
SYNOPSIS
rubyc [options...] files...
DESCRIPTION
rubyc is a command-line interface to the MacRuby Ahead-of-Time (AOT) com-
piler. It allows static compilation of Ruby source code into machine code
objects, dynamic libraries or executables.
The Ahead-of-Time compilation process has two major advantages; the Ruby
code does not need to be parsed and compiled at runtime, which improves
the startup time of the program, and the original Ruby source code is no
longer available as is since it has been compiled down to machine code.
OPTIONS
The rubyc tool accepts the following command-line options:
-o file
Place the output into file. If this option is not given, rubyc will
try to determine a default output file name based on the object file
type that is being generated. For executables, the default is a.out.
For objects, the default is the original source file name with the
object type extension. For dynamic libraries, this option is manda-
tory.
-c Compile and assemble, but do not link. This option produces a Mach-O
object file (.o) for every Ruby source file passed to rubyc, using a
default file name which consists of the source file name with the .o
file extension. Such a file can later be passed to rubyc to create a
dynamic library or executable.
-C Compile, assemble and link a loadable object file. This option pro-
duces a Mach-O MacRuby loadable object bundle (.rbo) for every Ruby
source file passed to using a default file name which consists of
the source file name with the .rbo file extension. A MacRuby load-
able object is a Mach-O bundle compiled with a global constructor
that will evaluate the Ruby machine code once it's loaded by the
dynamic linker, at runtime, generally upon a Ruby #require state-
ment.
--static
Create a standalone, static executable. By default, executables cre-
ated by rubyc are dynamically linking against the MacRuby runtime.
This option will generate executables that are statically linking
against the MacRuby runtime, significantly increasing the binary
size but allowing its distribution on environments where MacRuby is
not installed. This option can only be used when creating executa-
bles.
--dylib
Create a dynamic library instead of an executable. This option com-
piles every Ruby source file passed to rubyc and produces a Mach-O
dynamic library (.dylib). This library is compiled with a global
constructor that will register every Ruby machine code file into the
MacRuby runtime once it's loaded by the dynamic linker, at runtime.
This library is intended to be linked against an executable that
uses the MacRuby runtime, for example executables generated by
rubyc. The -o option must be provided when building dynamic
libraries.
-a arch, --arch arch
Compile for specified CPU architecture. By default, rubyc will com-
pile for the current CPU architecture. This option will compile for
a different architecture. When this option is provided more than
once, rubyc will create a universal binary. At the time of this
writing, only the i386 and x86_64 architectures are supported.
-v, --version
Display the version.
-V, --verbose
Print every command line executed by rubyc. This option is gener-
ally used for internal debugging.
-h, --help
Display a short description of the command line options.
EXAMPLES
The easiest way to compile an existing project is probably to generate
loadable object bundles for every Ruby source file, using the -C option.
These bundles are using the .rbo file extension and can simply be
installed in the same directory as the original .rb source files. The
MacRuby runtime will always pick .rbo files in priority upon #require
calls. The source files can later be removed.
$ find src/lib -name *.rb -exec rubyc -C {} ;
rubyc without any option will create a binary executable, like the C com-
piler.
$ echo "p 42" > test.rb
$ rubyc test.rb
$ ./a.out
When building an executable, the very first file passed to rubyc will be
considered as the main file and its machine code will be ran once the
executable starts. Other machine code files will be linked into the exe-
cutable but only ran upon #require calls.
$ echo "def t1; 21; end" > t1.rb
$ echo "def t2; 21; end" > t2.rb
$ echo "require 't1'; require 't2'; p t1+t2" > test.rb
$ rubyc test.rb t1.rb t2.rb -o test
$ ./test
rubyc is also able to generate a dynamic library (.dylib) out of Ruby
source files, using the --dylib option. Such a library can later be
linked against an executable that uses the MacRuby runtime. Like executa-
bles, the Ruby machine code files will ran upon #require calls. Libraries
can also be passed to rubyc when forming an executable, allowing the com-
pilation of multiple executables sharing common code.
$ rubyc t1.rb t2.rb -o code.dylib --dylib
$ rubyc test.rb code.dylib -o test
$ ./test
SEE ALSO
ruby(1) irb(1) ruby_deploy(1)
BSD December 16, 2009 BSD