[MacRuby-devel] quick question about macrubyc static

[Iain Barnett]

On 21 Oct 2010, at 22:51, Laurent Sansonetti wrote:

> Hi Iain,
> 
> --static activates static compilation, an experimental feature of the MacRuby compiler. It is very different from regular compilation.
> 
> A binary generated by static compilation will statically link against a special version of MacRuby, which does not make use of the LLVM JIT compiler. Since the binary won't make use of the JIT, some features of Ruby are disabled. Also, BridgeSupport annotations are directly compiled into the binary and won't be read at runtime.
> 
> The goal of static compilation is to generate smaller executables (generally just a couple MBs) that can run on situations where JIT compilation is not an option. Because the executable embeds the runtime itself, there is no need to bundle the MacRuby framework in the app bundle. It's currently a work in progress though, so it's not recommended for general use.
> 
> Laurent
> 

Thanks for taking the time out to give this really helpful answer, it's much appreciated.

Regards,
Iain