simple command line Ruby application

Question

I have been asked to develop a simple command line Ruby application that retrieves results from an external API with a specified search query. I have created a script to do that and made it executable using #!/usr/bin/env ruby. My script name is sampleapp.rb. So I can run it from console as

$> ./sampleapp some_argument

That is only when I am inside the file directory.

In the example given to me, the script/app was supposed to run like this:

$> sampleapp some_argument

I did a lot of research but couldn't find a way to achieve this. Please guide me here.

Also, how can I make this sampleapp global so it can be called from anywhere.

Update:

sampleapp.rb

require 'net/https'
require 'openssl'
require 'json'
require 'uri'
require 'cgi'

module Someapp

  class SampleApp

    def search(query ="")
     ...some code here ...
    end

  if ARGV.size == 0 || ARGV[0].strip == ""
    puts "Please provide search query as an argument"
  else
    query = ARGV[0].strip
    SampleApp.new.search(query)
  end
end

Assuming some *nix variant, you'd need to make it executable (chmod +x sampleapp), and have it live in a directory that's in your (or more generally the caller's) $PATH. As the already given answer suggests, one way to do this is to put it in /usr/local/bin. — Derrell Durrett
– Derrell Durrett, Commented Jul 20, 2016 at 16:07
@DerrellDurrett I doubt you understand how ruby classpath works. — Aleksei Matiushkin
– Aleksei Matiushkin, Commented Jul 20, 2016 at 16:11
There are great libraries for this take a look at thor or slop they can make this task much easier and far more friendly when scope creep causes "Simple" to all of sudden change to "Complex". — engineersmnky
– engineersmnky, Commented Jul 20, 2016 at 17:11
This is an OS question, not Ruby. The file has to be in the executable path to do what you want. — the Tin Man
– the Tin Man, Commented Jul 20, 2016 at 21:58

Aleksei Matiushkin · Accepted Answer · 2016-07-20 16:05:26Z

1

If this script does not depend on any 3rd party library (what is unlikely) and runs smoothly with system ruby, the easiest way would be to copy it to /usr/local/bin folder:

sudo cp ./sampleapp /usr/local/bin/

If it depends on other libraries, the preferred way would be to build a gem out of it, and install it with system ruby. There are many tutorials on how to produce a gem, the canonical one is likely this.

answered Jul 20, 2016 at 16:05

Aleksei Matiushkin

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9 Comments

mansoor.khan Over a year ago

I have created a gem too but I'm not sure how I'd run it as a console application. I'm updating the question with dependencies.

Aleksei Matiushkin Over a year ago

Read how to create executables and ship them with a gem in the article I linked (section “ADDING AN EXECUTABLE”.)

mansoor.khan Over a year ago

The question remains. How and what should I ship so that it runs on another machine as stated in the question?

Aleksei Matiushkin Over a year ago

A gem. When the gem will be installed on another machine, dependencies will be resolved and the executables will be automatically made available for the execution. Please read the article I linked, instead of asking questions, that are perfectly answered there.

the Tin Man Over a year ago

There is no need to copy the file to a directory, just make sure the directory is in the PATH.

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