Ruby.app

Application wrapper to deploy Ruby apps on macOS using MRI/C Ruby, not MacRuby or JRuby. So far, it has only been used to release Ruby/Gosu games. It can probably be adapted to wrap applications or games written in other toolkits.

The idea is that Ruby.app contains a full, universal Ruby installation. All you have to do is provide a main.rb file inside the Ruby.app/Contents/Resources/ folder that starts your game/application.

Alternatives

Why not RubyMotion?

The short answer is that this project is much older than RubyMotion. It is also free, and behaves the same as ‘MRI’ Ruby on the command-line.

Why not use the Ruby that comes with macOS, or Platypus?

The first version of Ruby.app simply ran the user-supplied main.rb file using system Ruby (/usr/bin/ruby). This is also what Platypus does. However,

• The Ruby that ships with macOS has been deprecated by Apple, and might disappear at any moment.
• Power users frequently mess around with system Ruby, at the very least they might install or remove libraries.
• Ruby/Gosu games tend to use some C extensions, and shipping these is extra painful.

Build process

• Optional: Update the Rakefile with the desired Ruby version and gems.
• Install rvm on one Intel Mac, and an ARM Mac.
• Run rake on an Intel Mac. This will install Ruby and all required gems via rvm, and then copy them into the UniversalRuby folder.
• AirDrop the folder to your ARM Mac.
• Run rake on the ARM Mac. This will build and merge ARM binaries into the UniversalRuby folder.
• Optional: If you have updated Ruby, be sure to manually update rbconfig.rb from your rvm-built Ruby (at least the version number should match).
• You should now have a self-contained Ruby installation!

Known issues

The extensions for OpenSSL and YAML will have unportable dependencies on /opt/homebrew ([https://github.com/gosu/ruby-app/issues/8](see issue #8 on GitHub)).

License

Everything in this repository has been released under the MIT license. As for the Ruby installation that is contained in binary builds of the Ruby.app, please see the licenses for Ruby and its standard library.