Now that GemCutter is becoming the standard host for gems, deploying gems couldn’t be easier!

We no longer need tools like hoe, newgem, bones, jeweler or others. Sure, these tools may still be useful, but we don’t need them to create simple gems!

Let’s say you have a Ruby file that you want to share with people. It lets objects bark.

1 class Object
2   def bark
3     puts "woof!  I am #{ self.to_s }!"
4   end
5 end

Very cool library. Let’s share it!

• Create a new directory … let’s call it object-bark
• Create a lib directory and put your ruby file in it, so you have object-bark/lib/object-bark.rb
• Create a object-bark.gemspec file with the following content …

1 Gem::Specification.new do |s|
2   s.name = 'object-bark'
3   s.version = '0.1.0'
4   s.summary = 'Lets object bark!'
5   s.files = Dir['lib/**/*.rb']
6 end

• Run gem build object-bark.gemspec and you should end up with a object-bark-0.1.0.gem file
• Run gem install object-bark-0.1.0.gem to install the gem locally or, if you want, you can …
• Run gem push object-bark-0.1.0.gem to push the gem to GemCutter, for all to use! (requires the gemcutter gem)

Once your gem is installed, you can use it like any other:

 1 $ irb
 2 >> require 'rubygems'
 3 => true
 4 >> require 'object-bark'
 5 => true
 6 >> Object.bark
 7 woof!  I am Object!
 8 => nil
 9 >> 5.bark
10 woof!  I am 5!
11 => nil

That’s basically all there is to it! To watch me make a gem and ramble on, giving pointers here and there, watch the screencast.

Enjoy!