I ran into a problem earlier today when testing a Merb application in a shared hosting environment running Phusion Passenger. Like most shared hosts access to compilers is not allowed for obvious security reasons, this causes a problem when trying to run a Merb app. Merb makes use of RubyInline which needs to compile a C application in your home folder before it can run so when the user you’re running Merb under doesn’t have permission to run C compilers you’ll get an error similar to:

sh: /usr/bin/gcc: Permission denied

The way to get around this is to have a privileged user compile the C application for you, then copy it to your users home folder. The easiest way to do this is to generate and run a Merb app as the root user:

merb-gen app tmp-merb
merb
Ctrl+C

Then copy the RubyInline C application to the users home folder:

cp -R /root/.ruby_inline /home/<username>

Make sure the file ownership is set correctly:

chown -R <username>:<username> /home/<username>/.ruby_inline

After this you should be able to run Merb as expected. If you are still getting errors after doing this relating to file permissions you’ll need to combine this fix with from Vignet and put the .ruby_inline folder in a place accessible to both the apache user and the user running the Merb app, I’ve not tested this but it should work.

I certainly am, Merb 1.0 is due to be announced at MerbCamp on the 11th October. Right now the guys are hard at work polishing the knobs and working on documentation.

I’ve been following Merb with interest ever since I first heard about it. One of the things I found hard to keep up with-just dipping into it now and then-was the speed of development and change. Every time I had a few minutes to play with it everything had changed. Its a bit like having the rug pulled out from under you every time you manage to get to your knees.

With the 1.0 release Merb should be far more stable, and with some decent documentation I hope it will start taking off quickly. The barrier to entry will be greatly lowered. Even though I won’t be at MerbCamp I’ll certainly be following it closely.

I wonder if the 1.0 release will be promptly followed by a 1.0.1 release as is tradition.