= Announce: RubyGems Release 0.8.7

Time passes quickly, and so does software development.  Release 0.8.7
of RubyGems is availble for public release.  Although another point
release, you will find a number of very nice new features.

First the numbers, 220 different gems available, over 25,000
downloads of RubyGems, and nearly 190,000 gems downloads.  Thanks to
everyone for their support.

== What's New

Even though it has only been a few weeks since that last release,
there are quite a number of new features in 0.8.7.  A complete list of
new features will be given below, but here is a summary of the hot
items.

* The bug that prevented some users from installing rails has been
  squashed.  A big thanks to Bill Guindon (aGorilla) for helping track
  that one down.

There are several new commands available on the gem command:

* gem cleanup GEMNAME -- Cleanup (uninstall) all the old versions of
  gem.  If the gem name is omitted, the entire repository is cleaned.

* gem dependency GEMNAME -- Show the dependencies for the named gems.
  This is really helpful when trying to figure out what gem needs what
  other gem.

There changes to the existing commands as well.

* gem uninstall is much smarter about removing gems from the
  repository.  Lists of gems are now uninstalled in proper dependency
  order (ie. if A depends on B, A is uninstalled first).  Also,
  warnings about broken dependencies occur only when removing the
  *last* gem that supports a dependency is removed.

Both gem install and gem uninstall support some new command line
options that can reduce the amount of yes/no queries given the user.
For install we have:

* --ignore-dependencies -- Only install requests gems, no
  dependendecies are automatically installed.
* --include-dependencies -- Automatically install dependencies,
  without confirmation.

For gem uninstall, the new options are:

* --all -- Uninstall all matching gems without confirmation.
* --ignore-dependencies -- Uninstall, even if dependencies are broken.
* --executables -- Remove executables without confirmation

Under general cleanup, gems will not, by default, run RDoc on packages
that do not have the RDoc flag set.

And finally there is a new library file 'gemconfigure' to aid in
writing version sensitive applications (without undue dependencies on
RubyGems); and 'gemwhich', a short script to locate libraries in the
file system.  You can read more about them here:

* gemconfigure: http://docs.rubygems.org/read/chapter/4#page73
* gemwhich: http://docs.rubygems.org/read/chapter/17

== What is RubyGems?

RubyGems is a package management system for Ruby applications and
libraries.  RubyGems one command download makes installing Ruby software
fun and enjoyable again. (Ok, not really.)

Many gems are available for download from the RubyForge site.  Browse
the list of gems with a "gem list --remote" command and download what
you need with a simple "gem install <name-of-gem>".  RubyGems takes care
of the details of installing, not only the gem you requested, but also
any gems needed by the software you selected.

== How can I get all this great stuff?

Well, here's how ...

To download and install:

1. DOWNLOAD FROM: http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=126
2. UNPACK INTO A DIRECTORY AND CD THERE
3. INSTALL WITH:  ruby setup.rb all  (you may need admin/root privilege)

... or, if you have RubyGems version 0.8.5 or later ....

  $ gem update --system   (again, might need to be admin/root)

... If you don't have a recent RubyGems, you can still do the two-step ....

  $ gem install rubygems-update  (again, might need to be admin/root)
  $ update_rubygems              (... here too)

== Detailed Change List

This list touches on most of the user visible changes in the RubyGems
change log.  See the change log file for even more details.

* Fixed bug in cache manager that caused the cache to be reread every
  time on Windows.

* Removed annoying message about not finding .gemrc.

* Uninstall command will now accept the following options:
  * --all (uninstall all matches without query),
  * --ignore-dependencies (ignore dependency constraints while
    uninstalling),
  * --executables (remove the executables without querying).

* New command: "gem cleanup" will remove all old versions of the list
  gems (or the entire repository).

* Uninstalling now will only query if removing a gem actually will
  cause a dependency to be unfulfilled.

* A new library file "gemconfigure.rb" makes is easy to take advantage
  of dynamic versioning without becoming tied to using RubyGems.

* Source URIs given to the --source option will now assume an
  "http://" prefix if one is not given.

* New Command: "gem dependency" will show the dependency requirements
  of any installed gem.  Reverse dependencies are also supported.

== Thanks

Thanks to David Heinemeier Hansson for a number of suggestions that
made it into this release.  Also thanks go to Bill Guindon (aGorilla)
and Jim Freeze for feedback and testing of intermediate versions.

Keep those gems coming!

-- Jim & Chad (for the RubyGems team)
