compile error with Ruby

[Jeffrey Hutzelman]

--On Tuesday, May 26, 2009 10:37:36 AM +0200 Alan DeKok 
<aland at deployingradius.com> wrote:

>   The perl module does something similar.  The configure script asks
> Perl: What command-line options do I use to build with perl?  It
> responds: -lperl.
>
>   Q: Is libperl.so installed on the system?
>   A: No, why would it be?  What's wrong with you?
>
>   I've had arguments with the Debian people about this.  They don't see
> a problem with Perl lying to you:
>
>   D: But all you need to do is to install the perl-dev package!
>   Me: Yes... but why is Perl lying to me?
>   D: <mutters incoherently> Install perl-dev!  That's it!
>   Me: are you pretending to be dumb, or did you have to work at it?

Clearly, the tool that tells you what libraries to use should be part of 
the -dev package, so it's not present when the libraries aren't.

Unfortunately, in the case of perl that's difficult because the tool in 
question is perl itself, combined with a core module (Config) which must be 
present in order for perl to function.  Perl is a little too integrated 
with its own build system, and can't really fathom the idea that you'd 
build libperl but install perl without it.

However, that should be the exception rather than the rule.  So, the 
equivalent problem with Ruby may in fact be a minor packaging problem, 
rather than the can of worms that it is with Perl.