Distribute Ruby on Rails app

Question

I'm trying to figure out a way to distribute a Rails application in a fairly standalone way. Think of Sickbeard or CouchPotato , two apps you only need Python to run.

That's basically what I want to achieve, but with Rails instead. There are some failure stories out there and some that are just too complicated, but I'm hoping that there has been some advancements in the field that I just can't find.

Is there a way to distribute a Rails application including any gems it depends on in a way you only require Ruby installed to run it?

I have no intention of trying to obfuscate the source code.

Answer 1

Just use Bundler. Mostly every new Ruby installation have RubyGems and Bundler in standard so the only thing that End-User should do is:

$ bundle install
$ rails s

And will get running app with all dependencies installed.