• ocra.rubyforge.org/

• rubyforge.org/projects/ocra/

• github.com/larsch/ocra/

OCRA (One-Click Ruby Application) builds Windows executables from Ruby source code. The executable is a self-extracting, self-running executable that contains the Ruby interpreter, your source code and any additionally needed ruby libraries or DLL.

• LZMA Compression (optional, default on)

• Windows support only

• Ruby 1.9 support

• Both windowed/console mode supported

If you experience problems with OCRA or have found a bug, please use the tracker on the RubyForge project page rubyforge.org/projects/ocra/. You are welcome to ask questions in the forums there aswell.

• Clean up using manual recursive deletion (not SHop).

ocra [option] script.rb

• Will package “script.rb”, the Ruby interpreter and all dependencies (gems and DLLs) into an executable named “script.exe”.

• OCRA will load your script (using Kernel#load) and build the executable when it exits.

• Your program should ‘require’ all necessary files when invoked without arguments, so OCRA can detect all dependencies.

• DLLs are detected automatically but only those located in your Ruby installation are included.

• .rb files will become console applications. .rbw files will become windowed application (without a console window popping up). Alternatively, use the --console or --windows options.

• The ‘current working directory’ is not changed by OCRA when running your application. You must change to the installation or temporary directory yourself. See also below.

• When the application is running, the OCRA_EXECUTABLE environment variable points to the .exe (with full path).

• The temporary location of the script can be obtained by inspected the $0 variable.

• OCRA does not set up the include path. Use $:.unshift File.dirname($0) at the start of your script if you need to ‘require’ additional source files from the same directory as your main script.

• Avoid modifying load paths at run time. Specify load paths using -I or RUBYLIB if you must, but don’t expect OCRA to preserve them for runtime. OCRA may pack sources into other directories than you expect.

• If you use .rbw files or the --windows option, then check that your application works with rubyw.exe before trying with OCRA.

• Avoid absolute paths in your code and when invoking OCRA.

• Windows

• Working Ruby installation

• MinGW Installation (when working with the source code only)

gem install ocra

Can also be downloaded from rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=8185

Get ocrasa.rb from rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=8185. Requires nothing but a working Ruby installation on Windows.

OCRA first runs the target script in order to detect any files that are loaded and used at runtime (Using Kernel#require and Kernel#load).

OCRA embeds everything needed to run a Ruby script into a single executable file. The file contains the .exe stub which is compiled from C-code, and a custom opcode format containing instructions to create directories, save files, set environment variables and run programs. The OCRA script generates this executable and the instructions to be run when it is launched.

When executed, the OCRA stub extracts the Ruby interpreter and your scripts into a temporary directory. The directory will contains the same directory layout as your Ruby installlation. The source files for your application will be put in the ‘src’ subdirectory.

Rubygems will be automatically included in the OCRA executable.

Libraries found in non-standard path (for example, if you invoke OCRA with “ruby -I some/path”) will be placed into the site dir (lib/ruby/site_ruby). Avoid changing $LOAD_PATH or $: from your script to include paths outside your source tree, since OCRA may place the files elsewhere when extracted into the temporary directory.

Autoloaded libraries (Kernel#autoload) will be attempted loaded when building the executable. Modules that doesn’t exist will be ignore (but a warning will be logged).

Conditionally loaded code will not be loaded and included in the executable unless the code is actually run when OCRA invokes your script.

OCRA executables clear the RUBYLIB environment variable before your script is launched. This is done to ensure that your script does not use load paths from the end user’s Ruby installation.

OCRA executables set the RUBYOPT environment variable to the value it had when you invoked OCRA. For example, if you had “RUBYOPT=rubygems” on your build PC, OCRA ensures that it is also set on PC’s running the executables.

OCRA executables set OCRA_EXECUTABLE to the full path of the executable, for example

ENV["OCRA_EXECUTABLE"] # => C:\Program Files\MyApp\MyApp.exe

You should not assume that the current working directory when invoking an executable built with .exe is the location of the source script. It can be the directory where the executable is placed (when invoked through the Windows Explorer), the users’ current working directory (when invoking from the Command Prompt), or even C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 when the executable is invoked through a file association. You can optionally change the directory yourself:

Dir.chdir File.dirname($0)

If you wish to maintain the user’s working directory, but need to ‘require’ additional Ruby scripts from the source directory, you can add the following line to your script:

$LOAD_PATH.unshift File.dirname($0)

Adding paths to $LOAD_PATH or $: at runtime is not recommended. Adding relative load paths depends on the working directory being the same as where the script is located (See above). If you have additional library files in directories below the directory containing your source script you can use this idiom:

$LOAD_PATH.unshift File.join(File.dirname($0), 'path/to/script')

You can detect whether OCRA is currently building your script by looking for the ‘Ocra’ constant. If it is defined, OCRA is currenly building the executable from your script. For example, you can use this to avoid opening a GUI window when compiling executables:

app = MyApp.new
if not defined?(Ocra)
  app.main_loop
end

You can add additional files to the OCRA executable (for example images) by appending them to the command line. They should be placed in the source directory with your main script (or a subdirectory).

ocra mainscript.rb someimage.jpeg docs/document.txt

This will create the following layout in the temporary directory when your program is executed:

src/mainscript.rb
src/someimage.jpeg
src/docs/document.txt

Paths on the command line can include ** globs to include a hierachy of files, for example

ocra script.rb assets/**/*.png

Ruby on Windows provides two executables: ruby.exe is a console mode application and rubyw.exe is a windowed application which does not bring up a console window when launched using the Windows Explorer. By default, or if the --console option is used, OCRA will use the console runtime (rubyw.exe). OCRA will automatically select the windowed runtime when your script has the “.rbw” extension, or if you specify the --windows command line option.

If your application works in console mode but not in windowed mode, first check if your script works without OCRA using rubyw.exe. A script that prints to standard output (using puts, print etc.) will eventually cause an exception when run with rubyw.exe (when the IO buffers run full).

You can also try wrapping your script in an exception handler that logs any errors to a file:

begin
  # your script here
rescue Exception => e
  File.open("except.log") do |f|
    f.puts e.inspect
    f.puts e.backtrace
  end
end

Thanks for Igor Pavlov for the LZMA compressor and decompressor. The source code used was place into Public Domain by Igor Pavlov.

Erik Veenstra for rubyscript2exe which provided inspiration.

Dice for the default .exe icon (vit-ruby.ico, ruby.morphball.net/vit-ruby-ico_en.html)

(The MIT License)

Copyright © 2009 Lars Christensen

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the ‘Software’), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ‘AS IS’, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.