Aibika: Ruby applications in a single executable on Windows

Purpose

Aibika packages a Ruby application into a single executable for the Windows platform.

The resulting executable is self-extracting and self-running, containing:

• the Ruby interpreter;

• packaged Ruby source code; and

• any additionally needed Ruby libraries or DLLs.

Note	Aibika was created from the Metanorma-enhanced fork of the One-click Ruby Application "Ocra" packager. The first Aibkika version was launched as 1.3.12. The last version of Ocra was 1.3.11 from 2020.

Note	Aibika is considered a temporary solution to the full-fledged functionality of Tebako, which provides a user-space mounted-disk experience with minimal intervention.

Supported platforms

Aibika only supports Windows.

Supported Ruby versions

The Aibika packager supports the following versions of Ruby for packaging:

• 2.7.7

• 3.0.6

• 3.1.4

• 3.2.2

Features

• LZMA Compression (optional, default on)

• Both windowed/console mode supported

• Includes gems based on usage, or from a Bundler Gemfile

Installation

gem install aibika

Migration from Ocra

Aibika 1.3.12 is fully compatible with Ocra 1.13.11 In order to migrate your build scripts replace ocra invokations with aibika.

Synopsis

Building an executable

$ aibika script.rb

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

Command line

$ aibika [options] script.rb [<other files> ...] [-- <script arguments> ...]

Options

$ aibika --help

Aibika options:

--help             Display this information.
--quiet            Suppress output while building executable.
--verbose          Show extra output while building executable.
--version          Display version number and exit.

Packaging options:

--dll dllname      Include additional DLLs from the Ruby bindir.
--add-all-core     Add all core ruby libraries to the executable.
--gemfile <file>   Add all gems and dependencies listed in a Bundler Gemfile.
--no-enc           Exclude encoding support files
--allow-self       Include self (aibika gem) if detected or specified
        This option is required only if aibika gem is deployed as a part
        of broader bundled solution

Gem content detection modes:

--gem-minimal[=gem1,..]  Include only loaded scripts
--gem-guess=[gem1,...]   Include loaded scripts & best guess (DEFAULT)
--gem-all[=gem1,..]      Include all scripts & files
--gem-full[=gem1,..]     Include EVERYTHING
--gem-spec[=gem1,..]     Include files in gemspec (Does not work with Rubygems 1.7+)

--[no-]gem-scripts[=..]  Other script files than those loaded
--[no-]gem-files[=..]    Other files (e.g. data files)
--[no-]gem-extras[=..]   Extra files (README, etc.)

Gem modes:

• minimal: loaded scripts

• guess: loaded scripts and other files

• all: loaded scripts, other scripts, other files (except extras)

• full: Everything found in the gem directory

File groups:

• scripts: .rb/.rbw files

• extras: C/C++ sources, object files, test, spec, README

• files: all other files

Auto-detection options:

--no-dep-run       Don't run script.rb to check for dependencies.
--no-autoload      Don't load/include script.rb's autoloads.
--no-autodll       Disable detection of runtime DLL dependencies.

Output options:

--output <file>    Name the exe to generate. Defaults to ./<scriptname>.exe.
--no-lzma          Disable LZMA compression of the executable.
--innosetup <file> Use given Inno Setup script (.iss) to create an installer.

Executable options:

--windows          Force Windows application (rubyw.exe)
--console          Force console application (ruby.exe)
--chdir-first      When exe starts, change working directory to app dir.
--icon <ico>       Replace icon with a custom one.
--debug            Executable will be verbose.
--debug-extract    Executable will unpack to local dir and not delete after.

Compilation

• Aibika 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 Aibika 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.

Running your application

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

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

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

• Aibika 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.

Pitfalls

• Avoid modifying load paths at run time. Specify load paths using -I or RUBYLIB if you must, but don’t expect Aibika to preserve them for runtime. Aibika 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 Aibika.

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

Requirements

• Windows

• Working Ruby installation

• MinGW Installation

Aibika examples available at a tebako blog

• Single-file packaging

• Packaging with Gemfile

Technical details

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

Aibika 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 Aibika script generates this executable and the instructions to be run when it is launched.

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

Libraries

Any code that is loaded through Kernel#require when your script is executed will be included in the Aibika executable. Conditionally loaded code will not be loaded and included in the executable unless the code is actually run when Aibika invokes your script. Otherwise, Aibika won’t know about it and will not include the source files.

RubyGems are handled specially. Whenever a file from a Gem is detected, Aibika will attempt to include all the required files from that specific Gem, expect some unlikely needed files such as readme’s and other documentation. This behaviour can be controlled by using the --gem- options. Behaviour can be changed for all gems or specific gems using --gem-=gemname.

Libraries found in non-standard path (for example, if you invoke Aibika 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 Aibika may place the files elsewhere when extracted into the temporary directory.

In case your script (or any of its dependencies) sets up autoloaded module using Kernel#autoload, Aibika will automatically try to load them to ensure that they are all included in the executable. Modules that doesn’t exist will be ignored (a warning will be logged).

Dynamic link libraries (.dll files, for example WxWidgets, or other source files) will be detected and included by Aibika.

Including libraries non-automatically

If an application or framework is complicated enough that it tends to confuse Aibika’s automatic dependency resolution, then you can use other means to specify what needs to be packaged with your app.

To disable automatic dependency resolution, use the --no-dep-run option; with it, Aibika will skip executing your program during the build process. This on the other hand requires using --gem-full option (see more below); otherwise Aibika will not include all the necessary files for the gems.

You will also probably need to use the --add-all-core option to include the Ruby core libraries.

If your app uses gems, then you can specify them in a Bundler Gemfile, then use the --gemfile option to supply it to Aibika. Aibika will automatically include all gems specified, and all their dependencies.

Note	This assumes that the gems are installed in your system, not locally packaged inside the app directory by "bundle package".

These options are particularly useful for packaging Rails applications. For example, to package a Rails 3 app in the directory "someapp" and create an exe named "someapp.exe", without actually running the app during the build, you could use the following command:

$ aibika someapp/script/rails someapp --output someapp.exe --add-all-core \
    --gemfile someapp/Gemfile --no-dep-run --gem-full --chdir-first -- server

Note the space between -- and server! It’s important; server is an argument to be passed to rails when the script is ran.

Rails 2 apps can be packaged similarly, though you will have to integrate them with Bundler first.

Gem handling

By default, Aibika includes all scripts that are loaded by your script when it is run before packaging. Aibika detects which gems are using and includes any additional non-script files from those gems, except trivial files such as C/C++ source code, object files, READMEs, unit tests, specs, etc.

This behaviour can be changed by using the --gem-* options. There are four possible modes:

• minimal: Include only loaded scripts

• guess: Include loaded scripts and important files (DEFAULT)

• all: Include all scripts and important files

• full: Include all files

If you find that files are missing from the resulting executable, try first with --gem-all=gemname for the gem that is missing, and if that does not work, try --gem-full=gemname. The paranoid can use --gem-full to include all files for all required gems.

Creating an installer for your application

To make your application start up quicker, or to allow it to keep files in its application directory between runs, or if you just want to make your program seem more like a "regular" Windows application, you can have Aibika generate an installer for your app with the free Inno Setup software.

You will first have to download and install Inno Setup 5 or later, and also add its directory to your PATH (so that Aibika can find the ISCC compiler program). Once you’ve done that, you can use the --innosetup option to Aibika to supply an Inno Setup script. Do not add any [Files] or [Dirs] sections to the script; Aibika will figure those out itself.

To continue the Rails example above, let’s package the Rails 3 app into an installer. Save the following as someapp.iss:

[Setup]
AppName=SomeApp
AppVersion=0.1
DefaultDirName={pf}\SomeApp
DefaultGroupName=SomeApp
OutputBaseFilename=SomeAppInstaller

[Icons]
Name: "{group}\SomeApp"; Filename: "{app}\someapp.exe"
Name: "{group}\Uninstall SomeApp"; Filename: "{uninstallexe}"

Then run this command:

$ aibika someapp/script/rails someapp --output someapp.exe --add-all-core \
    --gemfile someapp/Gemfile --no-dep-run --gem-full --chdir-first --no-lzma \
    --innosetup someapp.iss -- server

If all goes well, a file named "SomeAppInstaller.exe" will be placed into the Output directory.

Environment variables

Aibika 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.

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

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

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

Working directory

The Aibika executable does not change the working directory when it is launched, unless you use the --chdir-first option.

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.

With the --chdir-first option, the working directory will always be the common parent directory of your source files. This should be fine for most applications. However, if your application is designed to run from the command line and take filenames as arguments, then you cannot use this option.

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)

Load path mangling

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')

Detecting

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

app = MyApp.new
app.main_loop unless defined?(Aibika)

Additional files and resources

You can add additional files to the Aibika 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).

$ aibika 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

Both files, directories and glob patterns can be specified on the command line. Files will be added as-is. If a directory is specified, Aibika will include all files found below that directory.

Glob patterns (See Dir.glob) can be used to specify a specific set of files, for example:

$ aibika script.rb assets/**/*.png

Command Line Arguments

To pass command line argument to your script (both while building and when run from the resulting executable), specify them after a -- marker. For example:

$ aibika script.rb -- --some-options=value

This will pass --some-options=value to the script when build and when running the executable. Any extra argument specified by the user when invoking the executable will be appended after the compile-time arguments.

Window/Console

By default, Aibika builds console application from .rb files and windowed applications (without console window) from .rbw files.

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, Aibika will use the console runtime (ruby.exe). Aibika 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 Aibika 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

Credits

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, http://ruby.morphball.net/vit-ruby-ico_en.html)

License

MIT. See LICENSE.md.

Trivia: origin of name

Aibika started as a fork of the One-click Ruby Application "Ocra" packager. "Ocra" happens to be a wordplay on "okra", the plant name, so the name of the flower okra plant, "aibika" was adopted.

The flower okra is named as it blooms flowers similar to the okra, and refers to the Abelmoschus manihot plant. Aibika refers to the Spanish name of the flower okra.

Aibika, called トロロアオイ (黄蜀葵, tororoaoi), is a key ingredient to the creation of Washi (和紙, Japanese paper).

Japanese paper is thin, durable and long-lasting because of its use of aibika. In the manufacturing of Japanese paper, mucus extracted from the root of aibika is used to uniformize the spread of fibers. Without this mucus in the solution, fibers will quickly get excluded from the solution, resulting in fibers not scattered evenly.