Tebako

Tebako announces full Windows support at v0.7.0

Author’s picture Maxim Samsonov on 27 Jun 2024

General

We are thrilled to announce full support for Windows in the latest Tebako release v0.7.0.

This expansion means that Windows, alongside with Linux and macOS, are all officially supported platforms for Tebako, making Tebako even more versatile for your development needs.

By supporting Windows, we ensure that a broader audience can take advantage of Tebako’s benefits, such as simplified deployment, enhanced security, and consistent application performance across different environments.

A short recap of Tebako

Tebako is a specialized tool designed to facilitate the deployment of Ruby applications with enhanced security and portability. It packages applications along with their dependencies into a single, self-contained executable with no external dependencies.

This approach helps mitigate deployment issues related to environment differences and dependency management, making it easier to ensure that your application runs smoothly wherever it is deployed.

New features on 0.7.0

General

Version 0.7.0 introduces several exciting features for Windows users.

  • Full Ruby support on Windows: Windows packaging is now compatible with Ruby 3.1 and 3.2.

  • Full gem support and dependency discovery: Packaging of external gems tested against various gems, including those with native extensions.

  • Embedded OpenSSL certificates: Tebako is now independent from the target computer’s OpenSSL configuration, on all platforms.

Full Ruby support (Windows)

Tebako now fully supports Ruby on Windows, with the following versions:

  • Ruby 3.1 (versions 3.1.4 to 3.1.6)

  • Ruby 3.2 (versions 3.2.3 to 3.2.4)

With additional versions to come as future enhancements.

This means you can now package and deploy your Ruby applications using these versions on a Windows platform, ensuring compatibility and taking advantage of the latest features and improvements in these Ruby releases.

Full gem support and dependency discovery (Windows)

One of the core strengths of Tebako is its ability to package applications along with their dependencies.

Tebako is now able to detect all external dependencies of a Ruby program and has been tested against a wide variety of gems, including those with native extensions.

This ensures that your application will have the necessary libraries and dependencies bundled in a single executable with no external dependencies, obsoleting the need for your users to install dependencies or compilation tools.

Embedded certificate store (all platforms)

Security is a top priority for Tebako, and with version 0.7.0, we have made significant improvements in this area.

The OpenSSL root certificate store is now embedded within the Tebako package, allowing the Tebako-packed executable to run independently from the certificate store configuration on the executing computer, resolving these cases:

  1. preventing deployment issues where executing computers use outdated certificates;

  2. ensuring that the certificate store is updated and available;

  3. ensuring that the certificate store meets the security requirements of the packager;

Known limitations on Windows

Currently, there are several caveats with using Tebako on Windows. They will be addressed in due time:

  • Ruby 3.1.4-3.1.6 and 3.2.3-3.2.4 are supported on Windows.

  • Gem with native extensions that use non-standard or advanced build systems are not supported yet.

Unsupported gems we know of include (not a complete list of course):

Note
 The list of unsupported gems will be updated as we encounter them.

The Tebako team plans to address these limitations in the future releases.

Setting up Tebako on Windows

General

For first-time Windows users, setting up Tebako is now as straightforward as possible.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to get you started.

Step 1: Install RubyInstaller

The simplest approach to set up the Tebako packaging environment on Windows is to use the Ruby development environment provided by RubyInstaller.

RubyInstaller provides a comprehensive and easy-to-use environment for Ruby development on Windows.

You can download the installer for Ruby+Devkit 3.1.4-1 from this link:

Run the downloaded installer and follow the on-screen instructions.

  1. Launch the Installer: Double-click the downloaded .exe file to start the installation process.

  2. Choose Components: When prompted, ensure that you select the option to include the MSYS2 development toolchain. This will provide the necessary tools and libraries required for building and packaging Ruby applications.

  3. Complete Installation: Follow the remaining prompts to complete the installation. This process will also download and set up additional tools needed for development.

Step 2: Install and enable the development toolchain

After installation, you need to enable the development toolchain. Open a command prompt and run the following command:

ridk enable ucrt64

This command sets up the environment for using the MSYS2 toolchain.

Then install the necessary packages that Tebako depends on.

In the same command prompt, run the following command:

pacman -S git tar bison flex toolchain make cmake \
          boost diffutils libevent double-conversion \
          fmt glog dlfcn gtest autotools ncurses libyaml

This command installs a variety of tools and libraries required for building and packaging your Ruby applications with Tebako.

Step 3: Install Tebako

Finally, install Tebako by running the following command in the command prompt:

gem install tebako

Done

Now you’re ready for some Tebako pressing!

We are developing a set of sample applications that you can test Tebako on locally, stay tuned:

Aibika migration

The Tebako team has previously developed Aibika for Windows-only packaging. Now with Tebako fully supporting Windows, Aibika is now superseded.

We will soon publish a blog post for Akiba users on how to migrate from Akiba to Tebako for Windows.

Conclusion

Contact us if you encounter any problems with Tebako, at our issues page:

The team is always on the watch for making things easier for Tebako users.

Press on with Tebako!