rubyrvmvirtualizationgemset

Is RVM considered some kind of application virtualization scheme?

I've been reading about virtualization layers and this came up to me when I was getting into Application Virtualization.

May I consider RVM use of Gemsets a form of Application Virtualization? Given that it allows several versions of gems coexist in the same system.

Am I wrong?

Solution

  • RVM(Ruby Version Manager) Allows you to have multiple versions of Ruby installed, and you can switch versions using rvm use, it has nothing to do with virtualization, it basically configures a bunch of Environment variables for you.

    Ex:

    $ env | grep -i rvm | awk -F= '{print $1}'
MANPATH
rvm_bin_path
GEM_HOME
IRBRC
MY_RUBY_HOME
rvm_path
rvm_prefix
PATH
rvm_version
GEM_PATH

    The biggest problem it solves IMO is to manage Ruby installations for non privileged user.