Backports Library

Yearning to write a gem using some new cool features in Ruby 3.3 while still supporting Ruby 2.5.x? Have some legacy code in Ruby 1.8 but can't live without flat_map?

This gem is for you!

The goal of 'backports' is to make it easier to write ruby code that runs across different versions of Ruby.

Loading backports

Explicitly (recommended)

For example, if you want to use transform_values and transform_keys, even in Ruby implementations that don't include it:

require 'backports/2.4.0/hash/transform_values'
require 'backports/2.5.0/hash/transform_keys'

This will enable Hash#transform_values and Hash#transform_keys, using the native versions if available or otherwise provide a pure Ruby version.

By Module

To bring all the backports for a given Class/Module, you can specify only that Class:

require 'backports/2.3.0/hash'

This will make sure that Hash responds to dig, fetch_values, to_proc and comparisons.

Up to a specific Ruby version (for quick coding)

You can load all backports up to a specific version. For example, to bring any version of Ruby mostly up to Ruby 3.3.0's standards:

require 'backports/3.3.0'

This will bring in all the features of 1.8.7 and many features of Ruby 1.9.x all the way up to Ruby 3.3.0 (for all versions of Ruby)!

You may require 'backports/latest' as a shortcut to the latest Ruby version supported.

Note: For production / public gems, it is highly recommended you only require the backports you need explicitly.

Note: Although I am a Ruby committer, this gem is a personal project and is not endorsed by ruby-core.

What's inside

Goals for backported features:

Won't break older code
Pure Ruby (no C extensions)
Pass ruby/spec

Let's be a bit more precise about the "breaking code" business. It is of course entirely possible that code will break. In particular, you may be distinguishing parameters with duck typing, but a builtin class may, in the future, be responding to a particular call. Here's an example from Rails that is relying on the fact that Proc and Method respond to :to_proc and Hash isn't. That is, until Ruby 2.3... This old version of Rails therefore won't work on Ruby 2.3, or on older Rubies with that the 2.3.0/hash/to_proc loaded...

For Ruby < 2.0, there are some real incompatibilities. For example, Module::instance_methods which returns strings in 1.8 and symbols in 1.9. No change can be made without the risk of breaking existing code. Such incompatibilities are left unchanged, although you can require some of these changes in addition (see below).

Installation & compatibility

backports can be installed with:

gem install backports

To use:

require 'rubygems'
# For only specific backports:
require 'backports/1.9.1/kernel/require_relative'
require 'backports/2.0.0/enumerable/lazy'

# For all backports up to a given version
require 'backports/1.9.2' # All backports for Ruby 1.9.2 and below

Note: about a dozen of backports have a dependency that will be also loaded. For example, the backport of Enumerable#flat_map uses flatten(1), so if required from Ruby 1.8.6 (where Array#flatten does not accept an argument), the backport for Ruby's 1.8.7 flatten with an argument will also be loaded.

With bundler, add to your Gemfile:

gem 'backports', :require => false

Run bundle install and require the desired backports. Compatible with Ruby itself, JRuby and Rubinius.

Complete List of backports

Ruby 3.3 backports

MatchData

named_captures (with symbolize_keys option)

Range

reverse_each (with correct handling of endless Ranges)
overlap?

Ruby 3.2 backports

Class

attached_object

Data

Complete class

Enumerator

Enumerator.product and Enumerator::Product

Hash

shift (with correct behavior when empty)

Integer

ceildiv

MatchData

byteoffset

Ruby 3.1 backports

Array

intersect?

Class

subclasses

Enumerable

compact
tally (with hash argument)

File

dirname (with depth argument)

Integer

try_convert

MatchData

match
match_length

Struct

keyword_init?

Ruby 3.0 backports

Env

except

Hash

except
transform_keys, transform_keys! (with hash argument)

Ractor

All methods, with the caveats:
- uses Ruby's Thread internally
- will not raise some errors when Ractor would (in particular Ractor::IsolationError)
- supported in Ruby 2.0+ only

Symbol

name

Ruby 2.7 backports

Array

intersection

Comparable

clamp (with range)

Complex

<=>

Enumerable

filter_map
tally

Enumerator

produce (class method)

Symbol

end_with?
start_with?

Time

floor, ceil

Ruby 2.6 backports

Array

difference, union
to_h (with block)

Enumerable

chain
to_h (with block)

Enumerator::Chain (use Enumerable#chain)

Hash

merge, merge!/update (with multiple arguments)
to_h (with block)

Kernel

then

Method

<<, >>

Proc

<<, >>

Range

cover? (with Range argument)

Ruby 2.5 backports

Array

append, prepend

Dir

children, each_child

Enumerable

any?, all?, none?, one? (with pattern argument)

Hash

slice
transform_keys

Integer

sqrt
allbits?, anybits? and nobits?

Kernel

yield_self

Module

attr, attr_accessor, attr_reader, attr_writer (now public)
define_method, alias_method, undef_method, remove_method (now public)

String

delete_prefix, delete_prefix!
delete_suffix, delete_suffix!
undump

Struct

new (with keyword_init: true)

Ruby 2.4 backports

Comparable

clamp

Enumerable

sum
uniq

Hash

compact, compact!
transform_values, transform_values!

Queue

close, closed?

Regexp

match?

String

match?
unpack1

FalseClass, Fixnum, Bignum, Float, NilClass, TrueClass

dup

Ruby 2.3 backports

Array

bsearch_index
dig

Enumerable

chunk_while
grep_v

Hash

dig
fetch_values
to_proc
<=, <, >=, >

Numeric

negative?
positive?

String

unary + and -

Struct

dig

Ruby 2.2 backports

Enumerable

slice_after
slice_when

Float

prev_float
next_float

Kernel

itself

Method

curry
super_method

String

unicode_normalize
unicode_normalize!
unicode_normalize?

Ruby 2.1 backports

Array

to_h

Bignum

bit_length

Enumerable

to_h

Fixnum

bit_length

Module

include (now public)
singleton_class?

Ruby 2.0 backports

Array

bsearch

Enumerable

lazy

Enumerator::Lazy

all methods

Hash

default_proc= (with nil argument)
to_h

`nil.to_h`

Range

bsearch

Struct

to_h

Ruby 1.9.3 backports

File

NULL

IO

advise (acts as a noop)
write, binwrite

String

byteslice
prepend

Ruby 1.9.2 backports

Array

rotate, rotate!
keep_if, select!
product (with block)
repeated_combination, repeated_permutation
sort_by!
uniq, uniq! (with block)

Complex

to_r

Dir

home

Enumerable

chunk
flat_map, collect_concat
join
slice_before

Float::INFINITY, NAN

Hash

keep_if, select!

Object

singleton_class

Random (new class)

Note: The methods of Random can't be required individually; the class can only be required whole with require 'backports/1.9.2/random'.

Ruby 1.9.1 backports

Additionally, the following Ruby 1.9 features have been backported:

Array

try_convert
sample

Enumerable

each_with_object
each_with_index (with arguments)

Enumerator

new (with block)

File

binread
to_path
All class methods accepting filenames will accept files or anything with a #to_path method.
File.open accepts an options hash.

Float

round

Hash

assoc, rassoc
key
try_convert
default_proc=

Integer

magnitude
round

IO

bin_read
try_convert
ungetbyte
IO.open accepts an options hash.

Kernel

require_relative

Math

log (with base)
log2

Numeric

round

Object

define_singleton_method
public_method
public_send

Proc

yield
lambda?
curry
===

Range

cover?

Regexp

try_convert

String

ascii_only?
chr
clear
codepoints, each_codepoint
get_byte, set_byte
ord
try_convert

Enumerator can be accessed directly (instead of Enumerable::Enumerator)

To include only these backports and those of the 1.8 line, require "backports/1.9.1".

Moreover, a pretty good imitation of BasicObject is available, but since it is only an imitation, it must be required explicitly:

require 'backports/basic_object'

Ruby 1.8.7

Complete Ruby 1.8.7 backporting (core language). Refer to the official list of changes. That's about 130 backports!

Only exceptions:

String#gsub (the form returning an enumerator)

GC.stress= (not implemented)

Array#choice (removed in 1.9, use 1.9.1's Array#sample instead)

Libraries

Libraries were slowly being backported, but they are now available as separate gems.

The backports would be automatically used after requiring 'backports/std_lib' but this is now deprecated and discouraged.

The following libraries are up to date with Ruby 1.9.3:

Matrix

Prime

Set

The following library is to date with Ruby 2.0.0:

OpenStruct (ostruct)

I am aware of the following backport gem, which probably won't make it into this gem:

Net::SMTP for Ruby 1.8.6:

[smtp_tls](http://seattlerb.rubyforge.org/smtp_tls/)

Requiring backports for a given version of Ruby will also load 'backports/std_lib'.

Forcing incompatibilities

Some backports would create incompatibilities in their current Ruby version but could be useful in some projects. It is possible to request such incompatible changes. Backports currently supports the following:

Hash

select (returns a Hash instead of an Array)

Enumerable / Array

map (returns an enumerator when called without a block)

String

length, size (for UTF-8 support)

These must be imported in addition to the backports gem, for example:

require "backports/force/hash_select"
{}.select{} # => {}, even in Ruby 1.8

Thanks

Thanks for the bug reports and patches, in particular the repeat offenders:

Arto Bendiken ( bendiken )

Konstantin Haase ( rkh )

Roger Pack ( rdp )

Victor Shepelev ( zverok )

Contributing

The best way to submit a patch is to also submit a patch to ruby/spec and then a patch to backports that make it pass the spec.

See below to test rubyspec. Note that only features missing from your Ruby version are tested.

git submodule init && git submodule update # => pulls rubyspecs
bundle install
bundle exec rake spec[hash/slice]          # => tests Hash#slice  (must be in Ruby 2.4 or less)
bundle exec rake spec[hash/*]              # => tests all backported Hash methods
bundle exec rake spec  (or rake spec[*/*]) # => all rubyspecs for backported methods

Failures that are acceptable are added the to tags file.

License

backports is released under the terms of the MIT License, see the included LICENSE file.

Author : Marc-André Lafortune