gemdiff

Gem Version Build Status

gemdiff is a command-line utility to find and compare source code repositories associated with ruby gems. It makes it easy to compare source code differences between the current version of a gem in your bundle and the latest version of the gem. gemdiff helps connect gem version management (rubygems + bundler) with source code (github).

Why?

You want to view the source code differences between versions of gems when your dependencies are updated. gemdiff does the source repository lookup, opens common GitHub pages, and simplifies your git workflow for a bundled project (see outdated, update).

How?

gemdiff finds a repository by inspecting the local or remote gemspec, or searching github if needed. It uses bundler to list your outdated gems. For each outdated gem, it determines your currently used version and the version you can update to, and builds a compare view URL with the old and new version tags. It also provides update for a simple bundle update <gem> and commit workflow.

Install

gem install gemdiff

Commands

outdated

Runs bundle outdated --strict in the current directory. For each outdated gem, you can open the compare view for that gem, skip it, or exit all prompts. Enter y to review.

outdated is the default task, so gemdiff with no arguments is the same as gemdiff outdated.

$ cd /your/ruby/project/using/bundler
$ gemdiff
Checking for outdated gems in your bundle...
Fetching gem metadata from https://rubygems.org/.......
Fetching additional metadata from https://rubygems.org/..
Resolving dependencies...

Outdated gems included in the bundle:
  * aws-sdk (1.35.0 > 1.34.1)
  * sprockets (2.11.0 > 2.10.1)
  * webmock (1.17.4 > 1.17.3)
aws-sdk: 1.35.0 > 1.34.1
Open? (y to open, x to exit, else skip)
sprockets: 2.11.0 > 2.10.1
Open? (y to open, x to exit, else skip) y
webmock: 1.17.4 > 1.17.3
Open? (y to open, x to exit, else skip)

compare

Open a compare view for an individual outdated gem in your bundle:

$ gemdiff compare haml

You can bypass bundler and query a gem by including the old and new version numbers. This is faster since it bypasses the bundle outdated --strict command used to get the versions.

For example, open the GitHub compare view in browser for difference between haml versions 4.0.4 and 4.0.5:

$ gemdiff compare haml 4.0.4 4.0.5

You can compare a version with a branch name:

$ gemdiff compare arel 4.0.2 master

find

Lookup the repository URL using the gemspec. If a GitHub URL is not found, query the GitHub search API.

$ gemdiff find haml
http://github.com/haml/haml

open

Open the repository URL:

$ gemdiff open haml

releases

Open the repository's release history page:

$ gemdiff releases haml

master

Open the repository's master branch commit history page:

$ gemdiff master haml

update

Use update to update a gem in your bundle and commit the change to your git repository. You will be shown a preview of the git diff and you may choose to commit or reset the change.

$ gemdiff update haml

Updating haml...
diff --git a/Gemfile.lock b/Gemfile.lock
index d5544ef..2d5def8 100644
--- a/Gemfile.lock
+++ b/Gemfile.lock
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ GEM
     dalli (2.7.0)
     debugger-linecache (1.2.0)
     erubis (2.7.0)
-    haml (4.0.4)
+    haml (4.0.5)
       tilt
     hike (1.2.3)
     i18n (0.6.9)

Commit? (c to commit, r to reset, else do nothing) c

commit ebcc13f4c9a43f2e844d9d185e527652021c6a8f
Author: Tee Parham
Date:   Mon Mar 3 16:38:32 2014 -0700

    Update haml to 4.0.5

diff --git a/Gemfile.lock

help

You can use abbreviations for any of the above commands. For example, this is equivalent to gemdiff find haml:

$ gemdiff f haml
http://github.com/haml/haml

To get help on the command line:

$ gemdiff help

What if it didn't work?

gemdiff assumes a few things:

  1. The gem must have a repository on GitHub. If not, gemdiff will find nothing or a similar repository, which is not helpful. Some gems' source code is not on GitHub. gemdiff could support other source hosts. Submit a pull request!

  2. The GitHub repository must have tagged releases to show compare views. If you find gems that do not tag releases, submit an issue to the gem maintainer to tag their releases.

  3. The versions must be tagged using the standard name format of v1.2.3. If you find gems that follow a non-standard format (such as 1.2.3), please open an issue or submit a pull request. See lib/gemdiff/outdated_gem.rb.

  4. Encourage gem maintainers to either enter the GitHub repository URL in the homepage field of their gemspec, or anywhere in the description. gemdiff is much faster if so, and if not, it guesses the best match using the GitHub search API. If you find exceptions, open an issue or submit a pull request. See lib/gemdiff/repo_finder.rb.

More Info

Slides from lightning talk at Boulder Ruby 4/15/2014