---
name: "gem2deb"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "gem2deb"
version: "2.2.5"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/gem2deb"
---

# gem2deb(1)

converts Rubygems' .gem file into Debian package

## NAME

gem2deb - converts Rubygems' .gem file into Debian package

## SYNOPSIS

**gem2deb** \[*OPTIONS*\] *GEMNAME* (to download the gem with *gem fetch*)

**gem2deb** \[*OPTIONS*\] *GEMFILE* (to use a local .gem file)

## DESCRIPTION

**gem2deb** converts the gem into a Debian source package, and then will attempt to build it. The process is made of several steps.

First, **gem2deb** converts the gem file to a tar.gz archive containing a metadata.yml file with the Gem specification. This is equivalent to what **gem2tgz** does.

Then, **gem2deb** unpacks the tar.gz archive and prepares a Debian source package, guess many of the defaults from the files included in the archive, or the Gem specification. This is equivalent to what **dh-make-ruby** does. **gem2deb** cannot determine all parameters for obvious reasons. It is recommended to search for the "FIXME" string in the *debian/* directory. The generated Debian source package uses **dh\_ruby** to build the package.

Finally, **gem2deb** tries to build the source and binary packages using **dpkg-buildpackage**.

## OPTIONS

- **-t**, **--only-tarball**

  Stop after creating the tar.gz archive.

- **-s**, **--only-source-dir**

  Stop after preparing the Debian source package directory (do not attempt to build the package).

- **-S**, **--only-debian-source**

  Only build a Debian source package (do not build binary packages).

- **-d**, **--no-check-builddeps**

  Do not check build dependencies when building the package. Equivalent to the options with the same in **[dpkg-buildpackage(1)](/dpkg-buildpackage/1.md)**.

- **-p PACKAGE**, **--package PACKAGE**

  Specify package name (default: ruby-\*). Passed to dh-make-ruby. See **[dh-make-ruby(1)](/dh-make-ruby/1.md)**.

- **-g**, **--git**

  Import the resulting source package, if any, to a git repository under the current directory. The git repository will be named after the source package (i.e. it is influenced by **--package**).

  Note that **--only-tarball** or **--only-source-dir** will prevent this, since they make **gem2deb** stop early.

  The import uses **gbp import-dsc --pristine-tar** (see **[gbp-import-dsc(1)](/gbp-import-dsc/1.md)**), and thus *git-buildpackage* and **pristine-tar** need to be installed for this to work.

- **--purge**

  After building the package, remove all files files that were produced by gem2deb. This includes source tarballs, Debian package artifacts (.dsc, .deb, .changes etc), and even the source directory. This is useful for example when used in conjunction with **--git**.

- **--no-wnpp-check**

  Prevents **dh-make-ruby** to check wnpp reports to get the number of a possible ITP (intend to package) bug report. By default, **dh-make-ruby** does check these reports, which requires an Internet access.

- **-o**, **--offline**

  Prevents **dh-make-ruby** from accessing the internet at all.

- **-h**, **--help**

  Displays **gem2deb** usage information.

- **-v**, **--version**

  Displays **gem2deb** version information.

## HOW THE .GEM -\> .TGZ CONVERSION WORKS

A gem named *mygem-0.1.0.gem* is converted in a tarball with (approximately) the following steps:

```
  mkdir mygem-0.1.0
  cd mygem-0.1.0
  tar xfm /absolute/path/to/mygem-0.1.0.gem
  tar xzfm data.tar.gz
  zcat metadata.gz > metadata.yml
  rm -f data.tar.gz metadata.gz
  cd ..
  tar czf mygem-0.1.0.tar.gz mygem-0.1.0
  rm -rf mygem-0.1.0
```

The generated tarball has the following properties:

- Files

  It contains all the files the gem contains.

- Metadata

  It contains the gem metadata in a file named \`\`metadata.yml\`\` inside the *mygem-0.1.0* directory.

## SEE ALSO

[**dh\_ruby**(1)](/dh_ruby/1.md)

## COPYRIGHT AND AUTHORS

Copyright (c) 2011, Lucas Nussbaum \<lucas@debian.org\>

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program.  If not, see \<http://www.gnu.org/licenses/\>.