You probably already know that a minor (but crucial) Rails 1.1.3 security fix has been released.

Problems with rake rails:freeze:gems

Hopefully you are also freezing your Rails gems to the vendor directory for better stability. There are several ways to do this, but I prefer to have an actual copy of the relevant Rails source in the repository. Linking with svn:externals works, but updates are slow since Subversion has to query two different servers (the local repository and the Rails repository).

However, this introduces a problem when you need to upgrade. The rake rails:freeze:gems task deletes the old folder and replaces it with a new copy. If your project is stored in Subversion, all the hidden Subversion files will be deleted as well and you will have to force an update to recommit the new code.

A Solution from the topfunky_power_tools plugin

I wrote a recursive gem freezer to do this more smoothly.

./script/plugin install topfunky_power_tools
rake topfunky:freeze:rails

One caveat is that you will have to manually svn add any new files that have been added since the last release. In this case there is only one file: vendor/rails/actionpack/test/fixtures/dont_load.rb.

I’ve been using this method for a few months and it works well for me. I’d appreciate any feedback or enhancements.

ZardozConf

Let me be the 578th person to say that RailsConf was absolutely awesome and it was great to meet old friends for the first time. Some people were worried about Rails fanboyism, but the center of attention was actually Zed Shaw.

Even though he didn’t give a single presentation, enthusiastic rounds of applause broke out whenever someone mentioned Zed, Mongrel, standard deviation, or Zardoz.

It hasn’t been announced yet, but our favorite web framework will soon be renamed Railz in honor of Zed. Or maybe Railzs to get both of his initials in there.

Personally, I’m waiting for ZedConf, which will surely sell out in one standard deviation of 30 minutes. Other Zed fans can join Jacob Harris and me on irc.