Put this snippet into your ~/.bash_login (or alternatives) to browse your gem docs from the command line.

function gemdocs() { 

  if [[ -n "$(whereis gem_server)" ]]; then
     gem_server >/dev/null 2>&1 &
     sleep 3
     open http://127.0.0.1:8808/
  fi

}

pman -- create, print, save, view PDF man pages

Author: ntk
License: The MIT License, Copyright (c) 2007 ntk
Description: (batch) convert man pages into PDF documents and save them to a specified directory; (batch) print or view PDF man pages from the command line
Platform: Mac OS X 10.4.10; man bash
Installation: put pman() into ~/.bash_login (or alternatives)

# Usage:
   
pman ls; pman getopts                                 # convert a singel man page to a PDF file, save and open it
pman 8 sticky                                         # same with manual section number
pman m toe                                     
pman -b ls 'open(2)' dd "chmod(2)" curl 'open(n)'     # batch convert man pages into PDF files
pman -p rm srm open\(2\) 'toe(m)' 'ncurses(3)'        # print man pages using the default printer



pman() {

section="$1"    
manpage="$2"    

mandir="/Users/Shared/manpages"    #  save the created PDF man pages to the specified directory


# batch process man pages to PDF files with the "-b" switch and save them to $mandir
# example: pman -b ls 'open(2)' dd 'chmod(2)' 'open(n)' 'sticky(8)'
# cf. man -aW open for "man n open"

if [[ "$1" = "-b" ]]; then         

if [[ ! -d $mandir ]]; then        
   mkdir -p $mandir
   chmod 1777 $mandir
fi

shift   # remove "-b" from "$@"

for manfile in "$@"; do 

# example for $manfile: open(2)
manpage="`echo $manfile | grep -Eos '^[^\(]+'`"                              # extract name of man page
section="`echo $manfile | grep -Eos '\([^\)]+\)' | grep -Eos '[^\(\)]+'`"    # extract section of man page

if [[ ! "$section" ]]; then
   section="1"
fi

if [[ ! -f "`man ${section} -W ${manpage} 2>/dev/null`" ]]; then
#if [[ ! -f "`man -W ${section} ${manpage} 2>/dev/null `" ]]; then
   echo "No such man page: man ${section} ${manpage}"
   continue
fi

manfile="${mandir}/${manpage}(${section}).pdf"
echo "$manfile"

if [[ ! -f "$manfile" ]]; then
   man $section -t $manpage 2>/dev/null | pstopdf -i -o "$manfile" 2>/dev/null
   chmod 1755 "$manfile"
   # hide file extension .pdf
   if [[ -f /Developer/Tools/SetFile ]]; then /Developer/Tools/SetFile -a E "$manfile"; fi
fi

done

return 0
   
fi          # END of batch processing man pages to PDF files



# print PDF man pages using the default printer (see man lpr and man lpoptions)
# if necessary, create the specified PDF man pages and save them to $mandir
# example: pman -p rm srm

if [[ "$1" = "-p" ]]; then         

if [[ ! -d $mandir ]]; then        
   mkdir -p $mandir
   chmod 1777 $mandir
fi

shift   # remove "-p" from "$@"

for manfile in "$@"; do 

# example for $manfile: open(2)
manpage="`echo $manfile | grep -Eos '^[^\(]+'`"                              # extract name of man page
section="`echo $manfile | grep -Eos '\([^\)]+\)' | grep -Eos '[^\(\)]+'`"    # extract section of man page

if [[ ! "$section" ]]; then
   section="1"
fi

if [[ ! -f "`man ${section} -W ${manpage} 2>/dev/null`" ]]; then
   echo "No such man page: man ${section} ${manpage}"
   continue
fi

manfile="${mandir}/${manpage}(${section}).pdf"
echo "$manfile"

if [[ ! -f "$manfile" ]]; then
   man -t $section $manpage 2>/dev/null | pstopdf -i -o "$manfile" 2>/dev/null
   chmod 1755 "$manfile"
   # hide file extension .pdf
   if [[ -f /Developer/Tools/SetFile ]]; then /Developer/Tools/SetFile -a E "$manfile"; fi
   lpr "$manfile"
else
   lpr "$manfile"
fi

done

return 0
   
fi          # END of printing man pages using the default printer



# convert a single man page to a PDF file, save it to $mandir and then open it in a PDF viewer

if [[ -z "$1" ]] || [[ $# -gt 2 ]]; then       # check number of arguments
#if [[ -z "$1" || $# -gt 2 ]]; then  
#if [ -z "$1" -o $# -gt 2 ]; then
  echo "Wrong number of arguments!" 
  return 1
fi 

if [[ ! "$manpage" ]]; then     # turn "pman ls" into "pman 1 ls"
   manpage="$section"         # if $manpage is an empty string because there has been no "$2" then $manpage is set to "$section" and ...
   section="1"                # ... $section is set to "1"
fi                            

if [[ ! -f "`man ${section} -W ${manpage} 2>/dev/null`" ]]; then
   echo "No such man page: man ${section} ${manpage}"
   return 1
fi

if [[ ! -d $mandir ]]; then
   mkdir -p $mandir
   chmod 1777 $mandir
fi

manfile="${mandir}/${manpage}(${section}).pdf"

if [[ -f "$manfile" ]]; then
   open "$manfile"
else
   man $section -t $manpage 2>/dev/null | pstopdf -i -o "$manfile" 2>/dev/null
   chmod 1755 "$manfile"
   # hide file extension .pdf
   if [[ -f /Developer/Tools/SetFile ]]; then /Developer/Tools/SetFile -a E "$manfile"; fi
   open "$manfile"
fi

return 0

}

This is a modified version of the Ruby on Rails Tutorial (TutorialStepOne, TutorialStepOnePostgresql, ...).

Log in to an admin user account and, if necessary, fix your command search path in $HOME/.bash_profile, $HOME/.bash_login or $HOME/.profile to include "/usr/local" and "/usr/local/sbin" (cf. Using /usr/local > Set The Path; echo $PATH | tr ":" "\n"). If there are no such files, just create them: touch $HOME/.bash_login && touch $HOME/.bashrc (ls -a | grep \.bash).

To avoid RubyGems loading issues it's no bad idea to add export RUBYOPT=rubygems to your $HOME/.bash_login file as well.

If you want your system path changes to take effect not only for you you can modify the global system path settings in the systemwide initialization files /private/etc/profile and /private/etc/bashrc accordingly.

To fix the paths of installed manual pages add the lines "MANPATH /usr/local/share/man" and "MANPATH /usr/local/man" to sudo nano +45 /usr/share/misc/man.conf (man -w | tr ":" "\n").


(USE THE FOLLOWING AT YOUR OWN RISK!)


REQUIREMENTS:

I. Xcode


II. PostgreSQL Database Server

Install this PostgreSQL Database Server package.

# test after installation
which psql     # /usr/local/bin/psql
psql --version     # psql (PostgreSQL) 8.2.3, contains support for command-line editing

Alternative installation: Getting PostgreSQL running for Rails on a Mac


III. Ruby 1.8.6, Ruby On Rails 1.2.3 & Mongrel 1.0.1

Building Ruby, Rails, Subversion, Mongrel, and MySQL on Mac OS X

To install both Mongrel & Mongrel Cluster use: sudo gem install -y mongrel mongrel_cluster (cf. Using Mongrel Cluster).

# test after installation
ruby -v     # ruby 1.8.6
rails -v     # Rails 1.2.3
gem list     # ... mongrel (1.0.1) ...

IV. ruby-postgres 0.7.1

sudo gem install -y ruby-postgres

As an alternative you may try Ruby on rails installer script for Mac OSX or choose to install via MacPorts as described in Installing Ruby on Rails and PostgreSQL on OS X, Second Edition or Installing Rails on Mac OS X Tiger (10.4.8). However, you then may have to change your system paths mentioned above accordingly.


1. create a database server

# first create a directory called PostgreSQL-db on your Desktop
mkdir -p $HOME/Desktop/PostgreSQL-db

# create a new db server called railsdb
/usr/local/bin/initdb -E UTF8 -D $HOME/Desktop/PostgreSQL-db/railsdb

# START DB SERVER
dir="$HOME/Desktop/PostgreSQL-db"; /usr/local/bin/pg_ctl -D $dir/railsdb -l $dir/railsdb/postgres.log start

# STOP DB SERVER
#dir="$HOME/Desktop/PostgreSQL-db"; /usr/local/bin/pg_ctl -D $dir/railsdb -l $dir/railsdb/postgres.log stop -m smart

# check
cat $HOME/Desktop/PostgreSQL-db/railsdb/pg_hba.conf

   ...
   # TYPE  DATABASE    USER        CIDR-ADDRESS          METHOD

   # "local" is for Unix domain socket connections only
   local   all         all                               trust
   # IPv4 local connections:
   host    all         all         127.0.0.1/32          trust
   # IPv6 local connections:
   host    all         all         ::1/128               trust

2. create PostgreSQL database

createdb `whoami`_development
#dropdb `whoami`_development

createdb `whoami`_test
#dropdb `whoami`_test

#createdb `whoami`_production
#dropdb `whoami`_production

3. set up your Rails project

cd $HOME/Desktop/RubyOnRails-projects
rails -d postgresql `whoami`
cd `whoami`

4. edit /config/database.yml

open -e $HOME/Desktop/RubyOnRails-projects/`whoami`/config/database.yml

# just uncomment the following line
#encoding: UTF8 

5. make Rails & PostgreSQL work together

cd $HOME/Desktop/RubyOnRails-projects/`whoami`

ruby script/generate migration People

# edit /db/migrate/001_people.rb
# cf. http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/TutorialStepOneMigrations

open -e $HOME/Desktop/RubyOnRails-projects/`whoami`/db/migrate/001_people.rb

 class People < ActiveRecord::Migration

    def self.up
      create_table :people do |table|
      # note that "id" is added implicitly, by default
        table.column :name, :string
        table.column :street1, :string
        table.column :street2, :string
        table.column :city, :string
        table.column :state, :string
        table.column :zip, :string
     end
    end

    def self.down
      drop_table :people 
    end
  end



rake db:migrate

ruby script/generate model Person  

#open -e $HOME/Desktop/RubyOnRails-projects/`whoami`/app/models/person.rb  # file will be explained below

ruby script/console

>> ...
        entry = Person.new
        entry.name = "Name" 
        entry.street1 = "123 Somwhere" 
        entry.street2 = "" 
        entry.city = "Smallville" 
        entry.state = "KS" 
        entry.zip = "123456" 
        entry.save
        exit


# check newly created db table

psql `whoami`_development
SELECT * FROM people;
\q


# test
rake      # ... 0 failures, 0 errors

# create new controller
ruby script/generate controller People list view new edit


# edit /app/controllers/people_controller.rb
open -e $HOME/Desktop/RubyOnRails-projects/`whoami`/app/controllers/people_controller.rb

  def view
   @person = Person.find(1)
  end



# edit /app/views/people/view.rhtml
open -e $HOME/Desktop/RubyOnRails-projects/`whoami`/app/views/people/view.rhtml

# copy & paste & uncomment the following lines

#<html>
#  <body>
#    <h1>People#view</h1>
#    <p>This page will display one person.</p>
#    <p>
#    <%= @person.name %><br />
#    <%= @person.street1 %><br />
#    <%= @person.street2 %><br />
#    <%= @person.city %><br />
#    <%= @person.state %><br />
#    <%= @person.zip %><br />
#    </p>
#  </body>
#</html>


# the file /app/models/person.rb explained (see above)
# open -e $HOME/Desktop/RubyOnRails-projects/`whoami`/app/models/person.rb

# class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
# end

# How does this know to map to the people table we created? ActiveRecord pluralizes the class name and looks for that 
# table in the database. This doesn’t just mean adding an ’s’. Irregular plural forms are also handled, so Rails knows 
# that the plural of ‘person’ is ‘people’. The rules for how it does this are described in the documentation
# (see http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/TutorialStepSix).

# test
rake

# start your Rails app
cd $HOME/Desktop/RubyOnRails-projects/`whoami`

ruby script/server
#ruby script/server --environment=development

# open a second shell window and go to ...  
open -a Safari http://localhost:3000/people/view