Ruby Gemfile analysis.

gem_bench is for static Gemfile and installed gem library source code analysis.

gem_bench can also be used to trim down app load times by keeping your worst players on the bench.

Gem: “Put me in coach!” You: ❨╯°□°❩╯︵┻━┻

Total Downloads Downloads Today Network Stars Version Build Maintainability Test Coverage Depfu Open Source Helpers Chat License: MIT

Usage

Works with Ruby >= 2.0 due to use of named parameters.

Example!

Getting tired of seeing this irb warning, perhaps?

$ bundle exec rails console
Loading staging environment (Rails M.m.p)
irb: warn: can't alias context from irb_context.

Find out what gems may be causing it by defining context!

>> require 'gem_bench'
=> true
>> bad_context_maybes = GemBench.find(look_for_regex: /def context/).starters
[GemBench] Will search for gems in ["/Users/pboling/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0@floss/gems", "/Users/pboling/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0@global/gems", "/Users/pboling/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0@floss/bundler/gems"]
[GemBench] Detected 11 loaded gems + 2 loaded gems which GemBench is configured to ignore.
=> [byebug, diff-lcs]

Then find the file with the first occurrence of the regex in each:

>> bad_context_maybes.map { |bcm| bcm.stats.map(&:first) }
=> [["/Users/pboling/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0@floss/gems/byebug-9.0.6/lib/byebug/command.rb"], ["/Users/pboling/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0@floss/gems/diff-lcs-1.3/lib/diff/lcs/hunk.rb"]]

More Different Example!

Fire up an irb session or a rails console and then:

>> require 'gem_bench'
=> true
>> team = GemBench.check({verbose: true}) # verbose: true => print output, verbose: false => just returns a GemBench::Team object you can inspect.

Here is an example irb session where I have installed only gem_bench, rails, and bundler. For the first run I don’t require any gems besides gem_bench.

∴ irb
>> require 'gem_bench'
=> true
>> team = GemBench.check({verbose: true})
[GemBench] Will search for gems in ["/Users/pboling/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-head@floss/gems", "/Users/pboling/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-head@global/gems", "/Users/pboling/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-head@floss/bundler/gems"]
[GemBench] Will check Gemfile at /Users/pboling/Documents/src/my/gem_bench/Gemfile.
[GemBench] Detected 0 loaded gems
  (excluding the 2 loaded gems which GemBench is configured to ignore)
[GemBench] No gems were evaluated by GemBench.
[GemBench] Usage: Require another gem in this session to evaluate it.
  Example:
    require 'rails'
    GemBench.check({verbose: true})
[GemBench] Evaluated 0 gems against your Gemfile but found no primary dependencies which can safely skip require on boot (require: false).

For the second run I require 'rails' as well, and now I can see which rails dependencies are required at boot time. I am in a project with a Gemfile, (gem_bench) but it doesn’t depend on rails.

∴ irb
>> require 'gem_bench'
=> true
>> require 'rails'
=> true
>> team = GemBench.check({verbose: true})
[GemBench] Will search for gems in ["/Users/pboling/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-head@floss/gems", "/Users/pboling/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-head@global/gems", "/Users/pboling/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-head@floss/bundler/gems"]
[GemBench] Will check Gemfile at /Users/pboling/Documents/src/my/gem_bench/Gemfile.
[GemBench] Detected 14 loaded gems
  (excluding the 2 loaded gems which GemBench is configured to ignore)
[GemBench] You might want to verify that activesupport v3.2.13 really has a Rails::Railtie or Rails::Engine.  Check these files:
  ["/Users/pboling/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-head@floss/gems/activesupport-3.2.11/lib/active_support/i18n_railtie.rb", 146]
[GemBench] You might want to verify that actionpack v3.2.13 really has a Rails::Railtie or Rails::Engine.  Check these files:
  ["/Users/pboling/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-head@floss/gems/actionpack-3.2.11/lib/action_controller/railtie.rb", 248]
[GemBench] You might want to verify that railties v3.2.13 really has a Rails::Railtie or Rails::Engine.  Check these files:
  ["/Users/pboling/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-head@floss/gems/railties-3.2.11/lib/rails/application/configuration.rb", 245]
[GemBench] If you want to check for false positives, the files to check for Railties and Engines are listed above.
[GemBench] 3 out of 14 evaluated gems actually need to be loaded at boot time. They are:
  [SUGGESTION] 1) gem 'activesupport', '~> 3.2.13'
  [SUGGESTION] 2) gem 'actionpack', '~> 3.2.13'
  [SUGGESTION] 3) gem 'railties', '~> 3.2.13'
[GemBench] Evaluated 14 gems against your Gemfile but found no primary dependencies which can safely skip require on boot (require: false).

See that? Only 3 of the 14 gems rails loads need to be required when your app boots, technically! However, in order to prevent loading them we would have to make them primary dependencies, listed in the Gemfile, which isn’t really the best idea. Moving on… If you run the check against a real app’s Gemfile it will find numerous primary dependencies that don’t need to be required at app boot. See Advanced Usage :)

In a random directory, in an irb session, where there is no Gemfile in sight it will give a lot more information.

Advanced Usage

In order to also see list gems may not be required at boot time you need to:

  1. Make sure you are in the root of a project with a Gemfile
  2. Make sure the gem is actually a dependency in the Gemfile

So here’s a [fat Gemfile][bundle-group-pattern] weighing in at 265 gem dependencies. We’ll use it for this example:

∴ bundle exec rails console
Welcome to RAILS. You are using ruby 1.9.3p392 (2013-02-22 revision 39386) [x86_64-darwin12.2.1]. Have fun ;)
Loading development environment (Rails 3.2.13)
[1] pry(main)> a = GemBench.check({verbose: true})
... # snip # ...
[GemBench] If you want to check for false positives, the files to check for Railties and Engines are listed above.
[GemBench] 74 out of 265 evaluated gems actually need to be loaded at boot time. They are:
  [SUGGESTION] 1) gem 'activesupport', '~> 3.2.13', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 2) gem 'sprockets', '~> 2.2.2', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 3) gem 'actionpack', '~> 3.2.13', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 4) gem 'actionmailer', '~> 3.2.13', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 5) gem 'activerecord', '~> 3.2.13', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 6) gem 'activerecord-postgres-array', '~> 0.0.9', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 7) gem 'activerecord-postgres-hstore', '~> 0.7.6', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 8) gem 'activeresource', '~> 3.2.13', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 9) gem 'railties', '~> 3.2.13', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 10) gem 'acts-as-messageable', '~> 0.4.8', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 11) gem 'airbrake', '~> 3.1.10', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 12) gem 'asset_sync', '~> 0.5.4', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 13) gem 'slim', '~> 1.3.6', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 14) gem 'sidekiq', '~> 2.10.0', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 15) gem 'aws-sdk', '~> 1.8.5', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 16) gem 'better_errors', '~> 0.8.0', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 17) gem 'sass', '~> 3.2.7', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 18) gem 'bootstrap-sass', '~> 2.3.1.0', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 19) gem 'haml', '~> 4.0.1', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 20) gem 'bullet', '~> 4.5.0', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 21) gem 'parallel', '~> 0.6.4', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 22) gem 'cells', '~> 3.8.8', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 23) gem 'coffee-rails', '~> 3.2.2', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 24) gem 'compass', '~> 0.12.2', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 25) gem 'compass-rails', '~> 1.0.3', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 26) gem 'csv_pirate', '~> 5.0.7', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 27) gem 'devise', '~> 2.2.3', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 28) gem 'devise_invitable', '~> 1.1.3', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 29) gem 'rails', '~> 3.2.13', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 30) gem 'dismissible_helpers', '~> 0.1.5', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 31) gem 'dotenv', '~> 0.6.0', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 32) gem 'dry_views', '~> 0.0.2', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 33) gem 'sass-rails', '~> 3.2.6', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 34) gem 'font-awesome-sass-rails', '~> 3.0.2.2', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 35) gem 'foundation-icons-sass-rails', '~> 2.0.0', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 36) gem 'g', '~> 1.7.2', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 37) gem 'geocoder', '~> 1.1.6', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 38) gem 'geokit', '~> 1.6.5', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 39) gem 'geokit-rails3', '~> 0.1.5', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 40) gem 'pry', '~> 0.9.12', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 41) gem 'rspec', '~> 2.13.0', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 42) gem 'spork', '~> 1.0.0rc3', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 43) gem 'haml-rails', '~> 0.4', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 44) gem 'handlebars_assets', '~> 0.12.0', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 45) gem 'hirefire-resource', '~> 0.0.2', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 46) gem 'jquery-rails', '~> 2.2.1', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 47) gem 'html5-rails', '~> 0.0.7', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 48) gem 'jquery-ui-rails', '~> 3.0.1', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 49) gem 'kaminari', '~> 0.14.1', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 50) gem 'neography', '~> 1.0.9', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 51) gem 'neoid', '~> 0.1.2', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 52) gem 'nested_form', '~> 0.3.2', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 53) gem 'newrelic_rpm', '~> 3.6.0.78', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 54) gem 'parallel_tests', '~> 0.10.4', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 55) gem 'pg', '~> 0.15.0', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 56) gem 'rspec-rails', '~> 2.13.0', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 57) gem 'pg_power', '~> 1.3.1', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 58) gem 'pry-rails', '~> 0.2.2', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 59) gem 'quiet_assets', '~> 1.0.2', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 60) gem 'remotipart', '~> 1.0.5', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 61) gem 'rails_admin', '~> 0.4.6', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 62) gem 'requirejs-rails', '~> 0.9.1.1', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 63) gem 'rolify', '~> 3.2.0', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 64) gem 'rspec-cells', '~> 0.1.6', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 65) gem 'sanitize_email', '~> 1.0.6', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 66) gem 'simplecov', '~> 0.7.1', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 67) gem 'spork-rails', '~> 3.2.1', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 68) gem 'sprockets-rails', '~> 0.0.1', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 69) gem 'stackable_flash', '~> 0.0.7', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 70) gem 'state_machine', '~> 1.2.0', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 71) gem 'teabag', '~> 0.4.6', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 72) gem 'turbo-sprockets-rails3', '~> 0.3.6', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 73) gem 'turbolinks', '~> 1.1.1', require: false
  [SUGGESTION] 74) gem 'zurb-foundation', '~> 4.1.1', require: false
[GemBench] Evaluated 265 gems and Gemfile at /Users/pboling/Documents/RubyMineProjects/simple/Gemfile.
[GemBench] Here are 45 suggestions for improvement:
  [SUGGESTION] 1) gem 'tilt', '~> 1.3.6'
  [SUGGESTION] 2) gem 'json', '~> 1.7.7'
  [SUGGESTION] 3) gem 'annotate', '~> 2.5.0'
  [SUGGESTION] 4) gem 'nokogiri', '~> 1.5.9'
  [SUGGESTION] 5) gem 'redis', '~> 3.0.3'
  [SUGGESTION] 6) gem 'sinatra', '~> 1.3.6'
  [SUGGESTION] 7) gem 'autoscaler', '~> 0.2.1'
  [SUGGESTION] 8) gem 'binding_of_caller', '~> 0.7.1'
  [SUGGESTION] 9) gem 'bourne', '~> 1.4.0'
  [SUGGESTION] 10) gem 'brakeman', '~> 1.9.5'
  [SUGGESTION] 11) gem 'cancan', '~> 1.6.9'
  [SUGGESTION] 12) gem 'capybara', '~> 2.0.3'
  [SUGGESTION] 13) gem 'chronic', '~> 0.9.1'
  [SUGGESTION] 14) gem 'compass-h5bp', '~> 0.1.1'
  [SUGGESTION] 15) gem 'database_cleaner', '~> 0.9.1'
  [SUGGESTION] 16) gem 'debugger', '~> 1.5.0'
  [SUGGESTION] 17) gem 'devise-async', '~> 0.7.0'
  [SUGGESTION] 18) gem 'dotenv-rails', '~> 0.6.0'
  [SUGGESTION] 19) gem 'email_spec', '~> 1.4.0'
  [SUGGESTION] 20) gem 'fabrication', '~> 2.6.4'
  [SUGGESTION] 21) gem 'fakeweb', '~> 1.3.0'
  [SUGGESTION] 22) gem 'flag_shih_tzu', '~> 0.3.2'
  [SUGGESTION] 23) gem 'friendly_id', '~> 4.0.9'
  [SUGGESTION] 24) gem 'guard', '~> 1.7.0'
  [SUGGESTION] 25) gem 'guard-rspec', '~> 2.5.2'
  [SUGGESTION] 26) gem 'i18n-airbrake', '~> 0.0.2'
  [SUGGESTION] 27) gem 'km', '~> 1.1.3'
  [SUGGESTION] 28) gem 'localtunnel', '~> 0.3'
  [SUGGESTION] 29) gem 'mailcatcher', '~> 0.5.10'
  [SUGGESTION] 30) gem 'numbers_and_words', '~> 0.6.0'
  [SUGGESTION] 31) gem 'oj', '~> 2.0.10'
  [SUGGESTION] 32) gem 'omniauth-facebook', '~> 1.4.1'
  [SUGGESTION] 33) gem 'poltergeist', '~> 1.0.2'
  [SUGGESTION] 34) gem 'pry-doc', '~> 0.4.5'
  [SUGGESTION] 35) gem 'puma', '~> 2.0.0.b7'
  [SUGGESTION] 36) gem 'queryable_array', '~> 0.0.1'
  [SUGGESTION] 37) gem 'rails_best_practices', '~> 1.13.4'
  [SUGGESTION] 38) gem 'redcarpet', '~> 2.2.2'
  [SUGGESTION] 39) gem 'redis-rails', '~> 3.2.3'
  [SUGGESTION] 40) gem 'shoulda-matchers', '~> 1.4.2'
  [SUGGESTION] 41) gem 'sidekiq-status', '~> 0.3.0'
  [SUGGESTION] 42) gem 'terminal-notifier', '~> 1.4.2'
  [SUGGESTION] 43) gem 'test-unit', '~> 2.5.4'
  [SUGGESTION] 44) gem 'uglifier', '~> 1.3.0'
  [SUGGESTION] 45) gem 'vestal_versions', '~> 1.2.3'

gem_bench found 45 gems which are listed as primary dependencies in my Gemfile which I can add require: false to. After adding require: false, try all these locally:

  1. running your tests
  2. starting the console
  3. starting the server and using your app
  4. running rake tasks if you have any special ones

When doing these, you will probably encounter errors saying that a library is not available. You should then add require "foo" where the error happens. Keep in mind that if this is in an initializer or environment file, you aren’t saving any time when the rails server is booting. However, it does save time when running a rake task that does not invoke the environment (some do, some don’t). So, if you don’t think saving this time is worth the minor additional code complexity, you can exclude the require: falses in these cases.

After adding your require: falses, run gem_bench again. The gem’s logic isn’t perfect so it sometimes will find new suggested exclusions.

How much faster will my app boot loading 45 fewer gems? A bit.

Note: Some of the gems in the list above should have been excluded. They are now excluded as of gem_bench version 0.0.4.