We tried to make TorqueBox 1.x as easy to install as possible but it still involved downloading and unzipping an archive and setting some environment variables. If you wanted to use TorqueBox 1.x with RVM or an existing JRuby installation, it required even more steps. Don't you think it would be so much easier if there was one gem install command to install everything?

We thought so, too!

gem install torquebox-server

$ jruby -J-Xmx1024m -S gem install torquebox-server --pre \
  --source http://torquebox.org/2x/builds/LATEST/gem-repo/

That one command installs TorqueBox 2.x. This isn't a crippled web-only clone of TorqueBox, this is the entire TorqueBox application server installed as a gem! No environment variables, no symlinks, no special cases for RVM. All you need is an existing JRuby 1.6.1 or higher interpreter.

Once we put out an official 2.x release you'll be able to drop the --source and --pre arguments from the command. Until then, the command above installs the latest successful incremental build from our CI server. Check out our 2.x Incremental Builds page for details on the most recent incremental builds.

If all goes well you should see sample output like below:

Fetching: torquebox-core-2.x.incremental.107-java.gem (100%)
Fetching: torquebox-messaging-2.x.incremental.107-java.gem (100%)
Fetching: torquebox-naming-2.x.incremental.107-java.gem (100%)
Fetching: torquebox-rake-support-2.x.incremental.107.gem (100%)
Fetching: torquebox-security-2.x.incremental.107-java.gem (100%)
Fetching: torquebox-vfs-2.x.incremental.107-java.gem (100%)
Fetching: torquebox-web-2.x.incremental.107-java.gem (100%)
Fetching: torquebox-2.x.incremental.107.gem (100%)
Fetching: torquebox-server-2.x.incremental.107-java.gem (100%)
Successfully installed torquebox-core-2.x.incremental.107-java
Successfully installed torquebox-messaging-2.x.incremental.107-java
Successfully installed torquebox-naming-2.x.incremental.107-java
Successfully installed torquebox-rake-support-2.x.incremental.107
Successfully installed torquebox-security-2.x.incremental.107-java
Successfully installed torquebox-vfs-2.x.incremental.107-java
Successfully installed torquebox-web-2.x.incremental.107-java
Successfully installed torquebox-2.x.incremental.107
Successfully installed torquebox-server-2.x.incremental.107-java
9 gems installed

Deploy and Run Your Application

After installation you have a new torquebox command available

  $ torquebox
  Tasks:
    torquebox deploy ROOT    # Deploy an application to TorqueBox
    torquebox undeploy ROOT  # Undeploy an application from TorqueBox
    torquebox run            # Run TorqueBox
    torquebox cli            # Run the JBoss AS7 CLI
    torquebox help [TASK]    # Describe available tasks or one specific task

Let's deploy a Sinatra application:

$ torquebox deploy ~/src/sinatra/basic
Deployed: basic-knob.yml
    into: /Users/bbrowning/.rvm/gems/jruby-1.6.2/gems/torquebox-server-2.x.incremental.107-java/jboss/standalone/deployments

Then run TorqueBox:

$ torquebox run

A few seconds will pass and you'll see a message like the one below indicating your TorqueBox is up and accepting requests:

11:05:06,022 INFO  [org.jboss.as] (MSC service thread 1-8) JBoss AS 7.x.incremental.16 "(TBD)" started in 12151ms - Started 148 of 214 services (66 services are passive or on-demand)

A quick peek at jconsole shows TorqueBox is only using about 50MB of JVM heap to run this Sinatra application. If you used TorqueBox 1.x, you'll appreciate how much smaller things are now.

Use ctrl-c to kill the server. Then let's undeploy our application:

$ torquebox undeploy ~/src/sinatra/basic
Undeployed: basic-knob.yml
      from: /Users/bbrowning/.rvm/gems/jruby-1.6.2/gems/torquebox-server-2.x.incremental.107-java/jboss/standalone/deployments

First-Class RVM Support

I mentioned it above but it's worth pointing out again. Installing TorqueBox as a gem means you no longer need special instructions to run TorqueBox under RVM. No matter how you installed your JRuby the same gem install command should work; in fact, I used RVM in all my examples above.

Remember, These Are Incremental Builds

These instructions are for installing an incremental build of TorqueBox 2.x. This branch is evolving very rapidly and, while we feel it's fairly stable, you may run into bugs and hurdles not present in our 1.x releases. As always if you run into any issues join us in IRC or on the mailing lists and we'll help get things sorted out.

Stay Tuned for More on 2.x

A simplified installation is only one of the many great new things about TorqueBox 2.x. We'll talk more over the coming weeks about TorqueBox 2.x and JBoss AS7 as we march towards our first 2.x release.