Like @Alex said, you could use the Kernel#fork to create a new ruby process where you will require your libraries. The new forked process will have access to data loaded in the parent process:
def talk(msg)
# this will allow us to see which process is
# talking
puts "#{Process.pid}: #{msg}"
end
# this data was loaded on the parent process
# and will be use in the child (and in the parent)
this_is_data = ["a", "b", "c"]
talk "I'm the father process, and I see #{this_is_data}"
# this will create a new ruby process
fork{
talk "I'm another process, and I also see #{this_is_data}"
talk "But when I change `this_is_data`, a new copy of it is created"
this_is_data << "d"
talk "My own #{this_is_data}"
}
# let's wait and give a chance to the child process
# finishes before the parent
sleep 3
talk "Now, in the father again, data is: #{this_is_data}"
The result of this execution will vary in your machine, the Process.id will return different values, but it will be like these:
23520: I'm the father process, and I see ["a", "b", "c"]
23551: I'm another process, and I also see ["a", "b", "c"]
23551: But when I change `this_is_data`, a new copy of it is created
23551: My own ["a", "b", "c", "d"]
23520: Now, in the father again, data is: ["a", "b", "c"]
And this is good! Each process created by fork is an O.S. level process and run in it's own memory space.
Another thing you can do to somehow manage the globals created by loading a file, is replace the use of require by load. This approach doesn't solve all the problems already pointed, but really can help. See the following specs:
require "minitest/autorun"
describe "Loading files inside a scope" do
def create_lib_file(version)
libfile = <<CODE
class MyLibrary#{version}
VERSION = "0.0.#{version}"
end
class String
def omg_danger!
end
end
puts "loaded \#{MyLibrary#{version}::VERSION}"
CODE
File.write("my_library.rb", libfile)
end
after do
File.delete("my_library.rb") if File.exists?("my_library.rb")
end
describe "loading with require" do
it "sees the MyLibrary definition" do
create_lib_file("1")
require_relative "my_library.rb"
MyLibrary1::VERSION.must_be :==, "0.0.1"
"".respond_to?(:omg_danger!).must_be :==, true
end
end
describe "loading with #load " do
describe "without wrapping" do
it "sees the MyLibrary definition" do
create_lib_file("2")
load "my_library.rb"
MyLibrary2::VERSION.must_be :==, "0.0.2"
"".respond_to?(:omg_danger!).must_be :==, true
end
end
describe "using anonymous module wraping" do
it "doesn't sees MyLibrary definition" do
create_lib_file("3")
load "my_library.rb", true
->{ MyLibrary3 }.must_raise NameError
"".respond_to?(:omg_danger!).must_be :==, false
end
end
end
end
And the result of execution:
Run options: --seed 16453
# Running tests:
loaded 0.0.3
.loaded 0.0.2
.loaded 0.0.1
.
Finished tests in 0.004707s, 637.3486 tests/s, 1274.6973 assertions/s.
3 tests, 6 assertions, 0 failures, 0 errors, 0 skips
