Running Apache Buildr with JRuby and Nailgun

If your using Apache Buildr for building your projects one of the best ways to gain performance is to run Buildr with JRuby and Nailgun. Nailgun vastly improves the startup time for the JVM. Here’s a quickstart guide to running Buildr with JRuby and Nailgun:

1. Install JRuby to some directory we’ll call JRUBY_HOME
2. Add JRUBY_HOME/bin to your PATH
3. If you’re not running windows, do the following:

   cd JRUBY_HOME/tool/nailgun
   ./configure
   make
   

Now, you should be able to start Nailgun from the command line:

jruby --ng-server

You should see something like the following indicating Nailgun has started:

NGServer started on all interfaces, port 2113.

In another window/terminal, you can run Buildr:

jruby --ng -S buildr --version