Gems

I found it hard to find good instructions for installing ruby gems as a non- root user without installing the gem package locally as well. Here’s what I figured out; hopefully this will save someone else some time in the future: Make a directory for gem installation: $> mkdir ~/.gems Set up your .gemrc for gem install-time configuration: $> cat << EOF > ~/.gemrc gemhome: $HOME/gems gempath: - $HOME/gems - /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8 EOF Set up some environment variables for run-time: $> cat << EOF >> ~/.bashrc export GEM_HOME=$HOME/gems export GEM_PATH=$HOME/gems:/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/ export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/gems/bin EOF Source your bashrc and you’re all set. »