Webdev Hints

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How to install Ruby gems without sudo

11 Aug 2022

You don’t want to clutter your system with extra ruby gems, don’t you?

Solution

The option is to install gems to a folder in your home. The gem install command has an option just for that:

So the command may look like this:

gem install --user-install jekyll

The .gemrc file

To avoid typing the options every time, we could add them to the ~/.gemrc file:

---
gem: --user-install
install: --no-document # avoids generating documentation, you may omit this option

And then just type

gem install jekyll

PATH

If you see a warning

WARNING:  You don't have /home/anton/.local/share/gem/ruby/bin in your PATH,
          gem executables will not run.

make sure to add the provided bin directory to the $PATH. Usually, this is done in shell configuration files like ~/.bashrc or ~/.zhsrc:

export PATH=$HOME/.gems/bin:$PATH

Reload the terminal or use

source ~/.bashrc

after edit so that new paths will be available.

Debugging

To see the current paths, use the gem environment command. By default, it loads your ~/.gemrc. It will give you the following output:

RubyGems Environment:
  - RUBYGEMS VERSION: 3.3.7
  - RUBY VERSION: 3.1.2 (2022-04-12 patchlevel 20) [x86_64-linux]
  - INSTALLATION DIRECTORY: /usr/share/gems
  - USER INSTALLATION DIRECTORY: /home/anton/.local/share/gem/ruby
  - RUBY EXECUTABLE: /usr/bin/ruby
  - GIT EXECUTABLE: /usr/bin/git
  - EXECUTABLE DIRECTORY: /usr/bin
  - SPEC CACHE DIRECTORY: /home/anton/.local/share/gem/specs
  - SYSTEM CONFIGURATION DIRECTORY: /etc
  - RUBYGEMS PLATFORMS:
     - ruby
     - x86_64-linux
  - GEM PATHS:
     - /usr/share/gems
     - /home/anton/.local/share/gem/ruby
     - /usr/local/share/gems
  - GEM CONFIGURATION:
     - :update_sources => true
     - :verbose => true
     - :backtrace => false
     - :bulk_threshold => 1000
     - "gem" => "--user-install"
     - "install" => "--no-document"
  - REMOTE SOURCES:
     - https://rubygems.org/
  - SHELL PATH:
     - /home/anton/programs
     - /home/anton/.gems/bin
     - /usr/local/bin
     - /usr/bin
     - /bin
     - /usr/local/sbin
     - /usr/sbin
     - /sbin

References