How do I install ruby gems on Mac

Question

How do I install RubyGems on my Mac?

I tried to run $ gem install rubygems-update with no luck . It returns

ERROR:  While executing gem ... (Gem::FilePermissionError)     You don't have write permissions for the /Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0 directory. 

Any help would be great. Thanks

Answer 1

I would highly suggest using a package manager and a Ruby Environment Manager.

On Mac:

brew update brew install ruby  # If you use bash echo 'export PATH=/usr/local/Cellar/ruby/2.4.1_1/bin:$PATH' >> ~/.bash_profile   # If you use ZSH: echo 'export PATH=/usr/local/Cellar/ruby/2.4.1_1/bin:$PATH' >> ~/.zprofile 

You can do that but I suggest using an Environment Manager for Ruby. You have rbenv and RVM.
IMO go for rbenv:

brew install rbenv ruby-build  # bash echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.rbenv/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bash_profile echo 'eval "$(rbenv init -)"' >> ~/.bash_profile    # zsh echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.rbenv/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zprofile echo 'eval "$(rbenv init -)"' >> ~/.zprofile    # list all available versions: rbenv install -l  # install a Ruby version: rbenv install 2.4.1  # set ruby version for a specific dir rbenv local 2.4.1  # set ruby version globally rbenv global 2.4.1  rbenv rehash gem update --system 

Answer 2

One more variant is to use brew-gem.

https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/brew-gem

https://github.com/sportngin/brew-gem

Just copy/paste from the documentation:

brew install brew-gem

Usage

brew gem install heroku

To install a specific version: brew gem install heroku 3.8.3

To install using a brew installed ruby(/usr/local/bin/ruby): brew gem install heroku --homebrew-ruby

And with a specific version: brew gem install heroku 3.8.3 --homebrew-ruby

To upgrade: brew gem upgrade heroku

To uninstall: brew gem uninstall heroku

To check information: brew gem info heroku

Note: Installed gems are listed in brew list with prefix of gem-, like gem-heroku.