Is it possible to bundle / install gems from a local cache?

Question

I have bunch of gems on my computer that I want to use in a chef recipe.

I know it is possible to put them in a directory like /tmp/gems and just:

cd /tmp/gems
gem install *.gem

Is it possible to put all gems in one directory where I can install them with bundler without downloading them again?

cd /somedir/my_rails_project
bundle

I want to save bandwidth.

Answer 1

bundle install --local should be what you want. From the bundle-install manpage:

--local
    Do not attempt to connect to rubygems.org, instead using just the 
    gems located in vendor/cache. Note that if a more appropriate 
    platform-specific gem exists on rubygems.org, this will bypass 
    the normal lookup.

Answer 2

You can use the BUNDLE_CACHE_PATH configuration key:

cache_path (BUNDLE_CACHE_PATH): The directory that bundler will place cached gems in when running bundle package, and that bundler will look in when installing gems. Defaults to vendor/bundle.

Source: https://bundler.io/v1.16/bundle_config.html#LIST-OF-AVAILABLE-KEYS

In GitLab CI, I defined this value in the environment of runners: "BUNDLE_CACHE_PATH=/cache-ci/bundle", this directory is mounted automatically in CI runners.

Then bundle install will install gems from the cache directory (once cache will be populated).