rubygem "Argument list too long"

Question

My problem is that during or after running a process which uses Ruby intensively, when I use any gem command including gem --version or gem install rake, it hangs for just over a minute and then gives me this error:

$ gem list
/Users/username/.rvm/bin/gem: line 5: /Users/username/.rvm/bin/gem: Argument list too long
/Users/username/.rvm/bin/gem: line 5: /Users/username/.rvm/bin/gem: Unknown error: 0

file at : line 5: /Users/username/.rvm/bin/gem

#!/usr/bin/env bash

if [[ -s "/Users/username/.rvm/environments/ruby-1.8.7-p334" ]] ; then
  source "/Users/username/.rvm/environments/ruby-1.8.7-p334"
  exec gem "$@"                # this is line 5
else
  echo "ERROR: Missing RVM environment file: '/Users/username/.rvm/environments/ruby-    1.8.7-p334'" >&2
exit 1
fi

The only way that I have found to get this working again is to restart my computer, which is obviously undesirable. I am using OSX 10.6.5

I have spent quite a while trying to find anyone else who has had this problem, and been unsuccessful. Do you have any idea why this might be happening?

Answer 1

This issue is that you set rvm to use --default a nonexistent ruby version.

You have to specify it exactly, or it doesn't work correctly.

Answer 2

Solved it by calling

rvm use 1.9.3

istead of

rvm use 1.9.3 --default

Everything works now.

Answer 3

Seems like you're calling your script recursively...

You can

1. Rename your script

2. Use the full /usr/bin/gem path to refer to rubygems

Edit: Bonus points and a magic cookie to whoever can tell me why her script is being called recursively. Just FYI it should not be happening under normal circumstances ;)