Specify gem installation directory

Question

I have some trouble here. I am working with a Rails 2.3 project (working on the production server through ssh - don't ask why). Here is the Gemfile. When delayed_jobs is trying to start, the output says I need to install the bundler gem. The problem is that the gemdir is /var/lib/gems/1.8/ and I don't have the write priviliges for that directory. However there is a directory under ~/projects/shared/gems/ruby/1.8/gems where I can write.

How can I define the installation path for a gem?

Answer 1

To install foo gem to a specified folder, just use --install-dir option, i.e.

$ gem install --install-dir /path/to/gems/folder foo 

It helps when:

• one cannot use bundle install - e.g. if one wants to install bundle gem itself, or wants to install a gem (which is not listed in Gemfile) into the bundle folder
• sudo gem install command fails due to lack of write-permissions for a default installation path

Hope that helps.

Answer 2

You can add the following to your config.ru file:

ENV['GEM_HOME']="#{ENV['HOME']}/projects/shared/gems/ruby/1.8/gems" ENV['GEM_PATH']="#{ENV['GEM_HOME']}:/var/lib/ruby/gems/1.8" require 'rubygems' Gem.clear_paths 

This will tell your rack app where to look for gems.

Also configure your server .bashrc:

export GEM_HOME="$HOME/projects/shared/gems/ruby/1.8/gems" export GEM_PATH="$GEM_HOME:/var/lib/ruby/gems/1.8"