From: Jose Marques <noway@...>
Date: 2005-04-21T20:09:35+09:00
Subject: Installing RubyGems as non-root user on MacOS X

I'm trying to install RubyGems on MacOS 10.3.9 in my home directory as a 
non-root/non-admin user.  I have Ruby 1.8.2 installed via DarwinPorts and 
Ruby 1.8.2 is in my PATH ahead of the system ruby.

I am installing RubyGems 0.8.10 from source (not using DarwinPorts) as 
follows.

 	$ ruby setup.rb config --prefix=/Users/jose/
 	$ ruby setup.rb setup
 	$ ruby setup.rb install

taken from the RubyGems manual[1].  The first two commands complete 
without error but the final command fails with the following:

hook /Users/jose/Projects/Ruby/rubygems-0.8.10/./post-install.rb failed:
You don't have write permissions into the /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8 
directory.
Try 'ruby setup.rb --help' for detailed usage.

I've googled a bit for this but so far have not found any fixes.  How do I 
stop rubygems from trying to modify my main ruby setup.  I would like 
Rubygems to be contained entirely within my home directory.  Is that 
possible?  Do I need to build my own private copy of Ruby as well?

Many thanks for and advice.

[1]: http://docs.rubygems.org/read/chapter/3#page70

-- 
Jose Marques