From: Eric Hodel <drbrain@...7.net>
Date: 2008-07-23T15:01:47+09:00
Subject: Re: Rubygems - uninitialized constant

On Jul 18, 2008, at 03:14 AM, Tom Cloyd wrote:
> Tom Cloyd wrote:
>> With a fresh install of Rubygems, when I issue a "gem -h" command,  
>> the result is:
>> /usr/bin/gem:23: uninitialized constant Gem::GemRunner (NameError)
>> Background:
>> With a fresh installation of Kubuntu 8.04.1 Linux, I installed ruby  
>> 1.8 with "apt-get...", and then installed rubygems 1.8 from the tar  
>> file at rubyforge. There were problems, so I figured the rubygems  
>> install done that way was a bad idea. Basically, I was getting an  
>> odd message when trying to install the webby gem. Three other gems  
>> did install without error, including sequel.
>> So, I reinstalled ruby 1.8, and rubygems from the Adept package  
>> manager,  at which point I got the unexpected problem above.
>> I don't know what's wrong or how to get a good install of rubygems,  
>> at this point. All suggests greatly appreciated.
>> Thanks,
>> Tom
>
> Thanks to a kind soul on the Webby list (there's NEVER anyone there  
> this time of night - but Doug Livesey was, tonight - tks Doug!) I  
> now have the fix on this -
>
> http://ericbeland.com/2007/12/20/uninitialized-constant-gem-gemrunner
>
> /usr/bin/gem simply needs the following line inserted into it.
>
> require 'rubygems/gem_runner'
>
> Now things work.
>
> I hope this gets fix by someone, if such a response is needed.  
> Apparently its happened to other people.

No, this is wrong.

You have an old `gem` lying around.  Recent RubyGems releases install  
gem to match your ruby binary's name, which is usually symlinked from  
something like `ruby1.8` to `ruby` (thus, `gem1.8`).  Delete `gem` and  
symlink it appropriately.  When you installed RubyGems the last thing  
it printed was where it installed the gem executable.