From: Gregory Brown <gregory.t.brown@...>
Date: 2009-04-30T10:40:26+09:00
Subject: Re: RubyGems question: install vs. update

On Wed, Apr 29, 2009 at 9:01 PM, Jeff <cohen.jeff@gmail.com> wrote:

> But when I try to update a named gem, I get the new version, but also
> still have the old version (if I do gem list I can see both
> versions).  So maybe I'm missing what you mean by "update" - looks to
> me like it simply installed the new one alongside the old one, no
> different than if I had done "gem install" to install the latest
> version.
>
> I'm currently on RubyGems 1.3.2.

RubyGems supports having many versions of a gem installed on the same
system, which is often necessary for dealing with libraries that
depend on a particular version of a project.

The difference between gem update gemname and gem install gemname is
that gem update is essentially a no-op if you already have the latest
gem installed, where gem install will download and install the gem
even if you already have it.

-greg