From: David Brodbeck <brodbd@...>
Date: 2009-10-09T02:53:57+09:00
Subject: Difficulty updating Ruby Gems in a non-standard location

I have Ruby Gems installed in a non-standard location.  Both  
$GEM_PREFIX and $GEM_HOME are set.  I'm attempting to update from  
0.9.4 to 1.3.5, without success.

First attempt:  I tried "gem update --system".  This didn't work  
because it ignored $GEM_PREFIX and installed in the wrong location.

Second attempt: I tried the instructions here: http://blade.nagaokaut.ac.jp/cgi-bin/scat.rb/ruby/ruby-talk/243916
    This completely broke gem; every time I tried to do something with  
it I got this error:
    /opt/ruby-gems/bin/gem:14: undefined method `ruby_version' for  
Gem:Module (NoMethodError)

Third attempt: I restored my gem directory from backup and tried "gem  
install rubygems-update && update_rubygems".  This gave the following  
error:
    Error: Cannot find RubyGems Update Path!

    RubyGems has already been updated.
    The rubygems-update gem may now be uninstalled.
    E.g.    gem uninstall rubygems-update

So, now I'm stumped.  How do I update Ruby Gems if it's not installed  
in the standard location?

-- 

David Brodbeck
System Administrator, Linguistics
University of Washington