From: spox <spox@...>
Date: 2009-10-09T06:43:45+09:00
Subject: Re: Difficulty updating Ruby Gems in a non-standard location

On Thursday 08 October 2009 01:51:33 pm David Brodbeck wrote:
> On Oct 8, 2009, at 11:28 AM, Aaron Patterson wrote:
> > On Oct 8, 2009, at 10:53 AM, David Brodbeck wrote:
> >> 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?
> >
> > I would suggest downloading the tar.gz and running setup.rb (making
> > sure GEM_PREFIX and GEM_HOME are set).  That might clear up your
> > problems.
> >
> > You can grab the tar.gz file here:
> >
> >    http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=126
>
> Unfortunately, that failed in the same way "gem update --system" did
> -- it ignored $GEM_PREFIX and tried to install gem under /usr/bin/
> gem.  The gem installation in /opt/ruby-gems was left untouched.

Using the source you downloaded, make sure that GEM_HOME is exported, then run 
setup with the prefix to the install location:

ruby setup.rb --prefix=/opt/ruby-gems

- spox