Globally available Gemfile - ruby-on-rails

I have numerous gems that I use across all Rails projects, but that aren't part of the projects' Gems, for example powder for managing POW.
It would make sense to me to manage these with a global Gemfile, but I can't see any examples of this.
How should I manage global Gems that I don't want in my project gemfiles? It would be good to have a single point of install for when I set up a new machine etc.
I'm using chruby alongside ruby-install to manage my Ruby versions.

Make a Gemfile as usual, and place it in any folder. It does not need to be a project folder. Then you can just do:
bundle install --system
This will install the gems in the Gemfile system-wide, and will ask for the root password if you do not have access to the system folder.
--system:
Installs the gems in the bundle to the system location. This overrides any previous remembered use of --path.
You can also name your Gemfile(s), if you want to organize them in some way:
bundle install --system --gemfile=/path/to/my_special_gemfile

As an addition to #Casper's answer:
I created a directory for my system Gem files.
I then added a dir for each version of ruby I wanted to install system gems for. I added a Gemfile to each dir and a .ruby-version file with the correct version. I can now install system gems for a ruby version using:
$ cd path/to/system_gems_dir/1.9.3-p484
$ bundle install --system
or
$ cd cd path/to/system_gems_dir/2.0.0-p353
$ bundle install --system

You can create GlobalGemfile file (or whatever you name it) and than you can do.
bundle install --gemfile GlobalGemfile
Cool isn't it :)

Related

Issue creating new Rails App

When I create a new rails app using rails new Test, I am getting the following error.
run bundle install
Your user account isn't allowed to install to the system Rubygems.
You can cancel this installation and run:
bundle install --path vendor/bundle
to install the gems into ./vendor/bundle/, or you can enter your password
and install the bundled gems to Rubygems using sudo.
I have rbenv -v rbenv 0.4.0 and rails -v Rails 4.2.4
How can I fix this so I can create a new rails app without this issue?
Run
bundle install --path=vendor/bundle
That will install the Gems inside the vendor/bundle directory of your project vs the system gems directory. This is a nice way to keep your gems isolated between apps vs polluting your system gems. Just my 2 cents.
Make sure your user belongs to the RVM group
sudo usermod -a -G rvm myUserName
Run gem env. You should see a list of paths like so under GEM PATHS:
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0
/Users/sam/.gem/ruby/2.0.0
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/gems/2.0.0
Open your ~/.bashrc file and add the paths as follows:
export GEM_HOME=/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0
export PATH=$PATH:$GEM_HOME:/Users/sam/.gem/ruby/2.0.0:/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/gems/2.0.0
Open a new shell and run the gem install rubygems-update.
Everything should run fine now without sudo.
Running:
rails new test
will not work for an application name anyway because it is a reserved rails word. You would want to go with something like testapp

Is there a command in Rails that installs all your gems and dependencies?

I am learning Ruby on Rails and I find it annoying having to install and worry about gems and other dependencies for the apps I build . Does Rails have a way to install all your gems and dependencies for you ?
Yes. You have a file called Gemfile in the directory of your application.
Put all the gem you want to use in it.
And then just run bundle install to install all in one time (with dependencies) and later bundle update to update all your gem installed.
You can see Bundler: The best way to manage a Ruby application's gems and Ruby on Rails Tutorial for more informations.

Is it possible to use Rails 3 without bundler?

We are deploying our apps as RPM linux packages (with all the dependencies also packaged in RPMs). It turns out that bundler is problematic in this situation and it only complicates our build process - we would like to get rid of it.
Is it possible to run Rails 3 app without it forcing Ruby to use system rubygems? How?
In the book Rails 3 Way there is a statement describing that the easiest way to remove Bundler is to delete Gemfile* files. That's it. It just works.
You could install all gems manually using gem install gemname. In your situation or if you do not have sudo rights it is perhaps recommendable to install the gem files locally in your user directory using
gem install --user-install gemname
You can also install your gems locally with bundler:
bundle install --path ~/.gem

gem install trouble

I have a weird trouble, i've updated the .irbrc file to make better looking, for this I
installed awesome_print, wirble and looksee gems, check them by gem list - every gem is there.
And when i run rails console i got this:
Cannot find awesome_print gem. Please run 'gem install awesome_print' to install it.
Cannot find wirble. Please run 'gem install wirble' to install it.
Cannot find looksee. Please run 'gem install looksee' to install it.
I've no idea why it happen. I have rvm on my system but I don't think it causes the problem.
Thanks.
To install gems in Rails 3, add them to your Gemfile
For instance:
gem 'awesome_print'
gem 'wirble'
gem 'looksee'
Then run bundle install.
It's also a best practice to create a gemset with rvm per-project to isolate dependencies among projects.
To do this, in your Rails root directory run: rvm --create --rvmrc 1.9.2#myproject (substitute 1.9.2 with whatever version of Ruby you want to use).
After creating the gemset, rerun bundle install.
You'll notice an .rvmrc file has been created, which makes sure whenever you cd to that directory, the "myproject" gemset will automatically be used. Add this to version control so other developers get the same effect.

'sudo gem install' or 'gem install' and gem locations

Running 'sudo gem list --local' and 'gem list --local' give me differing results. My gem path is set to my home folder and only contains the gems from 'gem list --local'.
It's probably not good to have gems installed in different directories on my computer, so should I have the gem path set differently, and should I always use sudo when installing something?
my ~/.profile
export PATH=/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:$PATH
export PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/mysql/bin:$PATH"
~/.bash_profile is empty.
You can install gems in your local environment (without sudo) with
gem install --user-install <gemname>
I recommend that so you don't mess with your system-level configuration even if it's a single-user computer.
You can check where the gems go by looking at gempaths with gem environment. In my case it's "~/.gem/ruby/1.8".
If you need some binaries from local installs added to your path, you can add something to your bashrc like:
if which ruby >/dev/null && which gem >/dev/null; then
PATH="$(ruby -r rubygems -e 'puts Gem.user_dir')/bin:$PATH"
fi
(from http://guides.rubygems.org/faqs/#user-install)
Contrary to all the other posts I suggest NOT using sudo when installing gems.
Instead I recommend you install RVM and start a happy life with portable gem homes and different version of Ruby all living under one roof.
For the uninitiated, from the documentation:
RVM is a command line tool which allows us to easily install, manage and work with multiple ruby environments and sets of gems.
The reason why installing gems with sudo is worse than just gem install is because it installs the gems for ALL USERS as root. This might be fine if you're the only person using the machine, but if you're not it can cause weirdness.
If you decide you want to blow away all your gems and start again it's much easier, and safer, to do so as a non-root user.
If you decide you want to use RVM then using sudo will cause all kinds of weirdness because each Ruby version you install through RVM has its own GEM_HOME.
Also, it's nice if you can make your development environment as close to your production environment as possible, and in production you'll most likely install gems as a non-root user.
Better yet, put --user-install in your ~/.gemrc file so you don't have to type it every time
gem: --user-install
In case you
installed ruby gems with sudo
want to install gems without sudo
don't want to install rvm/rbenv
add the following to your .bash_profile :
export GEM_HOME=/Users/‹your_user›/.gem
export PATH="$GEM_HOME/bin:$PATH"
Open a new tab in Terminal OR source ~/.bash_profile and you're good to go!
sudo gem install --no-user-install <gem-name>
will install your gem globally, i.e. it will be available to all user's contexts.
Related (for bundler users), if you want a lighter alternative to RVM which will put everything in a user-specific well known directory, I recommend using:
bundle install --path $HOME/.gem
if you want to install gems to the same place that
gem install --user-install GEMNAME
will install them, .gem/ruby/RUBYVERSION in your homedir. (See the other comment on this question about --user-install.)
This will make the gems visible to gem list, uninstallable via gem uninstall, etc. without needing sudo access. Runnable scripts installed by gem or bundler can be put into your path by adding
$HOME/.gem/ruby/RUBYVERSION/bin
to your $PATH. gem itself tells you about this if it isn't set when you do gem install --user-install.
You can install gems into a specific folder (example vendor/) in your Rails app using :
bundle install --path vendor
Installing Ruby gems on a Mac is a common source of confusion and frustration. Unfortunately, most solutions are incomplete, outdated, and provide bad advice. I'm glad the accepted answer here says to NOT use sudo, which you should never need to do, especially if you don't understand what it does. While I used RVM years ago, I would recommend chruby in 2020.
Some of the other answers here provide alternative options for installing gems, but they don't mention the limitations of those solutions. What's missing is an explanation and comparison of the various options and why you might choose one over the other. I've attempted to cover most common scenarios
in my definitive guide to installing Ruby gems on a Mac.

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