# About rubygems

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/about-rubygems/171225>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [June 29, 2009, 6:01am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/about-rubygems/171225 "2009-06-29T06:01:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![HeChian](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/ec9cab/32.png) [@HeChian](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/HeChian)\
**Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 6:01am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/about-rubygems/171225/1 "2009-06-29T06:01:51Z")

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Hi all.  
My host install ruby in /usr/local/ but install rubygems in /home/user/  
ruby/.  
so, when I startup my rails project it always return error to me said  
that it couldn’t find any rubygems lib.

anybody knows how to solve it? thanks!

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**Author:** ![HeChian](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/ec9cab/32.png) [@HeChian](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/HeChian)\
**Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 6:09am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/about-rubygems/171225/2 "2009-06-29T06:09:43Z")

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HeChian wrote:

> Hi all.  
> My host install ruby in /usr/local/ but install rubygems in /home/user/  
> ruby/.  
> so, when I startup my rails project it always return error to me said  
> that it couldn’t find any rubygems lib.
> 
> anybody knows how to solve it? thanks!

Type whereis gem and see if your symlinks were setup properly. If not,  
you need to type:

sudo ln -s /home/user/bin/gem1.8 /usr/local/bin/gem

… and substitute the path for path where your gem1.8 file is located  
and to the /usr/local/ file.

If your symlinks are all setup and you are able to sudo gem -v then  
ignore the above. It will then just be a matter for you to set the  
require ‘rubygems’ in your ruby scripts.

Place require ‘rubygems’ at the top of your scripts that require gems.

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**Author:** ![HeChian](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/ec9cab/32.png) [@HeChian](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/HeChian)\
**Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 6:25am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/about-rubygems/171225/3 "2009-06-29T06:25:49Z")

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Thanks for reply  
but I can’t use sudo command ☹  
在 2009/6/29 下午 12:09 時， Älphä Blüë 寫到：

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**Author:** ![HeChian](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/ec9cab/32.png) [@HeChian](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/HeChian)\
**Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 2:45pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/about-rubygems/171225/4 "2009-06-29T14:45:17Z")

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On Jun 29, 12:01 am, HeChian [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> Hi all.  
> My host install ruby in /usr/local/ but install rubygems in /home/user/  
> ruby/.  
> so, when I startup my rails project it always return error to me said  
> that it couldn’t find any rubygems lib.
> 
> anybody knows how to solve it? thanks!

Did you try adding /home/usr/ruby to ruby’s search path  
eg

ruby -I/home/user/ruby script/console

If that works then you can get ruby to automatically add that for you  
by setting the RUBYOPT environment variable to “-I/home/user/ruby”

Fred

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![HeChian](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/ec9cab/32.png) [@HeChian](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/HeChian)\
**Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 5:18pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/about-rubygems/171225/5 "2009-06-29T17:18:23Z")

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Assuming that you mean they install gems (the packages, not the  
package _manager_ rubygems) in /home/user/gems, take a look at this  
article on setting GEM\_HOME:

[http://helpdesk.bluehost.com/index.php/kb/article/000365](http://helpdesk.bluehost.com/index.php/kb/article/000365)

–Matt J.