# "gem update" eats 100% cpu and memory

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/gem-update-eats-100-cpu-and-memory/143234>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [July 16, 2008, 5:11pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/gem-update-eats-100-cpu-and-memory/143234 "2008-07-16T17:11:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Axel\_Bock](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/439d5e/32.png) [@Axel\_Bock](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Axel_Bock)\
**Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 5:11pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/gem-update-eats-100-cpu-and-memory/143234/1 "2008-07-16T17:11:42Z")

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Hi all,

I have no idea what to do any more. I develop a tiny web app with Ruby  
on Rails, but when I try to update install rails on my root server  
with “gem install rails” (or gem update), within seconds gem will  
render the complete machine unusable, and it will finally crash due to  
oom (out-of-memory) errors, according to the kernel log.

I have an ubuntu hardy server with ruby1.8 installed.  
(rubygems\_0.9.4-4\_all.deb, according to dpkg)

any idea for a distressed person? 🙂

cheers & thanks,  
Axel.

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**Author:** ![Axel\_Bock](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/439d5e/32.png) [@Axel\_Bock](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Axel_Bock)\
**Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 5:21pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/gem-update-eats-100-cpu-and-memory/143234/2 "2008-07-16T17:21:22Z")

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On Thu, 2008-07-17 at 00:05 +0900, Axel Bock wrote:

> I have an ubuntu hardy server with ruby1.8 installed.  
> (rubygems\_0.9.4-4\_all.deb, according to dpkg)

> any idea for a distressed person? 🙂

Uninstall the gem package from the repositories, download the latest gem  
from RubyForge (1.2.0 is what I’ve got) and install it yourself, then  
enjoy a gem that doesn’t try and download/process the entire repository  
in memory all at once each and every time you hit the servers.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Axel\_Bock](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/439d5e/32.png) [@Axel\_Bock](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Axel_Bock)\
**Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 8:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/gem-update-eats-100-cpu-and-memory/143234/3 "2008-07-16T20:30:50Z")

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> Uninstall the gem package from the repositories, download the latest gem  
> from RubyForge (1.2.0 is what I’ve got) and install it yourself, then  
> enjoy a gem that doesn’t try and download/process the entire repository  
> in memory all at once each and every time you hit the servers.

thanks a lot for that. It seems I really have to install 1.2.0 by  
hand, neither ubuntu stable nor intrepid have this one available.  
Damn … 🙂

Thanks!!  
Axel.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Axel\_Bock](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/439d5e/32.png) [@Axel\_Bock](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Axel_Bock)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2008, 3:26am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/gem-update-eats-100-cpu-and-memory/143234/4 "2008-07-19T03:26:24Z")

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On Wednesday 16 July 2008 13:25:13 Axel Bock wrote:

> > Uninstall the gem package from the repositories, download the latest gem  
> > from RubyForge (1.2.0 is what I’ve got) and install it yourself, then  
> > enjoy a gem that doesn’t try and download/process the entire repository  
> > in memory all at once each and every time you hit the servers.
> 
> thanks a lot for that. It seems I really have to install 1.2.0 by  
> hand, neither ubuntu stable nor intrepid have this one available.  
> Damn … 🙂

It’s a bit worrisome that it’s not in Intrepid, though. Any Ubuntu  
maintainers  
on this list?