# .gemrc obscurity

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/gemrc-obscurity/172718>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [July 26, 2009, 9:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/gemrc-obscurity/172718 "2009-07-26T21:30:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![pedz](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/839c29/32.png) [@pedz](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pedz)\
**Post date:** [July 26, 2009, 9:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/gemrc-obscurity/172718/1 "2009-07-26T21:30:30Z")

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Is it just me? I have to put a colon at the front of my attribute names  
so they look like symbols to get anything to work in my .gemrc file.  
i.e. this does NOT work:

* * *

gemhome: /home/pedzsan/ruby/gems  
gempath:

- /home/pedzsan/ruby/gems
- /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8

but this does:

* * *

:gemhome: /home/pedzsan/ruby/gems  
:gempath:

- /home/pedzsan/ruby/gems
- /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8

I’m not sure if this:

[http://rubygems.org/read/chapter/11](http://rubygems.org/read/chapter/11)

is suppose to be up to date or if this is a recently introduced bug or  
if my brain is buggy.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pedz](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/839c29/32.png) [@pedz](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pedz)\
**Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 1:13am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/gemrc-obscurity/172718/2 "2009-07-27T01:13:33Z")

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On Jul 26, 2009, at 12:30, Perry S. wrote:

> [http://rubygems.org/read/chapter/11](http://rubygems.org/read/chapter/11)
> 
> is suppose to be up to date or if this is a recently introduced bug or  
> if my brain is buggy.

Go straight to the source:

gem help env