# Getting Started w Ruby on MacOSX -- ri/RDoc error **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [January 1, 2010, 1:05am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/getting-started-w-ruby-on-macosx-ri-rdoc-error/180936 "2010-01-01T01:05:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MSNorton](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/0ea827/32.png) [@MSNorton](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/MSNorton)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 1:05am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/getting-started-w-ruby-on-macosx-ri-rdoc-error/180936/1 "2010-01-01T01:05:48Z")
Hello, I’ve done some poking around and haven’t yet found a satisfactory answer to this problem and it’s starting to be troublesome. My development machine run MacOSX and I’ve installed Ruby 1.9.1 via the MacPorts options. This puts everything into /opt/local and tags executables with the version number (e.g. ruby becomes ruby1.9, ri becomes ri1.9, etc.) When I run ri to browse a class documentation, I get the following error: galactica:~ remillard$ ri GC /opt/local/lib/ruby1.9/1.9.1/rdoc/ri/driver.rb:384:in `initialize': Permission denied - /Users/remillard/.ri1.9/cache/.doc_dirs (Errno::EACCES) from /opt/local/lib/ruby1.9/1.9.1/rdoc/ri/driver.rb:384:in`open’ from /opt/local/lib/ruby1.9/1.9.1/rdoc/ri/driver.rb:384:in `create_class_cache' from /opt/local/lib/ruby1.9/1.9.1/rdoc/ri/driver.rb:371:in`class\_cache’ from /opt/local/lib/ruby1.9/1.9.1/rdoc/ri/driver.rb:591:in `block in run' from /opt/local/lib/ruby1.9/1.9.1/rdoc/ri/driver.rb:590:in`each’ from /opt/local/lib/ruby1.9/1.9.1/rdoc/ri/driver.rb:590:in `run' from /opt/local/lib/ruby1.9/1.9.1/rdoc/ri/driver.rb:300:in`run’ from /opt/local/bin/ri:5:in `’ Now, my best guess is that there’s something funny about the paths where MacPorts installed things, but I’ll be damned if I can figure out what’s going on. When looking at my path I see: galactica:~ remillard$ echo $PATH /opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/ local/bin:/usr/X11/bin:/Users/remillard/bin And it looks to me like the MacPorts path should be searched first. The only thing I did was to go into /opt/local/bin and symlink the simple names to the versioned names for convenience. However I still get the same error if I run “ri1.9 GC” so I don’t think the symlinks are causing any trouble. Has anyone run into this with MacPorts, Ruby 1.9 and MacOSX? Thanks for any information and help the community can suggest. Best regards, Mark Norton ---
**Author:** ![MSNorton](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/0ea827/32.png) [@MSNorton](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/MSNorton)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 1:35am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/getting-started-w-ruby-on-macosx-ri-rdoc-error/180936/2 "2010-01-01T01:35:39Z")
I did finally figure it out so I will document the answer here in case it helps someone else. Somewhere along the line with installing ruby, rails, and other gems, the local ri cache was created and owned by root. I’m not entirely sure why, but that explained the lack of permissions. If you get errors similar to what I described above, check your local directory “ls -al” and look to see if root owns .ri1.9/. Blow that away and then rerun ri. It’ll rebuild the cache and hopefully be owned by your own self. Hope this helps. All the best, Mark Norton ---
**Author:** ![MSNorton](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/0ea827/32.png) [@MSNorton](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/MSNorton)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2010, 2:25am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/getting-started-w-ruby-on-macosx-ri-rdoc-error/180936/3 "2010-01-02T02:25:38Z")
On Dec 31, 2009, at 16:05 , M. Norton wrote: > When I run ri to browse a class documentation, I get the following > error: > > galactica:~ remillard$ ri GC > /opt/local/lib/ruby1.9/1.9.1/rdoc/ri/driver.rb:384:in `initialize’: > Permission denied - /Users/remillard/.ri1.9/cache/.doc\_dirs > (Errno::EACCES) Did you install the docs? ---
**Author:** ![MSNorton](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/0ea827/32.png) [@MSNorton](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/MSNorton)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 10:19pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/getting-started-w-ruby-on-macosx-ri-rdoc-error/180936/4 "2010-01-14T22:19:41Z")
M. Norton wrote: > I did finally figure it out so I will document the answer here in case > it helps someone else. > > Somewhere along the line with installing ruby, rails, and other gems, > the local ri cache was created and owned by root. I’m not entirely > sure why, but that explained the lack of permissions. If you get > errors similar to what I described above, check your local directory > “ls -al” and look to see if root owns .ri1.9/. Blow that away and > then rerun ri. It’ll rebuild the cache and hopefully be owned by your > own self. > > Hope this helps. > > All the best, > Mark Norton Hi, Just wanted to let you know you helped someone. Ran into the exact same problem on Mint linux today, and your post came up with a little googling. A simple “sudo chown -R aaron:aaron /home/aaron/.ri1.9.1/” saved the day! Aaron