# Having problems with Gem version on Snow Leopard

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/having-problems-with-gem-version-on-snow-leopard/174622>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [August 30, 2009, 1:42am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/having-problems-with-gem-version-on-snow-leopard/174622 "2009-08-30T01:42:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![rykkers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@rykkers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rykkers)\
**Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 1:42am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/having-problems-with-gem-version-on-snow-leopard/174622/1 "2009-08-30T01:42:52Z")

</div>

So, the migration to Snow Leopard has gone well, except that it’s  
totally bollixed up my ruby/rails development environment.

It looks like Snow Leopard shipped with gem version 1.2.0 is this  
right?

$ which gem  
/usr/bin/gem  
$ gem --version  
1.2.0

Okay, so I guess I need to update

$ sudo gem update --system  
Password:  
Updating RubyGems  
Updating rubygems-update  
Successfully installed rubygems-update-1.2.0  
ERROR: While executing gem … (NameError)  
undefined local variable or method `remote\_gemspecs’ for  
#\<Gem::Commands::UpdateCommand:0x1018e16b8

And some of the (old) stuff I found via google says to do it again,  
but I get exactly the same thing, so then plan B is suggested

$ sudo gem install rubygems-update  
Successfully installed rubygems-update-1.2.0  
1 gem installed

$ update\_rubygems  
Installing RubyGems 1.2.0  
mkdir -p /Library/Ruby/Site/1.8  
mkdir -p /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/bin  
install -c -m 0644 rbconfig/datadir.rb  
/Library/Ruby/Site/1.8/rbconfig/datadir.rb  
… # Lots of install lines snipped  
install -c -m 0644 ubygems.rb /Library/Ruby/Site/1.8/ubygems.rb  
cp gem /var/folders/DV/DVi3x+y8HiSSTCLkEYVBpE+++TI/-Tmp-/gem  
install -c -m 0755  
/var/folders/DV/DVi3x+y8HiSSTCLkEYVBpE+++TI/-Tmp-/gem  
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/bin/gem  
rm /var/folders/DV/DVi3x+y8HiSSTCLkEYVBpE+++TI/-Tmp-/gem  
rm -f /source\_cache  
Removing old RubyGems RDoc and ri  
Installing rubygems-1.2.0 ri into /doc/rubygems-1.2.0/ri  
Installing rubygems-1.2.0 rdoc into /doc/rubygems-1.2.0/rdoc

* * *

= Announce: RubyGems Release 1.2.0

Release 1.2.0 adds new features and fixes some bugs.  
[snip]  
If you have a recent version of RubyGems (0.8.5 or later), then all  
you need to do is:

$ gem update --system (you might need to be admin/root)

(Note: You may have to run the command twice if you have any previosly  
installed rubygems-update gems).

If you have an older version of RubyGems installed, then you can still  
do it in two steps:

$ gem install rubygems-update (again, might need to be admin/root)  
$ update\_rubygems (… here too)

[Sounds like what I did]

If `gem` was installed by a previous RubyGems installation, you may need  
to remove it by hand.

* * *

$ gem --version  
1.2.0

WTF???

Okay so where is the gem binary?

$ which gem  
/usr/bin/gem  
$ ls -al /usr/bin/gem  
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 71 Aug 29 14:15 /usr/bin/gem →   
…/…/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/bin/gem

So, is there a newer rubygems-update?

$ gem list -b rubygems-update

\*\*\* LOCAL GEMS \*\*\*

rubygems-update (1.2.0)

\*\*\* REMOTE GEMS \*\*\*

rubygems-update (1.3.5)  
\e]0;rick➜ ~ $ gem sources  
\*\*\* CURRENT SOURCES \*\*\*

[http://gems.rubyforge.org/](http://gems.rubyforge.org/)  
[http://gems.github.com](http://gems.github.com)

So let’s try installing that:

$ gem update rubygems-update  
Updating installed gems  
Updating rubygems-update  
Successfully installed rubygems-update-1.2.0  
ERROR: While executing gem … (NameError)  
undefined local variable or method `remote\_gemspecs’ for  
#Gem::Commands::UpdateCommand:0x1018e1690

Okay lets’s try installing the specific version:

$ gem install --remote --version 1.3.5 rubygems-update  
Successfully installed rubygems-update-1.2.0  
1 gem installed

And the version gets ignored.

Any ideas about how to get out of this loop???

–  
Rick DeNatale

Blog: [http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/](http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/)  
Twitter: [http://twitter.com/RickDeNatale](http://twitter.com/RickDeNatale)  
WWR: [http://www.workingwithrails.com/person/9021-rick-denatale](http://www.workingwithrails.com/person/9021-rick-denatale)  
LinkedIn: [http://www.linkedin.com/in/rickdenatale](http://www.linkedin.com/in/rickdenatale)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rykkers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@rykkers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rykkers)\
**Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 2:44am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/having-problems-with-gem-version-on-snow-leopard/174622/2 "2009-08-30T02:44:20Z")

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On Aug 29, 2009, at 16:01 , Rick DeNatale wrote:

> So, the migration to Snow Leopard has gone well, except that it’s  
> totally bollixed up my ruby/rails development environment.
> 
> It looks like Snow Leopard shipped with gem version 1.2.0 is this  
> right?
> 
> $ which gem  
> /usr/bin/gem  
> $ gem --version  
> 1.2.0

huh… I get:

> 501 % gem --version  
> 1.3.5  
> 502 % which gem  
> /usr/bin/gem  
> 503 % ll /usr/bin/gem  
> lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 71 Aug 28 16:05 /usr/bin/gem@ -\> …/…/  
> System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/bin/gem

So I have no idea why you’re back at 1.2.0. 😕

Can you make sure you don’t have multiple ruby’s installed on your  
machine? Also, if you’re really back at 1.2.0, then you NEED to  
install via tarball. This is a known and published bug. You’re also  
doing several steps w/o sudo.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rykkers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@rykkers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rykkers)\
**Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 2:45am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/having-problems-with-gem-version-on-snow-leopard/174622/3 "2009-08-30T02:45:31Z")

</div>

On Aug 29, 2009, at 16:01 , Rick DeNatale wrote:

> So, the migration to Snow Leopard has gone well, except that it’s  
> totally bollixed up my ruby/rails development environment.
> 
> It looks like Snow Leopard shipped with gem version 1.2.0 is this  
> right?
> 
> $ which gem  
> /usr/bin/gem  
> $ gem --version  
> 1.2.0

huh… I get:

> 501 % gem --version  
> 1.3.5  
> 502 % which gem  
> /usr/bin/gem  
> 503 % ll /usr/bin/gem  
> lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 71 Aug 28 16:05 /usr/bin/gem@ -\> …/…/  
> System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/bin/gem

So I have no idea why you’re back at 1.2.0. 😕

Can you make sure you don’t have multiple ruby’s installed on your  
machine? Also, if you’re really back at 1.2.0, then you NEED to  
install via tarball. This is a known and published bug. You’re also  
doing several steps w/o sudo.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rykkers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@rykkers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rykkers)\
**Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 12:03pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/having-problems-with-gem-version-on-snow-leopard/174622/4 "2009-08-30T12:03:22Z")

</div>

On Aug 29, 2009, at 18:46 , Rick DeNatale wrote:

> > > /usr/bin/gem  
> > > tarball.  
> > > This is a known and published bug. You’re also doing several steps  
> > > w/o sudo.
> 
> I’ve gone back an punted and installed ruby and gems from source.
> 
> I should have done the usual bypass surgery to begin with.

It would have been nice to have figured it out. I haven’t (ever) done  
any of “the usual bypass surgery” so I have no means to reproduce the  
issue.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rykkers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@rykkers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rykkers)\
**Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 2:00pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/having-problems-with-gem-version-on-snow-leopard/174622/5 "2009-08-30T14:00:25Z")

</div>

On Sun, Aug 30, 2009 at 6:02 AM, Ryan D.[removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)  
wrote:

> t would have been nice to have figured it out. I haven’t (ever) done any of  
> “the usual bypass surgery” so I have no means to reproduce the issue.

Yeah. It would have been nice to find the root cause, but it was one  
of several bumps in my road to a Snow Leopard development machine and  
I took the easy? way out.

I made the mistake of embarking on the system upgrade after getting  
only three hours of sleep before, so I guess my I.Q. was even lower  
than normal yesterday.

–  
Rick DeNatale

Blog: [http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/](http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/)  
Twitter: [http://twitter.com/RickDeNatale](http://twitter.com/RickDeNatale)  
WWR: [http://www.workingwithrails.com/person/9021-rick-denatale](http://www.workingwithrails.com/person/9021-rick-denatale)  
LinkedIn: [http://www.linkedin.com/in/rickdenatale](http://www.linkedin.com/in/rickdenatale)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rykkers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@rykkers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rykkers)\
**Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 3:49am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/having-problems-with-gem-version-on-snow-leopard/174622/6 "2009-08-30T03:49:19Z")

</div>

On Sat, Aug 29, 2009 at 8:43 PM, Ryan D.[removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> > $ gem --version  
> > …/…/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/bin/gem
> 
> So I have no idea why you’re back at 1.2.0. 😕
> 
> Can you make sure you don’t have multiple ruby’s installed on your machine?  
> Also, if you’re really back at 1.2.0, then you NEED to install via tarball.  
> This is a known and published bug. You’re also doing several steps w/o sudo.

I’ve gone back an punted and installed ruby and gems from source.

I should have done the usual bypass surgery to begin with.

–  
Rick DeNatale

Blog: [http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/](http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/)  
Twitter: [http://twitter.com/RickDeNatale](http://twitter.com/RickDeNatale)  
WWR: [http://www.workingwithrails.com/person/9021-rick-denatale](http://www.workingwithrails.com/person/9021-rick-denatale)  
LinkedIn: [http://www.linkedin.com/in/rickdenatale](http://www.linkedin.com/in/rickdenatale)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rykkers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@rykkers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rykkers)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 1:17am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/having-problems-with-gem-version-on-snow-leopard/174622/7 "2009-09-01T01:17:22Z")

</div>

On Aug 30, 2009, at 04:57, Rick DeNatale wrote:

> I made the mistake of embarking on the system upgrade after getting  
> only three hours of sleep before, so I guess my I.Q. was even lower  
> than normal yesterday.

I guess 1.2’s updater has more bugs than I thought ☹

The 1.3.x release notes mention a “Nothing to update” bug, but this  
seems to be different.