# How to install, and use "tidy" gem

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-install-and-use-tidy-gem/159167>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [February 1, 2009, 8:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-install-and-use-tidy-gem/159167 "2009-02-01T20:07:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dcian](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/91b2a8/32.png) [@dcian](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dcian)\
**Post date:** [February 1, 2009, 8:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-install-and-use-tidy-gem/159167/1 "2009-02-01T20:07:27Z")

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Hi,

Ruby newbie here.

I’m trying to install the gem tidy so that it can be used as a filter by  
webby.

I thought it was “gem install tidy” - but this tells me it is  
installed. - version 1.1.2!

There is a comment on the user maual  
([http://webby.rubyforge.org/user-manual/](http://webby.rubyforge.org/user-manual/)) that reads “The HTML Tidy  
application must be installed on your system, and the |tidy| executable  
must be available on the path.”.

What does that mean? I can find no tidy.exe or tidy,com.

However webby tells me that tidy is not installed. (and Tidy is  
unknown).

So after gem has failed to make the gem available, what do I have to  
move where?

I tried copying C:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/tidy-1.1.2/lib/tidy.rb  
cid:removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid /ruby/bin/tidy.rb but that  
hasn’t sorted the problem

Thanks for your help.

Ian

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dcian](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/91b2a8/32.png) [@dcian](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dcian)\
**Post date:** [February 1, 2009, 8:13pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-install-and-use-tidy-gem/159167/2 "2009-02-01T20:13:20Z")

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Ian H. wrote

Darn message was munged by Thunderbird and yours truly!

The copy was from

C:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/tidy-1.1.2/lib/tidy.rb  
to  
/ruby/bin/tidy.rb

c:\ruby\bin is on my path.

Ian

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dcian](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/91b2a8/32.png) [@dcian](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dcian)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 11:57am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-install-and-use-tidy-gem/159167/3 "2009-02-02T11:57:29Z")

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Robert K. wrote:

> ```
> robert
> 
> ```

Thanks Robert,

All working now 🙂 I guess I confused the tidy gem with html tidy.

Regards

Ian

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dcian](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/91b2a8/32.png) [@dcian](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dcian)\
**Post date:** [February 1, 2009, 8:55pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-install-and-use-tidy-gem/159167/4 "2009-02-01T20:55:36Z")

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On 01.02.2009 20:06, Ian H. wrote:

> What does that mean? I can find no tidy.exe or tidy,com.

I’d say you need [http://tidy.sourceforge.net/](http://tidy.sourceforge.net/) installed on your system -  
as the documentation says.

Cheers

robert

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dcian](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/91b2a8/32.png) [@dcian](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dcian)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 1:44pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-install-and-use-tidy-gem/159167/5 "2009-02-02T13:44:20Z")

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On Mon, Feb 2, 2009 at 7:56 PM, Ian H. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)  
wrote:

> > as the documentation says.
> > 
> > Cheers
> > 
> > robert
> 
> Thanks Robert,
> 
> All working now 🙂 I guess I confused the tidy gem with html tidy.

Please watch out if you are using this in a long-running process, as  
the tidy gem has a memory leak.

^ manveru