# How to remove a gem

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-remove-a-gem/178407>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [November 4, 2009, 2:57am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-remove-a-gem/178407 "2009-11-04T02:57:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![RVince](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/4491bb/32.png) [@RVince](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/RVince)\
**Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 2:57am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-remove-a-gem/178407/1 "2009-11-04T02:57:18Z")

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I would like to remove (uninstall) a particular gem. I installed the  
gem creator’s beta copy of their next release, but it’s problematic,  
and I neet to revert to the most recent stable version.

How might i uninstall a particular gem?

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**Author:** ![RVince](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/4491bb/32.png) [@RVince](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/RVince)\
**Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 3:01am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-remove-a-gem/178407/2 "2009-11-04T03:01:23Z")

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On Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 5:55 PM, RVince [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> How might i uninstall a particular gem?

You _might_ start with `gem --help`

## FWIW,

Hassan S. ------------------------ removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid  
twitter: @hassan

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**Author:** ![RVince](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/4491bb/32.png) [@RVince](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/RVince)\
**Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 3:35am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-remove-a-gem/178407/3 "2009-11-04T03:35:56Z")

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On Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 5:55 PM, RVince [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> I would like to remove (uninstall) a particular gem. I installed the  
> gem creator’s beta copy of their next release, but it’s problematic,  
> and I neet to revert to the most recent stable version.
> 
> How might i uninstall a particular gem?

You’ll use the ‘uninstall’ option instead of ‘install’. For example,

gem uninstall

If you used ‘sudo’ to install the gem, then you’ll have to do the  
following:

sudo gem uninstall

Good luck,

-Conrad

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![RVince](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/4491bb/32.png) [@RVince](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/RVince)\
**Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 5:09am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-remove-a-gem/178407/4 "2009-11-04T05:09:00Z")

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If you know the version (gem list GEMNAME) then you can:

gem uninstall GEMNAME --version=VERSION

i.e.:  
gem list test-unit  
\*\*\* LOCAL GEMS \*\*\*  
test-unit (2.0.5, 1.2.3)

gem uninstall test-unit --version=1.2.3  
Successfully uninstalled test-unit-1.2.3