# Importing GEM libraries .... newby questions **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [March 26, 2007, 5:26am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/importing-gem-libraries-newby-questions/90115 "2007-03-26T05:26:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cugf\_0956](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/e5b9ba/32.png) [@cugf\_0956](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cugf_0956)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2007, 5:26am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/importing-gem-libraries-newby-questions/90115/1 "2007-03-26T05:26:18Z")
I have installed ruby on my laptop using rpm and I installed a whole bunch of packages using GEM. Now when I run any scripts on my laptop, ruby can locate any package that is installed via rpm but not the one installed via GEM. How can I make it work such that everything that is installed using Gem can be seen by ruby. Here is an example: I have /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/date I can call “require date” in my script and it will work. I have /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/Selenium-1.0.1/bin/selenium when I call “require selenium” it doesn’t work. What is the catch here? Also, if I want to package my scripts to run on somebody else machine, how can I make it, if he/she has right packages installed, can run my scripts without errors? And one more question, I know that Perl can be pre-compiled for better performance, can ruby scripts be pre-compiled as well? Thanks a lot. ---
**Author:** ![cugf\_0956](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/e5b9ba/32.png) [@cugf\_0956](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cugf_0956)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2007, 3:19pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/importing-gem-libraries-newby-questions/90115/2 "2007-03-26T15:19:01Z")
cugf\_0956 wrote: > I have > performance, can ruby scripts be pre-compiled as well? > > Thanks a lot. You need to have RubyGems loaded before you require any libraries that were installed using RubyGems. You can do this: export RUBYOPT=rubygems or in every script that requires a gem, require ‘rubygems’ before requiring any gem. ---
**Author:** ![cugf\_0956](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/e5b9ba/32.png) [@cugf\_0956](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cugf_0956)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2007, 8:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/importing-gem-libraries-newby-questions/90115/3 "2007-03-26T20:34:08Z")
Timothy H. wrote: > cugf\_0956 wrote: > > > Thanks a lot. > > […] > > You need to have RubyGems loaded before you require any libraries that > > were installed using RubyGems. You can do this: > > export RUBYOPT=rubygems > > or in every script that requires a gem, require ‘rubygems’ before > requiring any gem. I have the exact problem cugf described right down to using the same gem (selenium). I tried your first suggestion but that returned with a compile time error. I’ve wasted a day digging through google links without any luck but maybe I was searching for the wrong things. Here is what I have: C:\Documents and Settings\user\>gem contents selenium c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/Selenium-1.0.1/bin/selenium c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/Selenium-1.0.1/lib/selenium c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/Selenium-1.0.1/lib/selenium.rb c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/Selenium-1.0.1/lib/selenium/button.rb c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/Selenium-1.0.1/lib/selenium/directory\_listing\_page.rb c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/Selenium-1.0.1/lib/selenium/link.rb c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/Selenium-1.0.1/lib/selenium/locator.rb c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/Selenium-1.0.1/lib/selenium/openqa c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/Selenium-1.0.1/lib/selenium/selenium\_server.rb c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/Selenium-1.0.1/lib/selenium/server\_manager.rb c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/Selenium-1.0.1/lib/selenium/text\_field.rb c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/Selenium-1.0.1/lib/selenium/version c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/Selenium-1.0.1/lib/selenium/openqa/README c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/Selenium-1.0.1/lib/selenium/openqa/selenium-server.jar.txt c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/Selenium-1.0.1/lib/selenium/openqa/selenium.rb c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/Selenium-1.0.1/spec/selenium c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/Selenium-1.0.1/spec/selenium/download\_page.rb c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/Selenium-1.0.1/spec/selenium/home\_page.rb c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/Selenium-1.0.1/spec/selenium/menu.rb c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/Selenium-1.0.1/spec/selenium/tc\_basic\_operation.rb c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/Selenium-1.0.1/spec/selenium/tc\_selenium\_server.rb c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/Selenium-1.0.1/README And the (very unhelpful) example selenium provides has the following requires: require ‘spec’ $:.unshift File.join(File.dirname( **FILE** ), ‘…’) require ‘lib/selenium’ I have no idea how to figure out what to require so I have to assume the example is exhaustive and correct. However, just using the lines above errors out on the first require with the reason: no such file to load. If it is a problem of not having rubygems loaded, would someone mind very much elaborating a bit on the ‘export RUBYOPT=rubygems’ stuff? Also, is there a way to discern what values should be specified in the require lines for a given installed gem? Is there a way to just require individual .rb files? In advance, thank you to anyone with information. Normally I wouldn’t dare asking such simple questions but I cannot figure this out. ---
**Author:** ![cugf\_0956](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/e5b9ba/32.png) [@cugf\_0956](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cugf_0956)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2007, 8:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/importing-gem-libraries-newby-questions/90115/4 "2007-03-26T20:59:24Z")
On Tue, Mar 27, 2007 at 03:34:09AM +0900, Brad Sherard wrote: > compile time error. > There is no “compile time” in Ruby. Post the snippet of code you were trying to run, and the exact error message. > c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/Selenium-1.0.1/lib/selenium/selenium\_server.rb > c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/Selenium-1.0.1/spec/selenium/tc\_basic\_operation.rb > c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/Selenium-1.0.1/spec/selenium/tc\_selenium\_server.rb > c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/Selenium-1.0.1/README > > And the (very unhelpful) example selenium provides has the following > requires: > > require ‘spec’ > $:.unshift File.join(File.dirname( **FILE** ), ‘…’) > require ‘lib/selenium’ As suggested by earlier posters, try: require ‘rubygems’ require ‘selenium’ and if it doesn’t work, post the entire error message you see. Brian. ---
**Author:** ![cugf\_0956](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/e5b9ba/32.png) [@cugf\_0956](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cugf_0956)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2007, 9:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/importing-gem-libraries-newby-questions/90115/5 "2007-03-26T21:30:07Z")
Timothy H. wrote: > Brad Sherard wrote: > > > > export RUBYOPT=rubygems > > > > c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/Selenium-1.0.1/lib/selenium/selenium\_server.rb > > c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/Selenium-1.0.1/spec/selenium/tc\_basic\_operation.rb > > I have no idea how to figure out what to require so I have to assume the > Here’s the scoop on RubyGems: [http://docs.rubygems.org/read/book/1](http://docs.rubygems.org/read/book/1) Excellent Tim! I owe you my soul or something for all that help. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![cugf\_0956](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/e5b9ba/32.png) [@cugf\_0956](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cugf_0956)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2007, 9:14pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/importing-gem-libraries-newby-questions/90115/6 "2007-03-26T21:14:26Z")
Brad Sherard wrote: > > export RUBYOPT=rubygems > > c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/Selenium-1.0.1/lib/selenium/selenium\_server.rb > c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/Selenium-1.0.1/spec/selenium/tc\_basic\_operation.rb > I have no idea how to figure out what to require so I have to assume the Libraries installed by RubyGems must be loaded by RubyGems. RubyGems does this by replacing the standard “require” method with its own version. To make this happen though, rubygems.rb must be required by the normal require method. So, the simplest (although least satisfactory) thing to do is require “rubygems” before requiring anything else. require “rubygems” # uses normal require method, adds its own require method require “somegem” # uses RubyGems require Make sense? Okay. You can of course require a library on the command line using the -r option: ruby -r rubygems myprog.rb The space between -r and rubygems is not necessary: ruby -rrubygems myprog.rb Somebody smart on the RubyGems team realized that they could create a file called “ubygems.rb” and then you could run Ruby like this: ruby -rubygems myprog.rb Still with me? One more step. You can specify Ruby options in the RUBYOPT environment variable. Since these options aren’t on the command line, they don’t need the little “-” in front to distinguish them from non-option things. export RUBYOPT=rubygems is the same thing as “-rubygems”. You’ll probably want to put the export command in your .profile file (assuming you’re on a \*nix-like system). If you’re on Windows, set environment variables using Control Panel-\>System (iirc). Lastly, once you’ve ensured that rubygems is loaded, all you need to do is require the .rb file you need. RubyGems takes care of figuring out where it’s at so you don’t need to. Here’s the scoop on RubyGems: [http://docs.rubygems.org/read/book/1](http://docs.rubygems.org/read/book/1) ---
**Author:** ![cugf\_0956](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/e5b9ba/32.png) [@cugf\_0956](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cugf_0956)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 10:21pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/importing-gem-libraries-newby-questions/90115/7 "2007-03-27T22:21:01Z")
On Mar 25, 2007, at 20:26, cugf\_0956 wrote: > I have installed ruby on my laptop using rpm and I installed a whole > bunch of packages using GEM. Now when I run any scripts on my laptop, > ruby can locate any package that is installed via rpm but not the one > installed via GEM. How can I make it work such that everything that is > installed using Gem can be seen by ruby. You must require rubygems first. You can set RUBYOPT=-rubygems in your shell environment to make sure rubygems is always loaded.