# Installing gem from source **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [May 24, 2010, 8:12pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-gem-from-source/189113 "2010-05-24T20:12:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![pepe](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/4da419/32.png) [@pepe](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pepe)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 8:12pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-gem-from-source/189113/1 "2010-05-24T20:12:18Z")
I need to install the latest actionwebservice from source. I have spent quite a bit of time looking for info on the net and reading books but couldn’t find a clear and cut set of instructions about how to do this. This is the first time I try to build a gem from source and I am unsure as how to proceed. I don’t know if I need to ‘build’ the gem or what else to do. I have tried running both the ‘setup.rb’ and ‘install.rb’ that come with the gem but that did not work. I am kind of out of ideas. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![pepe](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/4da419/32.png) [@pepe](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pepe)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 8:19pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-gem-from-source/189113/2 "2010-05-24T20:19:55Z")
What system are you using and have you installed gem yet? If you don’t know, you can simply see if you installed it by typing in your OS console gem -v this should give you what version of gem you’re running on or nothing at all if you haven’t installed gem. ---
**Author:** ![pepe](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/4da419/32.png) [@pepe](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pepe)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 8:32pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-gem-from-source/189113/3 "2010-05-24T20:32:13Z")
I’m on Windows. The currently installed version of the gem is 1.2.6 but that is causing conflicts with actionpack. This is the last step to try and solve a conflict in my application using web services. I am trying to install from source because I made a change to the required versions of other gems as I don’t want to change the version of Rails I am running. ---
**Author:** ![pepe](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/4da419/32.png) [@pepe](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pepe)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 8:39pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-gem-from-source/189113/4 "2010-05-24T20:39:50Z")
Maybe you can try updating your gem. I have 1.3.7 You also don’t have to worry about changing the version of Rails becuase you can dictate what version you want Windows to run by using the code: rails _2.3.7_ --version 2.3.7 being the version you want to change it to. ---
**Author:** ![pepe](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/4da419/32.png) [@pepe](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pepe)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 8:45pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-gem-from-source/189113/5 "2010-05-24T20:45:06Z")
Every time I try to update actionwebservice the system tells me there is nothing to update. I tried installing the gem specifying version 2.3.2 (apparently the latest) and it couldn’t find it. In any case that would not change much because in the gemspec file it still says that it requires actionpack 2.3.2 exactly (=), not higher or equal than (\>=), which would not change the problem I’m running into. About changing the version of rails running, I think I can specify that in environment.rb (I remember doing that before) but that is what I don’t want to do. ---
**Author:** ![pepe](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/4da419/32.png) [@pepe](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pepe)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 8:51pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-gem-from-source/189113/6 "2010-05-24T20:51:32Z")
On May 24, 7:10 pm, pepe [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > you run gem build blah.gemspec. This should create a .gem file somewhere in that folder, you can then do gem install blah.gem Fred ---
**Author:** ![pepe](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/4da419/32.png) [@pepe](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pepe)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 10:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-gem-from-source/189113/7 "2010-05-24T22:01:14Z")
Fred comes once again to the rescue! 🙂 Thanks buddy. I owe you (another) one. Unfortunately I am running into other problems now but I think I’ll be OK after this major (for me) hurdle. On May 24, 2:50 pm, Frederick C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) ---
**Author:** ![pepe](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/4da419/32.png) [@pepe](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pepe)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 4:44am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-gem-from-source/189113/8 "2010-05-25T04:44:34Z")
Well, got all the kinks solved and now my application is working just fine. Thanks a lot Fred, without your comments on this and my other thread I don’t think I would have made it. On May 24, 2:50 pm, Frederick C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)