# (just) retrieve and unpack a gem **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [July 14, 2009, 3:38am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/just-retrieve-and-unpack-a-gem/172065 "2009-07-14T03:38:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![iceburgh](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/c4cdca/32.png) [@iceburgh](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/iceburgh)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2009, 3:38am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/just-retrieve-and-unpack-a-gem/172065/1 "2009-07-14T03:38:35Z")
I need to retrieve and unpack a large number of gems, without either (a) affecting my local gem installation or (b) getting involved with dependencies. “gem fetch” will retrieve random gems, but “gem unpack” is a bit more picky. According to [http://docs.rubygems.org/read/chapter/10#page34:](http://docs.rubygems.org/read/chapter/10#page34:) You can only unpack gems that you have installed, … I can hack the gem command to get the results I want, but it seems like there should be a way to do this. Clues, anyone? ## -r [http://www.cfcl.com/rdm](http://www.cfcl.com/rdm) Rich M. [http://www.cfcl.com/rdm/resume](http://www.cfcl.com/rdm/resume) removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid [http://www.cfcl.com/rdm/weblog](http://www.cfcl.com/rdm/weblog) +1 650-873-7841 Technical editing and writing, programming, and web development ---
**Author:** ![iceburgh](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/c4cdca/32.png) [@iceburgh](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/iceburgh)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2009, 3:45am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/just-retrieve-and-unpack-a-gem/172065/2 "2009-07-14T03:45:36Z")
Rich M. a écrit : > seems like there should be a way to do this. Clues, anyone? > > -r Do it like this cd /tmp GEM\_HOME=$PWD GEM\_PATH=$PWD gem install PACKAGE So look in cache directory. All gem is there. Just do gem unpack GEM and done ! System is protected ! You can do it as user to be sure of that. ---
**Author:** ![iceburgh](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/c4cdca/32.png) [@iceburgh](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/iceburgh)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2009, 3:53am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/just-retrieve-and-unpack-a-gem/172065/3 "2009-07-14T03:53:38Z")
Rich M. wrote: > I need to retrieve and unpack a large number of gems, without > either (a) affecting my local gem installation or (b) getting > involved with dependencies. “gem fetch” will retrieve random > gems, but “gem unpack” is a bit more picky. > > According to [http://docs.rubygems.org/read/chapter/10#page34:](http://docs.rubygems.org/read/chapter/10#page34:) > > You can only unpack gems that you have installed, … Oh no–you can unpack arbitrary gems [I think that’s the only ones you can]. gem fetch gem\_name gem unpack gem\_name.version.gem Cheers. =r ---
**Author:** ![iceburgh](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/c4cdca/32.png) [@iceburgh](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/iceburgh)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2009, 3:59am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/just-retrieve-and-unpack-a-gem/172065/4 "2009-07-14T03:59:03Z")
Joel VanderWerf a écrit : > geistteufel wrote: > > > cd /tmp > > GEM\_HOME=$PWD GEM\_PATH=$PWD gem install PACKAGE > > So look in cache directory. All gem is there. > > Just do gem unpack GEM and done ! > > System is protected ! You can do it as user to be sure of that. > > Won’t that still install bin stuff? For example, gem install rake. You can do like this : gem fetch rake ls rake\*.gem et pour l’unpack gem unpack rake\*.gem =\> nothing install 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![iceburgh](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/c4cdca/32.png) [@iceburgh](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/iceburgh)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2009, 3:55am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/just-retrieve-and-unpack-a-gem/172065/5 "2009-07-14T03:55:32Z")
geistteufel wrote: > cd /tmp > GEM\_HOME=$PWD GEM\_PATH=$PWD gem install PACKAGE > So look in cache directory. All gem is there. > Just do gem unpack GEM and done ! > System is protected ! You can do it as user to be sure of that. Won’t that still install bin stuff? For example, gem install rake. ---
**Author:** ![iceburgh](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/c4cdca/32.png) [@iceburgh](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/iceburgh)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2009, 4:02am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/just-retrieve-and-unpack-a-gem/172065/6 "2009-07-14T04:02:58Z")
Roger P. wrote: > gem unpack gem\_name.version.gem That is really close, but it gets a nastygram: $ gem unpack rails.2.3.2.gem ERROR: While executing gem … (Gem::Exception) Cannot load gem at [rails.2.3.2.gem] in …/rails However, this seems to work just fine: $ gem unpack rails-2.3.2.gem Unpacked gem: ‘…/rails/rails-2.3.2’ Thanks! -r ---
**Author:** ![iceburgh](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/c4cdca/32.png) [@iceburgh](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/iceburgh)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2009, 3:56am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/just-retrieve-and-unpack-a-gem/172065/7 "2009-07-22T03:56:31Z")
On Jul 13, 2009, at 18:37, Rich M. wrote: > You can only unpack gems that you have installed, … There’s probably a feature request for that, but I’ve not bothered to implement it. It would be a nice feature to have, though, so I welcome a patch if you have more time than me. ---
**Author:** ![iceburgh](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/c4cdca/32.png) [@iceburgh](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/iceburgh)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2009, 4:11am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/just-retrieve-and-unpack-a-gem/172065/8 "2009-07-14T04:11:20Z")
Rich M. a écrit : > However, this seems to work just fine: > > $ gem unpack rails-2.3.2.gem > Unpacked gem: ‘…/rails/rails-2.3.2’ > > Thanks! > > -r no prob !