# (newbie question) gem

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-question-gem/173049>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [July 31, 2009, 11:18pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-question-gem/173049 "2009-07-31T23:18:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Tena\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/58f4c7/32.png) [@Tena\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Tena_S)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 11:18pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-question-gem/173049/1 "2009-07-31T23:18:01Z")

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Hi,

I am a Ruby newbie.

The version I am using is:

ruby 1.8.7 (2008-08-11 patchlevel 72) [x86\_64-linux]

The following commands work (or I haven’t found anything  
disagreeable so far):

irb  
ruby  
ri

But gem doesn’t work for me. Here’s what happens:

$ gem  
/usr/local/bin/gem:8:in `require’: no such file to load – rubygems  
(LoadError)  
from /usr/local/bin/gem:8

I look at /usr/local/bin/gem and here are three lines, starting at line  
8:

require ‘rubygems’  
require ‘rubygems/gem\_runner’  
require ‘rubygems/exceptions’

So the complaint is that it doesn’t find these files.

I ran find, like this:

$ sudo find / -name rubygems\*  
Password:  
/home/tsakai/Notes/Ruby/ruby-1.9.1-p129/lib/rubygems  
/home/tsakai/Notes/Ruby/ruby-1.9.1-p129/lib/rubygems/rubygems\_version.rb  
/home/tsakai/Notes/Ruby/ruby-1.9.1-p129/lib/rubygems.rb  
/home/tsakai/Notes/Ruby/ruby-1.9.1-p129/test/rubygems  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/1.9.1/rubygems  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/1.9.1/rubygems/rubygems\_version.rb  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/1.9.1/rubygems.rb  
$

I have reasons that I don’t want to use 1.9.1. I do want to use 1.8.7.

So… My question is where do I have to go to get what’s  
necessary to run gems under 1.8.7?

Also, if there are some tips as to what I must do to get  
it working, I would appreciate it very much.

Thank you in advance.

Regards,

Tena S.  
removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Tena\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/58f4c7/32.png) [@Tena\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Tena_S)\
**Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 12:14am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-question-gem/173049/2 "2009-08-01T00:14:13Z")

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I had trouble with gem on 64 bit linux systems in the past. I had to  
resort  
to building gem from source to get any resolution. The latest 32-bit  
version of Ubuntu, 9.04, has gem version 1.3.1, which I believe resolves  
this problem.

2009/7/31 Tena S. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)

> $ sudo find / -name rubygems\*  
> I have reasons that I don’t want to use 1.9.1. I do want to use 1.8.7.
> 
> Tena S.  
> removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid

–  
Regards,

Ken

Seek wisdom through disbelief

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Tena\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/58f4c7/32.png) [@Tena\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Tena_S)\
**Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 1:18am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-question-gem/173049/3 "2009-08-01T01:18:36Z")

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Hi Ken,

Thank you for your response.

I solved the problem in a different way. I went to  
[http://rubyonrails.org/download](http://rubyonrails.org/download)  
and navigated to download a file rubygems-1.3.5.tgz.

I untar’ed and extracted the tar file. Then I typed:  
ruby setup.rb  
and it seems all is well (though I haven’t really  
done enough testing yet).

In case I find a behavior that ruffles feather, I  
will post what I find.

Regards,

Tena S.  
removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Tena\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/58f4c7/32.png) [@Tena\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Tena_S)\
**Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 1:22am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-question-gem/173049/4 "2009-08-01T01:22:07Z")

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On Jul 31, 2009, at 15:47, Tena S. wrote:

> I solved the problem in a different way. I went to  
> [http://rubyonrails.org/download](http://rubyonrails.org/download)  
> and navigated to download a file rubygems-1.3.5.tgz.
> 
> I untar’ed and extracted the tar file. Then I typed:  
> ruby setup.rb  
> and it seems all is well (though I haven’t really  
> done enough testing yet).

This is correct. You need to install RubyGems in each ruby  
installation you wish to use.