# Rails or separate packages, RedHat **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [April 6, 2009, 12:41am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-or-separate-packages-redhat/164783 "2009-04-06T00:41:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![robredford](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/7ea924/32.png) [@robredford](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/robredford)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 12:41am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-or-separate-packages-redhat/164783/1 "2009-04-06T00:41:43Z")
So, as I introduced myself to ActiveRecord, I asked our IT department to install activerecord and this hierarchy popped up on the system: /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.1.1/ then I was able to do this irb(main):003:0\> require ‘rubygems’ =\> true irb(main):004:0\> require ‘activerecord’ =\> true Now I realize FasterCSV, and perhaps migrations would be handy. I’m not building a web application at the moment, rather I’m building a command line api to our DB using ActiveRecord for ORM. However perhaps one day in the future I’ll be allowed a rails developed web site… So, do I ask the IT department to install Ruby on Rails or continue asking for particular packages? I’d rather just get the whole thing. If so, will an install of “rails” override or interfere with already installed rails libraries? They will only install RedHat 5 managed packages without a huge fight. Other packages, I have to compile and install in my own user space (/home). This is on a RedHat RHEL 5 system (uname = 2.6.18-128.1.1.el5). Cheers and thanks! ---
**Author:** ![robredford](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/7ea924/32.png) [@robredford](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/robredford)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 10:07am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-or-separate-packages-redhat/164783/2 "2009-04-06T10:07:58Z")
Rob R. wrote: > So, do I ask the IT department to install Ruby on Rails or continue > asking for particular packages? I’d rather just get the whole thing. > If so, will an install of “rails” override or interfere with already > installed rails libraries? They will only install RedHat 5 managed > packages without a huge fight. Other packages, I have to compile and > install in my own user space (/home). RHEL doesn’t carry a lot of gems, and certainly not recent versions. Installing them yourself is the way to go. – Roderick van Domburg [http://www.railscluster.nl](http://www.railscluster.nl) ---
**Author:** ![robredford](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/7ea924/32.png) [@robredford](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/robredford)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 12:45am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-or-separate-packages-redhat/164783/3 "2009-04-08T00:45:22Z")
Good point. Ok, a dumb question. I found I can run “gem install -i install\_dir -d bin\_dir” Where do people usually install such things in their user spaces? /home/user/var/lib/gems What about the “-d bin\_dir”? What kind of things go in there? .so libraries like mysql.so? What default location do those usually end up in? Where is a usual place to put them in my home space? What environment variables do I need to work with to make my installed gems are used instead of older system installed gems? Regards, Rob On Apr 6, 2:07 am, Roderick van Domburg \ **Author:** ![robredford](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/7ea924/32.png) [@robredford](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/robredford)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 1:41am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-or-separate-packages-redhat/164783/4 "2009-04-08T01:41:30Z") If you install the gems as a non root user it will be installed in ~/.gems gem install rails will install it in ~/.gems ---
**Author:** ![robredford](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/7ea924/32.png) [@robredford](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/robredford)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 7:00am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-or-separate-packages-redhat/164783/5 "2009-04-07T07:00:23Z")
yes, you should install ror. You dont have do a web app, but its to useful to have a full stack. On Apr 6, 4:07 pm, Roderick van Domburg \ **Author:** ![robredford](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/7ea924/32.png) [@robredford](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/robredford)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 2:49am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-or-separate-packages-redhat/164783/6 "2009-04-08T02:49:18Z") I tried that and this is what happened. The system Ruby is 1.8.7. [~/] gem install rails ERROR: While executing gem … (Errno::EACCES) Permission denied - /var/lib/gems/1.8/cache/rake-0.8.4.gem ---
**Author:** ![robredford](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/7ea924/32.png) [@robredford](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/robredford)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2009, 6:04am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-or-separate-packages-redhat/164783/7 "2009-04-12T06:04:19Z")
Solved. I just built up my own Ruby and RubyGems environment and all is well. Thanks for the tips. R