# Re: Please help fixing gems on OSX

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-please-help-fixing-gems-on-osx/79963>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [December 20, 2006, 7:14pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-please-help-fixing-gems-on-osx/79963 "2006-12-20T19:14:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Dan\_Uznanski](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/c67d28/32.png) [@Dan\_Uznanski](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Dan_Uznanski)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2006, 7:14pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-please-help-fixing-gems-on-osx/79963/1 "2006-12-20T19:14:26Z")

</div>

Over the past few months, several people have posted on various mailing  
lists, including this one, that their rubygems install on OSX fails  
with the following error:

/usr/local/lib/ruby/site\_ruby/1.8/rubygems/cmd\_manager.rb:52:in  
`initialize': uninitialized constant Gem::CommandManager::HelpCommand (NameError) from /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/cmd_manager.rb:46:in`new’  
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/site\_ruby/1.8/rubygems/cmd\_manager.rb:46:in  
`instance' from /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/gem_runner.rb:25:in`run’  
from /usr/local/bin/gem:23

I have discovered the cause of this error, at least on my machine, but  
not the final underlying cause.

in $LIBDIR/ruby/site\_ruby/1.8/rubygems/, there is a file named  
gem\_commands.rb ; on my machine, this file was empty. However, there  
was also gem\_commands.1.rb , which contained the original content of  
gem\_commands.rb . To fix the error, simply move gem\_commands.1.rb onto  
gem\_commands.rb .

Thanks go to LoganCapaldo on IRC for being patient with me and guiding  
me through the sub-basement levels of Ruby’s library system.

Dan Uznanski