# Uninstalling Ruby 1.8.7 Help **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [August 26, 2008, 9:53am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/uninstalling-ruby-1-8-7-help/146865 "2008-08-26T09:53:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dacbo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@dacbo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dacbo)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2008, 9:53am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/uninstalling-ruby-1-8-7-help/146865/1 "2008-08-26T09:53:50Z")
Hi Guys, I have run into a bind, and need to manually uninstall Ruby 1.8.7 from /usr/local, but I’m not sure exactly what to delete. Im running OS X Leopard and installed Ruby there so to not overwrite my system Ruby installation but now 1.8.7 doesn’t see any installed gems or anything and I think I may have screwed it up while I was installing it 😕 So my question is, what exactly do I remove? I know /usr/local/bin/ruby, /usr/local/bin/irb need to go, but I’m unsure about /usr/local/lib/ruby\* Any help is greatly appreciated! ---
**Author:** ![dacbo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@dacbo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dacbo)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2008, 7:46pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/uninstalling-ruby-1-8-7-help/146865/2 "2008-08-26T19:46:31Z")
Chris B. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > So my question is, what exactly do I remove? I know > /usr/local/bin/ruby, /usr/local/bin/irb need to go, but I’m unsure about > /usr/local/lib/ruby\* > > Any help is greatly appreciated! (1) You are on Leopard. You have Time Machine. Next time, just do a snapshot before installing. Then to roll back you can just, uh, roll back! (2) If it is in /usr/local it is NOT part of the default ruby installation and deleting it can do no harm thereto. (3) Before uninstalling you might ask yourself what went wrong - or whether, indeed, anything did go wrong. Did you do a new install of rubygems into the right place? There’s a good article here on installing a second ruby on Leopard: > **[Dan Benjamin](https://danbenjamin.com)** > > Dan Benjamin's personal website. m. ---
**Author:** ![dacbo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@dacbo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dacbo)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2008, 8:23pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/uninstalling-ruby-1-8-7-help/146865/3 "2008-08-26T20:23:25Z")
Just a side note. I had to reinstall all ruby and dependencies. I chose the macports route and it went like a breeze: # sudo port install ruby # sudo port install rb-rubygems # sudo gem install … Everything lives in /opt/local and if I want, I can just “rm -rf /opt/ local” and it’s all gone. Just add “/opt/local/bin” to the beginning of your path export PATH=/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:$PATH Gaspard ---
**Author:** ![dacbo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@dacbo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dacbo)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2008, 10:18pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/uninstalling-ruby-1-8-7-help/146865/4 "2008-08-26T22:18:32Z")
Thanks for the responses, I actually picked through it this morning, and got it taken care of. I did install ruby gems after installing 1.8.7, and subsequently installed gems with that version; nothing was working ☹ Thanks for that link about installing a second version of ruby on Leo! I’m going to go that route because I already have ‘git’ and a few other things installed to /opt/local via macports that I wouldn’t want to erase if something went wrong :). [Chris] ---
**Author:** ![dacbo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@dacbo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dacbo)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2008, 1:47am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/uninstalling-ruby-1-8-7-help/146865/5 "2008-08-28T01:47:02Z")
Bernard K. wrote: > Chris B. wrote: > > > Thanks for the responses, I actually picked through it this morning, and > > got it taken care of. > > > > I did install ruby gems after installing 1.8.7, and subsequently > > installed gems with that version; nothing was working ☹ > > > > Thanks for that link about installing a second version of ruby on Leo! > > I’m going to go that route because I already have ‘git’ and a few other > > things installed to /opt/local via macports that I wouldn’t want to > > erase if something went wrong :). > > > > [Chris] > > The one thing you must do, is to modify your $PATH, /usr/local/bin > must appear prior to /usr/bin. > Refer to the hivelogic link mentioned by Matt Neuberg /usr/local/bin already appears prior to /usr/bin in my $PATH because I have Python installed in /usr/local/bin also. 🙂 Thank’s for the tip though. -C ---
**Author:** ![dacbo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@dacbo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dacbo)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2008, 1:08am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/uninstalling-ruby-1-8-7-help/146865/6 "2008-08-28T01:08:44Z")
Chris B. wrote: > Thanks for the responses, I actually picked through it this morning, and > got it taken care of. > > I did install ruby gems after installing 1.8.7, and subsequently > installed gems with that version; nothing was working ☹ > > Thanks for that link about installing a second version of ruby on Leo! > I’m going to go that route because I already have ‘git’ and a few other > things installed to /opt/local via macports that I wouldn’t want to > erase if something went wrong :). > > [Chris] The one thing you must do, is to modify your $PATH, /usr/local/bin must appear prior to /usr/bin. Refer to the hivelogic link mentioned by Matt Neuberg