# Where are my ruby gems located? Why don't executables such as spec work?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/where-are-my-ruby-gems-located-why-dont-executables-such-as-spec-work/182751>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [February 2, 2010, 10:16am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/where-are-my-ruby-gems-located-why-dont-executables-such-as-spec-work/182751 "2010-02-02T10:16:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![kristianm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/7c8e57/32.png) [@kristianm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/kristianm)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 10:16am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/where-are-my-ruby-gems-located-why-dont-executables-such-as-spec-work/182751/1 "2010-02-02T10:16:13Z")

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I’m on Mac OSX Snow Leopard, running Ruby 1.9.1

I have recently substituted homebre packagemanager for port.  
I reinstalled most of my ruby gems using $ sudo gem install [gem list]

Now I can list my gems:

$ gem list

\*\*\* LOCAL GEMS \*\*\*

abstract (1.0.0)  
actionmailer (3.0.pre, 2.3.5)  
actionpack (3.0.pre, 2.3.5)  
activemodel (3.0.pre)  
activerecord (3.0.pre, 2.3.5)  
activeresource (3.0.pre, 2.3.5)  
…

But I can’t seem to find where on the system they are located ☹

And executables such as spec don’t work, even though I can see that  
the gem (fx rspec) is installed ☹

Any ideas?

Thanks!

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**Author:** ![kristianm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/7c8e57/32.png) [@kristianm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/kristianm)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 10:22am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/where-are-my-ruby-gems-located-why-dont-executables-such-as-spec-work/182751/2 "2010-02-02T10:22:18Z")

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Kristian M. wrote:

> I’m on Mac OSX Snow Leopard, running Ruby 1.9.1
> 
> I have recently substituted homebre packagemanager for port.  
> I reinstalled most of my ruby gems using $ sudo gem install [gem list]
> 
> Now I can list my gems:
> 
> $ gem list
> 
> \*\*\* LOCAL GEMS \*\*\*
> 
> abstract (1.0.0)  
> actionmailer (3.0.pre, 2.3.5)  
> actionpack (3.0.pre, 2.3.5)  
> activemodel (3.0.pre)  
> activerecord (3.0.pre, 2.3.5)  
> activeresource (3.0.pre, 2.3.5)  
> …
> 
> But I can’t seem to find where on the system they are located ☹

here is a shell command to find 'em:

sudo find / -name “gems”

But they must be located in:

MacOsX: /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/  
Unix: /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/

Kind regards,  
Pierre

> And executables such as spec don’t work, even though I can see that  
> the gem (fx rspec) is installed ☹
> 
> Any ideas?
> 
> Thanks!

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**Author:** ![kristianm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/7c8e57/32.png) [@kristianm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/kristianm)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 10:26am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/where-are-my-ruby-gems-located-why-dont-executables-such-as-spec-work/182751/3 "2010-02-02T10:26:10Z")

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On Tue, Feb 2, 2010 at 5:15 PM, Kristian M. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)  
wrote:

> But I can’t seem to find where on the system they are located ☹

what is “gem which”  
what is “gem help commands”

best regards -botp

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**Author:** ![kristianm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/7c8e57/32.png) [@kristianm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/kristianm)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 5:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/where-are-my-ruby-gems-located-why-dont-executables-such-as-spec-work/182751/4 "2010-02-02T17:40:48Z")

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On Tue, Feb 2, 2010 at 1:15 AM, Kristian M. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)  
wrote:

> Now I can list my gems:
> 
> $ gem list

> But I can’t seem to find where on the system they are located ☹

try `gem env` 🙂

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**Author:** ![kristianm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/7c8e57/32.png) [@kristianm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/kristianm)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 5:44pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/where-are-my-ruby-gems-located-why-dont-executables-such-as-spec-work/182751/5 "2010-02-02T17:44:13Z")

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Hassan S. wrote:

> try `gem env` 🙂

This is the correct way of finding your gems.