RubyGems

RubyGems
Stable release 2.4.2 / October 1, 2014
Written in Ruby
Operating system Cross-platform
Type Package manager
License Ruby License
Website rubygems.org

RubyGems is a package manager for the Ruby programming language that provides a standard format for distributing Ruby programs and libraries (in a self-contained format called a "gem"), a tool designed to easily manage the installation of gems, and a server for distributing them. RubyGems was created in about November 2003 and is now part of the standard library from Ruby version 1.9.

Gems

Gems are packages similar to Ebuilds. They contain package information along with files to install.

Gems are usually built from ".gemspec" files, which are YAML files containing information on Gems. However, Ruby code may also build Gems directly. Such a practice is usually used with Rake.

gem command

The gem command is used to build, upload, download, and install Gem packages.

gem usage

RubyGems is very similar to apt-get, portage, yum and npm in functionality.

Installation:

gem install mygem

Uninstallation:

gem uninstall mygem

Listing installed gems:

gem list --local

Listing available gems, e.g.:

gem list --remote

Create RDoc documentation for all gems:

gem rdoc --all

Download but do not install a gem:

gem fetch mygem

Search available gems, e.g.:

gem search STRING --remote

gem package building

The gem command may also be used to build and maintain .gemspec and .gem files.

Build .gem from a .gemspec file:

gem build mygem.gemspec

External links