RubyGems is a package management framework for Ruby.
A package (also known as a library) contains a set of functionality that can be invoked by a Ruby program, such as reading and parsing an XML file. We call these packages "gems" and RubyGems is a tool to install, create, manage and load these packages in your Ruby environment.
RubyGems is also a client for RubyGems.org, a public repository of Gems that allows you to publish a Gem that can be shared and used by other developers. See our guide on publishing a Gem at guides.rubygems.org
Installing and managing a Gem is done through the gem command. To install a Gem such as Nokogiri which lets
you read and parse XML in Ruby:
$ gem install nokogiri
RubyGems will download the Nokogiri Gem from RubyGems.org and install it into your Ruby environment.
Finally, inside your Ruby program, load the Nokogiri gem and start parsing your XML:
require 'nokogiri'
Nokogiri.XML('<h1>Hello World</h1>')
For more information about how to use RubyGems, see our RubyGems basics guide at guides.rubygems.org
RubyGems is likely already installed in your Ruby environment, you can check by running gem --version in your terminal emulator.
In some cases your OS's package manager may install RubyGems as a separate package from Ruby. It's recommended to check
with your OS's package manager before installing RubyGems manually.
If you would like to manually install RubyGems:
- Download from https://rubygems.org/pages/download, unpack, and
cdinto RubyGems' src - OR clone this repository and
cdinto the repository (make sure to rungit submodule update --init)
Install RubyGems by running:
$ ruby setup.rb
Note: You may need to run the install script with admin/root privileges.
For more details and other options, see:
$ ruby setup.rb --help
To upgrade to the latest RubyGems, run:
$ gem update --system
Note: You might need to run the command as an administrator or root user.
See UPGRADING for more details and alternative instructions.
RubyGems uses rdoc for documentation. A compiled set of the docs can be viewed online at rubydoc.
RubyGems also provides a comprehensive set of guides which covers numerous topics such as creating a new gem, security practices and other resources at http://guides.rubygems.org
Got a bug and you're not sure? You're sure you have a bug, but don't know what to do next? In any case, let us know about it! The best place for letting the RubyGems team know about bugs or problems you're having is on the RubyGems issues page at GitHub.
See http://bundler.io/compatibility for known issues.
Ruby Together pays some RubyGems maintainers for their ongoing work. As a grassroots initiative committed to supporting the critical Ruby infrastructure you rely on, Ruby Together is funded entirely by the Ruby community. Contribute today as an individual or even better, as a company, and ensure that RubyGems, Bundler, and other shared tooling is around for years to come.
If you'd like to contribute to RubyGems, that's awesome, and we <3 you. Check out our guide to contributing for more information.
While some RubyGems contributors are compensated by Ruby Together, the project maintainers make decisions independent of Ruby Together. As a project, we welcome contributions regardless of the author’s affiliation with Ruby Together.
Everyone interacting in the RubyGems project’s codebases, issue trackers, chat rooms, and mailing lists is expected to follow the contributor code of conduct.