Ruby Pocket Reference

RubyGems

RubyGems is a package utility for Ruby (http://rubyforge.org/projects/rubygems). It was written by Jim Weirich. It installs Ruby software packages, and keeps them up to date. It is quite easy to learn and use, even easier than tools like the Unix/Linux tar utility (http://www.gnu.org/software/tar) or Java’s jar utility (http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/tooldocs/windows/jar.html).

For more information, read the RubyGems documentation at http://docs.rubygems.org. The RubyGems User Guide (http://docs.rubygems.org/read/book/1) gives you most everything you need to know about using RubyGems. There is also a command reference (http://docs.rubygems.org/read/book/2).

If you don’t have RubyGems installed, go to Chapter 3 of the RubyGems User Guide at http://rubygems.org/read/chapter/3 for complete installation instructions.

Check to see whether RubyGems is installed:

$ gem --version
0.9.0

Get help on RubyGems:

$ gem --help

RubyGems is a sophisticated package manager for Ruby.
This is a basic help message containing pointers to more
information.

  Usage:
    gem -h/--help
    gem -v/--version
    gem command [arguments...] [options...]

  Examples:
    gem install rake
    gem list --local
    gem build package.gemspec
    gem help install

  Further help:
    gem help commands            list all 'gem' commands
    gem help examples            show some examples of
                                 usage
    gem help <COMMAND>           show help on COMMAND
                                   (e.g. 'gem help
                                   install')
  Further information:
    http://rubygems.rubyforge.org

Get a list of RubyGems commands:

$ gem help commands GEM commands ...