How do I specify local .gem files in my Gemfile?

Question

I have a couple of gem files which I install via gem install xx.gem. Can I tell Bundler to use them? Or do I have to specify the source path?

Answer 1

Seems bundler can't use .gem files out of the box. Pointing the :path to a directory containing .gem files doesn't work. Some people suggested to setup a local gem server (geminabox, stickler) for that purpose.

However, what I found to be much simpler is to use a local gem "server" from file system: Just put your .gem files in a local directory, then use "gem generate_index" to make it a Gem repository

mkdir repo
mkdir repo/gems
cp *.gem repo/gems
cd repo
gem generate_index

Finally point bundler to this location by adding the following line to your Gemfile

source "file://path/to/repo"

If you update the gems in the repository, make sure to regenerate the index.