What is the best way to uninstall gems from a rails3 project?

Question

I installed all of my gems using bundler via the Gemfile. I thought (mistakenly) that if I deleted a gem from my Gemfile and ran \'bundle install\' that the deleted gems would b

Answer 1

With newer versions of bundler you can use the clean task:

$ bundle help clean
Usage:
    bundle clean

Options:
    [--dry-run=only print out changes, do not actually clean gems]
    [--force=forces clean even if --path is not set]
    [--no-color=Disable colorization in output]
    -V, [--verbose=Enable verbose output mode]

Cleans up unused gems in your bundler directory
$ bundle clean --dry-run --force
Would have removed actionmailer (3.1.12)
Would have removed actionmailer (3.2.0.rc2)
Would have removed actionpack (3.1.12)
Would have removed actionpack (3.2.0.rc2)
Would have removed activemodel (3.1.12)
...

edit:

This is not recommended if you're using a global gemset (i.e. - all of your projects keep their gems in the same place). There're few ways to keep each project's gems separate, though:

1. rvm gemsets (http://rvm.io/gemsets/basics)
2. bundle install with any of the following options: --deployment or --path= (http://bundler.io/v1.3/man/bundle-install.1.html)