Rubygems, Bundler and RVM confusion

Question

I read \"Relationships between Rubygems, Bundler, and RVM\" before asking it again.

Well, there are many questions like this, but people who answered say they work

Answer 1

To find the path where a gem is installed use:

gem which gem_name

To find executables (like html2haml) use:

which executable_name

To avoid typing bundle exec html2haml which is recommended by the Bundler team, use my rubygems-bundler gem.

Answer 2

Use gem env to list the gem paths in each context.

Without RVM gem env will report the system gem library paths.

With RVM gem env will report the RVM-managed gem library paths.

Bundler manages application dependencies and installs into the gem library in your environment. If you are using RVM + Bundler, the gems will be installed in the RVM managed gem directories. If you are using it without RVM, bundler will install gems in the system gem directories.

Answer 3

I'm also trying to understand how it works. The blog "Advice on using Ruby, RVM, Passenger, Rails, Bundler, … in development" helped me have a better overview.

BTW, it's a translation of a French article, the French version is better.

Answer 4

1. To find out where gems are being installed to, run echo $GEM_HOME in a terminal.
2. When using RVM, gems are installed into your RVM install as it changes $GEM_HOME. Running echo $GEM_HOME now would show a path into your RVM install.
3. When Bundler is added to the mix, gems will either be installed in $GEM_HOME, or, if you specify a path when running bundle install will be installed to that path. To find out where a gem is through Bundler you can use bundle show gemname to get its full path.