Install rubygems on CentOS

The Ruby framework is a fantastic programming resource. Ruby can utilize rubygems. It can provide useful pacakges for your ruby framework. It provides easy installation and integration of packages. With a vast repository of packages to choose from.

To utilize rubygems centos will need to be installed first. It is generally best to install ruby first. On Centos, it is often a difficult tool to find in the yum repository, so this is one that may need to be installed from source.

Ruby can be downloaded from http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/. Once downloaded untar the tarball it will need to be configured.

Wherever ruby is installed, be sure it is in your path. This variable may need to be set manually.

After installed the next application to install is rubygems. It can be downloaded from the rubygems website and install it:

[root@computer rubygems-1.8.7]# wget http://production.cf.rubygems.org/rubygems/rubygems-1.8.7.tgz
[root@computer rubygems-1.8.7]# ruby setup.rb
RubyGems 1.8.7 installed

== 1.8.7 / 2011-08-02

* 5 bug fixes:
  * Added missing require for `gem uninstall --format-executable`
  * The correct name of the executable being uninstalled is now displayed with
    --format-executable
  * Fixed `gem unpack uninstalled_gem` default version picker
  * RubyGems no longer claims a nonexistent gem can be uninstalled
  * `gem which` no longer claims directories are requirable files
  * `gem cleanup` continues cleaning up gems if one can't be uninstalled due
    to permissions.  Issue #82
  * Gem repository directories are no longer created world-writable.  Patch by
    Sakuro OZAWA.  Ruby Bug #4930


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RubyGems installed the following executables:
        /usr/local/bin/gem

The “gem” executable is now usable and can be used to install other ruby packages on centos.