How to upgrade rubygems

Question

I need to upgrade gems to 1.8 i tried installing the respective debian packages but it seems its not getting upgraded

anujm@test:~$ dpkg -l |grep -i rubygem
ii  rubygems                               1.3.5-1ubuntu2                                  package management framework for Ruby libraries/applications
ii  rubygems-lwes                          0.8.2-1323277262                                LWES rubygems
ii  rubygems1.8                            1.3.5-1ubuntu2                                  package management framework for Ruby libraries/applications
ii  rubygems1.9                            1.3.5-1ubuntu2                                  package management framework for Ruby libraries/applications
anujm@test:~$ 


anujm@test:~$ gem
gem     gem1.8  gem1.9  
anujm@test:~$ sudo gem1.8 install serve
ERROR:  Error installing serve:
        multi_json requires RubyGems version >= 1.3.6
anujm@test:~$

Just to clarify, your question is on how to update Rubygems itself — not any particular gem managed by rubygems. — Michael, Aug 29 '16 at 18:03

score 504 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 29 '12 at 12:49

504

Install rubygems-update

gem install rubygems-update
update_rubygems
gem update --system

run this commands as root or use sudo.

answered Nov 29 '12 at 12:49

Sacx

6,276
4
22
29

1

i am getting this exception when i follow ue suggestion gem update --system is disabled on Debian. RubyGems can be updated using the official Debian repositories by aptitude or apt-get. – Anuj Nov 30 '12 at 09:18
3

Here because of problems with unicode gem (https://github.com/blackwinter/unicode/issues/5): after having run answer's solution I had to run `gem pristine unicode` which re-built the gem and made it usable. – reallynice Jan 08 '14 at 10:43
Works greate to update the rubygems on Debian system. Thanks! – Melroy van den Berg Jul 09 '14 at 09:31
I did this, and it seemed to uninstall all my gems! They're easy to reinstall, but that surprised me. – Jon Carter Aug 16 '14 at 01:31
I did this and all the gems installed on my machine got erased, and I had to install them all over again. Any idea why it happens? – IcyFlame Dec 22 '14 at 11:06
1

Thanks, it helped me to install `minitest` on an NFS partition cf. https://github.com/rubygems/rubygems/issues/1161 – Thom4 Jun 13 '15 at 11:11
@Sacx, hamza(my teammate) want to kiss your forhead :) for this answer – Abdul Rauf Feb 01 '16 at 10:48
19

`rubygems-update` is installed by default. So, it's the matter of running just `gem update --system`. – dskecse Jul 12 '16 at 14:22
5

Usually you will never want to run this command as `sudo`. That will upgrade the system ruby. Consider using `rvm` or `rbenv` – Hendrik Feb 07 '17 at 15:55
Can anyone suggest a way to lock the RubyGems version for Docker? These updates would be applied once but leave the image unchanged. – Archonic Mar 05 '19 at 05:00
Why would you want to run this as `root`? – gen Apr 23 '20 at 17:21
`rubygems-update` can be missing. `gem install rubygems-update` was failing for me. Response was `➜ gem update —system zsh: command not found: gem update`. Running the commands fixed it, although the latter wasn't necessary at least at this time, maybe because a fresh install. macOS Big Sur on a 2013 MBP – Greg Jan 13 '21 at 17:53
`rubygems-update` seems broken on Ubuntu 18.04:`/usr/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby/rubygems/defaults/operating_system.rb:43:in ': uninitialized constant Gem::BasicSpecification (NameError)` – aggregate1166877 Aug 10 '21 at 01:46
Isn't update_rubygems and gem update --system the same? Both update the RubyGem system software, right? – Martin Braun Apr 25 '23 at 21:38

score 64 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 11 '18 at 09:25

64

You can update all gems by just performing:

sudo gem update

edited Jan 11 '18 at 09:25

Potherca

13,207
5
76
94

answered Mar 22 '16 at 09:00

Frank

1,311
2
13
15

62

This is an answer looking for a question. – Michael Aug 29 '16 at 18:02
2

without `sudo` if you installed gems as a regular user (installing gems as root is not very nice anyway). – akostadinov Sep 06 '16 at 06:53
7

The question is not "How do I update all gems?" but rather "How do I update RubyGems on my machine?" – aceofbassgreg Dec 21 '17 at 04:52
2

This could lead into creating a mess - updating gems with sudo in a folder using rvm or other ruby environment switcher. – Aurel Branzeanu Sep 14 '20 at 22:29
1

It seems people find this question when trying to update all gems, because the sons hold the father's name. – Martin Braun Apr 25 '23 at 21:42

score 25 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 08 '15 at 09:34

25

Or:

gem update `gem outdated | cut -d ' ' -f 1`

answered Mar 08 '15 at 09:34

jvc26

6,363
6
46
75

#brilliant Thanks for this one. I only added `--force` to keep the automation from stopping for overwrite confirmation – SaxDaddy Aug 09 '16 at 13:59
doesn't answer the question – agbodike May 02 '19 at 18:16
Respectively with shellcheck errors fixed: `gem update "$(gem outdated | cut -d ' ' -f 1)";`. – BernhardWebstudio Oct 19 '19 at 09:38

score 24 · Answer 4 · edited Sep 11 '22 at 01:04

24

I found other answers to be inaccurate/outdated. Best is to refer to the actual documentation.

Short version: in most cases gem update --system will suffice.

You should not blindly use sudo. In fact if you're not required to do so you most likely should not use it.

edited Sep 11 '22 at 01:04

retro

3,765
2
20
37

answered Nov 03 '17 at 23:53

thisismydesign

21,553
9
123
126

score 14 · Answer 5 · answered Sep 16 '15 at 10:22

14

You can update gem to any specific version like this,

gem update --system 'version'

gem update --system '2.3.0'

answered Sep 16 '15 at 10:22

Aravin

6,605
5
42
58

3

you command doesn't work on distribution based on debian gem update --system "2.1.0" ERROR: While executing gem ... (RuntimeError) gem update --system is disabled on Debian, because it will overwrite the content of the rubygems Debian package, and might break your Debian system in subtle ways. The Debian-supported way to update rubygems is through apt-get, using Debian official repositories. If you really know what you are doing, you can still update rubygems by setting the REALLY_GEM_UPDATE_SYSTEM environment variable, but please remember that this is completely unsupported by Debian. – jeff Mar 03 '16 at 18:27

score 6 · Answer 6 · answered Jan 24 '17 at 09:05

6

For me it sufficed to simply run

gem update

answered Jan 24 '17 at 09:05

Klas Mellbourn

42,571
24
140
158

7

This is for updating your gems, not the rubygems software itself. – Peter H. Boling Mar 26 '17 at 22:25
3

True, but this is the first Google result for searches like "update gem version", so I'm glad this answer was here. – ncrypticus Oct 17 '18 at 23:06

score 5 · Answer 7 · answered Nov 29 '12 at 12:47

5

I wouldn't use the debian packages, have a look at RVM or Rbenv.

answered Nov 29 '12 at 12:47

lucas clemente

6,255
8
41
61

Debian package exist for Rbenv – antono Jun 11 '14 at 15:05

score 4 · Answer 8 · edited Jan 19 '23 at 19:26

4

To update just one gem (and it's dependencies), do:

bundle update gem-name

But to update just the gem alone (without updating it's dependencies), do:

bundle update --source gem-name

edited Jan 19 '23 at 19:26

alper

2,919
9
53
102

answered Jan 17 '18 at 22:02

Kaka Ruto

4,581
1
31
39

2

This is for updating specific gems, not the rubygems software itself. – thisismydesign Apr 26 '18 at 09:01
1

@thisismydesign I think I specified that this will update only a specific gem? – Kaka Ruto Apr 26 '18 at 09:08
Yes but that's not what the question is about. – thisismydesign Apr 26 '18 at 09:09
2

I see. But I know this will help someone like me who landed here first :) – Kaka Ruto Dec 04 '18 at 12:43

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered May 27 '21 at 00:04

0

If you're using RVM, the command below helped me a lot when upgrading from a very very old rubygems (eg 1.3.7) that defies the more current update commands mentioned in the other responses in this thread.

rvm rubygems <version>

answered May 27 '21 at 00:04

janechii

1,055
1
11
26

How to upgrade rubygems

9 Answers9

Linked