How to install a gem globally without sudo using rbenv?

Question

I am using rbenv and I am trying to install sass without success.

So, I installed rbenv via Homebrew, then Ruby 2.2 (rbenv install 2.2) and finally gem install sass, but I was unable to make sass available on my $PATH.

Short on time, I sudo gem install sass using my system's (Yosemite) default Ruby 2. This put everything in /Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0 and things do work, but not in the most desireable way.

Ideally, using rbenv I should be able to install any Ruby version and have gems installed inside that version's directory and later symlinked to /usrl/local/bin.

Any help as to what could have gone wrong would be very much appreciated.

Ankney

Please update your question title if you believe the answer below answers your intended question. The title is not commensurate with the answer. – Geis

Answer 1

Basically, the problem was I did not add rbenv/bin/rbenv to $PATH.

export PATH="$HOME/.rbenv/bin:$PATH"

Better yet, add this to your .bashrc or .bash_profile to start every session with rbenv.

After that, make sure to:

eval "$(rbenv init -)"

In order to enable shims and autocompletion.

fishshell

For those using fish, you can accomplish the same like this:

if status --is-interactive
  . (rbenv init - | psub)
end

Now, if you don't like modifying $PATH directly and have ownership over /usr/local/bin, a more nifty solution is to symlink with ~/.rbenv/bin/rbenv.

 ln -s ~/.rbenv/bin/rbenv /usr/local/bin

ruby-build

As a final warning, make sure to install ruby-build (a rbenv plugin to add the install command to rbenv and be able to easily install Ruby versions.)

If you are using homebrew it's easy as pie:

brew install ruby-build

Ankney

Either the question title is wrong, or this "answer" does not address the question. – Geis

Answer 2

Another possible option that may be of relevance for some here, depending on how one thinks about something being "globally" installed, is — assuming one is using the rbenv-based version of the gem command — to use the --user-install option to gem install. E.g.:

gem install --user-install sass

This will install things only for the user running it (so not global in that sense), but also in a way where it's not just available to a particular bundle-based install, say (so it is global in that sense).

Patmos