Quick Start

Basic Usage – “Hello Doom”

Install GemInstaller: [sudo] gem install geminstaller

Create a geminstaller.yml file:

---
# geminstaller.yml sample config
gems:
- name: ruby-doom
  version: '>= 0.8'

Run GemInstaller from the directory containing geminstaller.yml: geminstaller. You should see a message indicating that the gem is being installed.
Verify that the ruby-doom gem was installed: gem list ruby-doom

Using GemInstaller with Ruby on Rails

RAILS 2.0 UPDATE:

I’ve created a Sample Rails App in the source, which shows how to use the Rails 2.0 config/preinitializer.rb hook. I need to spend some time updating the docs to reflect this, but for now just check out the source

OLD RAILS 1.0 INSTRUCTIONS:

Create geminstaller.yml in the RAILS_ROOT/config directory. Include entries for your Rails version, and any other gems your app needs (Note: If you are too lazy to make your config file manually, or don’t know what gems you need, see the tutorial on Bootstrapping your GemInstaller Config with the --print-rogue-gems option):
```
---
# geminstaller.yml rails app config
defaults:
  install_options: --include-dependencies
gems:
- name: rails
  version: '= 1.1.6'
```

Determine whether you run on unix and need root/sudo access to install gems. If you do, edit your sudoers file to allow the current user to run the 'gem' command via sudo without a password. See the documentation on the GemInstaller --sudo option for more details.

Edit your Rails config/boot.rb to invoke GemInstaller on startup to install gems and auto-require them. The following lines should be placed right after the block which defines the RAILS_ROOT constant (”...” indicates omitted lines). If you want to know what the heck this does before sticking it in your app, there are more details in the tutorial Integrating GemInstaller into Ruby on Rails

---
RAILS_ROOT/config/boot.rb:
...
unless defined?(RAILS_ROOT)
...
end

############# Begin GemInstaller config - see http://geminstaller.rubyforge.org
require "rubygems" 
require "geminstaller" 

# Path(s) to your GemInstaller config file(s)
config_paths = "#{File.expand_path(RAILS_ROOT)}/config/geminstaller.yml" 

# Arguments which will be passed to GemInstaller
args = "--config #{config_paths}" 

# The 'exceptions' flag determines whether errors encountered while running GemInstaller
# should raise exceptions (and abort Rails), or just return a nonzero return code
args += " --exceptions" 

# This will use sudo by default on all non-windows platforms, but requires an entry in your
# sudoers file to avoid having to type a password.  It can be omitted if you don't want to use sudo.
# See http://geminstaller.rubyforge.org/documentation/documentation.html#dealing_with_sudo
args += " --sudo" unless RUBY_PLATFORM =~ /mswin/

# The 'install' method will auto-install gems as specified by the args and config
GemInstaller.install(args)

# The 'autogem' method will automatically add all gems in the GemInstaller config to your load path, using the 'gem'
# or 'require_gem' command.  Note that only the *first* version of any given gem will be loaded.
GemInstaller.autogem(args)
############# End GemInstaller config

unless defined?(Rails::Initializer)
...

Start your app: ruby script/server. You should see messages indicating the gems (and dependency gems) are being installed and auto-required.
Stop the app, and verify the gems are installed: gem list rails

Where to go next

See the Tutorials or the Detailed Documentation for examples of more GemInstaller features.

GemInstaller

Automated Gem installation, activation, and much more!

Quick Start

Basic Usage – “Hello Doom”

Using GemInstaller with Ruby on Rails

Where to go next