[Rubygems-developers] Question on GEM_PATH

[Eric Hodel]

On Dec 15, 2007, at 23:05 PM, Chad Woolley wrote:
> When I use GEM_PATH to add an additional local repository to be used,
> what dirs must be in that repository?  gems?  specifications? docs?
> cache? others?

The directory doesn't even need to exist.  RubyGems will create it and  
everything it needs inside it when you reference it, provided you have  
permission to do so.

> Also, a related question.  If I have a source checkout of a gem
> locally, can I somehow put it on my GEM_PATH to be loaded, even if it
> doesn't follow the standard repository layout?  The use case would be
> to perform updates on a dependency gem, and have those updates
> immediately usable by a separate local app, without having to actually
> do the step to build and install the gem to a local repository.

I use two tricks for this.

The frequently-used trick is to add the paths for the various  
dependencies to the -I flag while working on the other dependent  
project.  RUBYLIB can also accomplish this.

The hardly-used trick is hoe's install_gem task.

Adding a way to load gems w/o being in a gem has been brought up  
before, and I rejected the feature.  It's much simpler to use -I or  
RUBYLIB than to add a bunch of code to RubyGems to accomplish the same  
end.