[Rubygems-developers] Question on GEM_PATH

[Eric Hodel]

On Jan 23, 2008, at 04:24 AM, Martin Krauskopf wrote:
> Eric Hodel wrote:
>> 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.
>
> Hi, reviving little old thread,
>
> I've noticed the automatic repository creation on demand. My  
> question is
> whether there is an 'official' way to initialize/create a new  
> repository
> 'just now', without waiting for a 'demand'.
> My use-case is that in the IDE I'll let user adjust a GEM_PATH. Ff the
> user enter a non-existing or empty repository, I'll show the dialog
> saying something like:
>
>   "The directory is not a valid RubyGems repository, do you want to  
> set
>    it up?"  [Yes] [No]
>
> If 'Yes' what should I run? I tried just a 'gem env' and it will
> create/setup gems repositories in all non-repository directories on  
> the
> GEM_PATH.
> So may I rely on 'gem env' or is there a more correct way?

Gem.ensuregem_subdirectories