Rails - May 2007 - Disobedient 'gem env' Causing Rails "undefined method `gem' "

I''m setting up on a textdrive shared host, and have installed my gems
to a local directory called ''gems''.  I did this by installing
the gems
on my ubuntu 7.04 system and tar''ing up the ''gems'' to
a like-named
directory on the ''gilford'' (FreeBSD 5.3) shared host.  (a
trick
required because ''gem update'' or ''gem
install'' busts txd''s memory
limit during a zlib inflate of the gem repository hash - that is,
memory allocation fails for even the smallest of gems)

After setting my GEM_PATH and GEM_HOME so that ''gem query''
reports
_only_ my locally installed gems (as expected), and this test:

[xxx@gilford ~]$ gem list rubygems
   *** LOCAL GEMS ***
   rubygems-update (0.9.2)
       RubyGems Update GEM

reports exactly what I expect, I next try ''gem env'', which
nonetheless
reports a back-rev gem version( ! ):

[xxx@gilford ~/local]$ gem env
Rubygems Environment:
  - VERSION: 0.8.11 (0.8.11)
  - INSTALLATION DIRECTORY: /users/home/xxx/gems
  - GEM PATH:
     - /users/home/xxx/gems
     - /users/home/xxx/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8
  - REMOTE SOURCES:
     - http://gems.rubyforge.org

(note that I have removed the ''gilford'' system''s gem
path altogether,
in desperation.  I''m trying to avoid all of txd''s gems, so
that I am
certain that only my local stuff is included)

So I download the rubygems-0.9.2.tgz and stick it in a ''local''
directory, and adjust the two GEM paths above, plus my normal shell
PATH and LD_LIBRARY_PATH to use the ''local'' bins and libs
first. But I
still get ''gem env'' -> 0.8.11

The actual ''gem'' file in the ''local/bin''
directory is simply some Ruby
that does:

require ''rubygems''
Gem.manage_gems

with a few more lines.  Surely these lines are run with either
GEM_PATH or the .gemrc path?  And I think both of these are right:
''gem query'' proves ''GEM_PATH'' is working,
and the next paragraph
shows .gemrc works as well.

(I also have a consistent .gemrc in my home dir.  According to Jim
Weirich''s note from Apr 3 2006, I think I''m doing the right
thing:
http://blade.nagaokaut.ac.jp/cgi-bin/scat.rb/ruby/ruby-talk/187403

In short: "All gems use GEM_PATH, except for ''gem'', which
uses .gemrc."  This behavior is supported by a test in which I add or
subtract ''gilford''s'' gem path from my .gemrc: and as
expected,  my
''gem env'' output shows only the lines specified in .gemrc.

The reason I care so much about what ''gem env'' says is because
when I
type "rails -v" I get:
/users/home/xxx/gems/bin/rails:15: undefined method `gem'' for
main:Object (NoMethodError)

which various posts say results from running current ''rails''
with a
back-rev ''gem''.
The shared host ''gilford'' is running Ruby 1.8.4


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''gemwhich rubygems''   returns -> 
/usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/
rubygems.rb   BAD!

But my .gemrc explicitly specifies a gempath of  /home/users/xxx/local/
lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8  , and this directory does in fact have a
different version of ''rubygems.rb''.

So why does ''gemwhich rubygems'' find a file that is not on any
path I
know of?
(''require rubygems'' is supposed to employ the same lookup
algorithm as
''gemwhich'')

Can anyone explain what it is doing?


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''rubygems'' itself is found via a Ruby $LOAD_PATH lookup.

As the PickAxe book explains, this can be set by a ''ruby -I
xxx''
invocation.
But in the case of ''gem'' itself, or of
''rails'', there is no command
line ''-I'' option.

So the library lookup path is specified by $RUBYLIB.
This is the Ruby analog to C''s  $LD_LIBRARY_PATH

My .bash_profile now contains:

export RUBYLIB=$HOME/gems/local/lib/site_ruby/1.8
export GEM_PATH=$HOME/gems
export GEM_HOME=$HOME/gems

If I want some of txd''s stock (old) gems, I''d add their path
as
well.kk
See   http://rubygems.org/read/chapter/15


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