Setting up a Ruby gem server to use locally
by: Babin LonstonPosted on:

Setting up a Ruby gem server to use locally

Introduction

Installing gems for a Ruby deployment is a pain. It will take more than hours to download the required gems and docs. To save the time and bandwidth we can have our own local gem server. To setup, a gems server follows the step by step guide.

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Installing any gem:

First, install with any one of the gems.

# sudo gem install "cancan"

Then start the gem server using

Starting the Gem server:

# gem server --port 8808 --dir /var/lib/gems/1.9.1/ --bind 192.168.1.51 --no-daemon

gem server = command to start the gem server
–port = In which Port we need to run the gem server
–dir = Which directory need to be used as gem repository to store and served.
–bind = Need to run in this locally.
–no-daemon = Don’t need to be run as a daemon.

If we need to run the gem server in background and while the server startup we need to add a small script

Create a script file in any name, Here i have used gem.sh

# vim gem.sh

Append the following gem server command in the created file

gem server --port 8808 --dir /var/lib/gems/1.9.1/ --bind 192.168.1.51 --no-daemon &

Then save and exit using wq!


Start Gem server Persistently

Now to start it automatically when server was up we need to add the created file in the rc.local

# sudo vim /etc/rc.local

Append the created file location with sh to execute the command

# sh /home/sysadmin/gem.sh

save and quit rc.local using wq!

Access Gem Server Dashboard

Now the gem server used to run in the 192.168.1.51:8808, We can access the web interface using

http://192.168.1.51:8808/

Client side setup

Client side configuration, Create two files in below locations.

# vim ~/.gemrc
# vim /etc/gemrc

Add this Content in these above 2 files

---
 :update_sources: true
 :sources:
 - http://192.168.1.51:8808/
 - http://gems.rubyforge.org/
 :benchmark: false
 :bulk_threshold: 1000
 :backtrace: false
 :verbose: true
 gem: --no-ri --no-rdoc
 install: --no-rdoc --no-ri
 update: --no-rdoc --no-ri

clone any one of the project and install gems using

# bundle install

Required gems will be pulled and saved to use locally.

Conclusion:

By setting up a local gem server we can save our bandwidth as-well save a lot of time during gems installation across all development systems. Subscribe to the newsletter and provide your feedback in below comment section.