How to install a gem or update RubyGems if it fails with a permissions error

M

Michael

Try adding --user-install instead of using sudo:

gem install mygem --user-install

I don't know why your answer wasn't posted before. The --user-install option has apparently been around for a while. I just wish you had written this earlier. =)

This needs to go to the top! Installing with sudo or su is a bad idea as you're enforcing a permissions system on the modules and possibly the globally installed packages could collide with otherwise installed packages or other projects' dependencies. Using rbenv requires you to install another software and adds a layer of complexity.

This works, but warns: 'WARNING: You don't have /Users/<username>/.gem/ruby/2.0.0/bin in your PATH, gem executables will not run.' The following link provides useful instructions on how to update your path (without having to use vi) hathaway.cc/post/69201163472/…

This is simple and logical. Add ruby path if you haven't in your bashrc if which ruby >/dev/null && which gem >/dev/null; then PATH="$(ruby -rubygems -e 'puts Gem.user_dir')/bin:$PATH" fi <br>Source:guides.rubygems.org/faqs/#user-install

Can this screw up with Apple's (ruby installed) system?

t

the Tin Man

You don't have write permissions into the /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8 directory.

means exactly that, you don't have permission to write there.

That is the version of Ruby installed by Apple, for their own use. While it's OK to make minor modifications to that if you know what you're doing, because you are not sure about the permissions problem, I'd say it's not a good idea to continue along that track.

Instead, I'll strongly suggest you look into using either rbenv or RVM to manage a separate Ruby, installed into a sandbox in your home directory, that you can modify/fold/spindle/change without worrying about messing up the system Ruby.

Between the two, I use rbenv, though I used RVM a lot in the past. rbenv takes a more "hands-off" approach to managing your Ruby installation. RVM has a lot of features and is very powerful, but, as a result is more intrusive. In either case, READ the installation documentation for them a couple times before starting to install whichever you pick.

You don't need to use a separate Ruby library though. Just put 'sudo' in front of your as Michael suggested above.

Changing ownership of Apple's installation of Ruby isn't a good idea because System installs/upgrades, and Disk Utility can automatically revert/repair the ownership and permissions of the directory. That will frustrate the user and can frustrate the OS and code that expects to have write permissions/ownership of those directories. Apple installs apps that use its Ruby and could expect a certain version or behavior, so those could break. Why bother when it's easier and safer to use RVM or rbenv and not worry about it.

For those like me who don't actually do any ruby dev and don't want to mess around for half an hour trying to figure out what all these crystal thingies are. brew install ruby will solve your dependency issues in a clean way which doesn't nuke the apple install. If you've already sudo'd an update on the initial install and are worried about what you've done, you should be able to undo it with this: cd /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions;sudo rm Current; sudo ln -s 1.8 Current;

"

I did the sudo tangle and wound up modifying my pre-installed Ruby. I did your steps to try to fix the problem, but now when I do irb or ruby -v, I get command not found. What's going on and is there a fix

" and this just adds more weight to why people shouldn't use sudo or chown. Sigh....

Solved: on El Captain after doing brew install ruby simply close the Terminal and reopen it again.

C

CupawnTae

You really should be using a Ruby version manager.

Using one properly would prevent and can resolve your permission problem when executing a gem update command.

I recommend rbenv.

However, even when you use a Ruby version manager, you may still get that same error message.

If you do, and you are using rbenv, just verify that the ~/.rbenv/shims directory is before the path for the system Ruby.

$ echo $PATH will show you the order of your load path.

If you find that your shims directory comes after your system Ruby bin directory, then edit your ~/.bashrc file and put this as your last export PATH command: export PATH=$HOME/.rbenv/shims:$PATH

$ ruby -v shows you what version of Ruby you are using

This shows that I'm currently using the system version of Ruby (usually not good)

$ ruby -v
ruby 1.8.7 (2012-02-08 patchlevel 358) [universal-darwin12.0]

$ rbenv global 1.9.3-p448 switches me to a newer, pre-installed version (see references below).

This shows that I'm using a newer version of Ruby (that likely won't cause the Gem::FilePermissionError)

$ ruby -v
ruby 1.9.3p448 (2013-06-27 revision 41675) [x86_64-darwin12.4.0]

You typically should not need to preface a gem command with sudo. If you feel the need to do so, something is probably misconfigured.

For details about rbenv see the following:

https://github.com/sstephenson/rbenv

http://robots.thoughtbot.com/post/47273164981/using-rbenv-to-manage-rubies-and-gems

You shouldn't have to mess around with the pass yourself if you're using rbenv, if you follow the Homebrew installation instructions, all you have to do is add eval "$(rbenv init -)" to your shell config, and rbenv should take care of setting up your PATH for you.

Thanks. I'd forgotten the 'rbenv global' so I was still using the system ruby, and gem install was failing.

t

the Tin Man

Why don't you do:

sudo gem update --system

Installing gems as root is not a good idea. stackoverflow.com/questions/2119064/…

Had issues with brew upgrade Error: Permission denied.... This fixed it. Thanks!

Never use SUDO, if you have to do this, you have done something wrong in your setup. Please use rbenv or rvm.

Why is everyones answer to permissions problems to just always throw sudo in front of a command? How is this best-practice?

hyh:qzc.xcodeproj ylgwhyh$ gem install cocoapods ERROR: While executing gem ... (Gem::FilePermissionError) You don't have write permissions for the /Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0 directory.

M

Michael

This will fix the issue on MacOS Mojave and Catalina in a clean way:

brew install ruby

Then set GEM_HOME to your user directory. On the terminal:

Bash: echo '# Install Ruby Gems to ~/gems' >> ~/.bashrc echo 'export GEM_HOME=$HOME/gems' >> ~/.bashrc echo 'export PATH=$HOME/gems/bin:$PATH' >> ~/.bashrc source ~/.bashrc

OR if on Zsh: echo '# Install Ruby Gems to ~/gems' >> ~/.zshrc echo 'export GEM_HOME=$HOME/gems' >> ~/.zshrc echo 'export PATH=$HOME/gems/bin:$PATH' >> ~/.zshrc source ~/.zshrc

This didn't work for me until I ran xcode-select --install. This is required to compile extensions.

I ran this and I want to be able to reset the changes done by these, do you know how to revert it? @Fmessina

this should work: edit your ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc file, remove the 3 lines added, and then run again the source ~/.bashrc command

Note that after you do this, you should use "gem install ..." instead of "sudo gem install ..." as instructed by many install guides

H

Hendrik

For me the problem was due to using rbenv and forgetting to set the proper version globally.

So I had to set it with rbenv global xxx

In my case I installed 2.0.0-p247 so I had to issue the command:

rbenv global 2.0.0-p247
rbenv rehash

Then all was working fine.

For those of you already using rbenv and started receiving a Permission error when installing gems after upgrading OSX to a newer version: You should start by setting the rbenv version rbenv global 2.1.1 for example and then follow with rbenv rehash. Now re-running your gem install command.

^This + restart terminal.

future explorers: rbenv rehash has been deprecated github.com/rbenv/rbenv-gem-rehash

Worked for me perfectly! It was the rbenv rehash I was missing.

Worth noting that it's system ruby that would have been lacking permissions and rbenv would have been using system ruby if no global ruby was set. This be verified with rbenv versions.

M

Michael

You need to correct your paths.

To determine if this fix will work, run the following:

which gem

This should output a directory you do not have permissions to:

/usr/bin/gem

To fix this perform the following steps:

Determine the path you need to copy to your profile: rbenv init - The first line of the output is the line you need to copy over to your profile: export PATH="/Users/justin/.rbenv/shims:${PATH}" #path that needs to be copied source "/usr/local/Cellar/rbenv/0.4.0/libexec/../completions/rbenv.zsh" rbenv rehash 2>/dev/null rbenv() { typeset command command="$1" if [ "$#" -gt 0 ]; then shift fi case "$command" in rehash|shell) eval `rbenv "sh-$command" "$@"`;; *) command rbenv "$command" "$@";; esac } Copy the path to your profile and save it. Reload your profile (source ~/.zshenv for me). Run rbenv rehash.

Now when you run which gem you should get a local path that you have permissions to:

/Users/justin/.rbenv/shims/gem

That was the problem in my situation. You should be able to include eval "$(rbenv init -)" in your ~/.bash_profile to make all the necessary changes.

best answer. my profile was named .bash_profile and you can open the file like this: touch ~/.bash_profile; open ~/.bash_profile and add the line you mentioned at point 1.

t

thebiggestlebowski

This worked for me. Plus, if you installed gems as root before, it fixes that problem by changing ownership back to you (better security-wise).

sudo chown -R `whoami` /Library/Ruby/Gems

Big NO! never change the permission on /Library folder, the system may break in future updates. (sorry for late reply)

@Raptor I'm modifying permissions on a subfolder, not "/Library". In my case, I mistakenly installed the gems as root, so I wanted to undo that. There are no negative consequences that I can think of theoretically nor have there been any that I've observed. I'm curious - why do you think this is a bad idea?

The path is for system. Further updates of macOS may break.

The gem is installed by default to this location. It was unusable because it was mistakenly installed as root (sudo) instead of my normal user. The outcome of what I did was the same as if I'd installed as $USER in the first place. I don't see the harm. Most of the other answers here suggest the same outcome/solution, but different ways to achieve it. I still don't see the problem. Are you saying gems should not be installed under /Library?

t

the Tin Man

sudo gem update --system
sudo gem install (gemfile)

In macOS Mojave, sudo does not have permission. haha

t

the Tin Man

There are two routes: Use either rbenv or RVM. There are recipes for both below. Before you do, you probably want to turn off the installation of local documents for gems.

echo "gem: --no-ri --no-rdoc" >> ~/.gemrc

Then:

install rbenv

install ruby-build

run:

rbenv install 2.1.2 (or whatever version you prefer)
rbenv global 2.1.2
gem update --system

This installs an up-to-date version of the gem system in your local directories. That means you don't interfere with the system configuration. If you're asking this question, you shouldn't be messing with system security, and you'll spend longer understanding what issues you may run into, than just having an easy way to avoid the problem you started with. Learn InfoSec later, when you know more about the operating system and programming.

For an alternative use 'RVM' instead: To install rvm run:

rvm install 2.1.2
rvm use 2.1.2
gem update --system

This has the same result, you end up with a local Ruby and Gem system that doesn't interfere with the system versions. There is no need for Homebrew, or over-riding system libs, etc.

M

Michael

Try nathanwhy's answer before using my original answer below. His recommendation of --user-install should accomplish the same purpose without having to muck with your .bash_profile or determine your ruby version.

If you are not concerned about a specific ruby version, you can skip the heavy-lift ruby environment manager options, and just add these lines to ~/.bash_profile:

export GEM_HOME="$HOME/.gem/ruby/2.0.0"
export GEM_PATH="$HOME/.gem/ruby/2.0.0"

The path is stolen from the original output of gem env:

RubyGems Environment:
  - RUBYGEMS VERSION: 2.0.14
  - RUBY VERSION: 2.0.0
  - INSTALLATION DIRECTORY: /Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0
  - RUBY EXECUTABLE: /System/Library/.../2.0/usr/bin/ruby
  - EXECUTABLE DIRECTORY: /usr/bin
  - RUBYGEMS PLATFORMS:
    - ruby
    - universal-darwin-14
  - GEM PATHS:
     - /Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0
     - /Users/mylogin/.gem/ruby/2.0.0 # <-- This guy, right here.
     - /System/Library/.../usr/lib/ruby/gems/2.0.0
  ...

No sudoing is required, and you can use the already-installed ruby, courtesy of Apple.

+1: This worked great for me. Not everybody is the system administrator of the machine they are using, and hence not everybody has access to 'sudo', 'chown', or similar tools. In a similar vein, people should be aware of "gem install --user-install" which installs the gem to a directory in the user's home directory rather than to the one shared by all users.

M

Michael

I found this how-to for sudoless gem:

brew install rbenv ruby-build sudo gem update --system add exports to .bashrc: export RBENV_ROOT="$(brew --prefix rbenv)" export GEM_HOME="$(brew --prefix)/opt/gems" export GEM_PATH="$(brew --prefix)/opt/gems" And finally add this to your ~/.gemrc: gem: -n/usr/local/bin gem update --system

I used brew install rebenv ruby-build, then there is a system after my directory? Any idea what caused this, and how to get rid of that system?

t

the Tin Man

I needed to do a rbenv rehash so it would point to my local Gem library.

It looks like you've got your gem manager pointing to the System Library, so, instead of messing with permissions, do the equivalent of "rehash" for your manager to get things pointing locally.

future explorers: rbenv rehash has been deprecated github.com/rbenv/rbenv-gem-rehash

H

Herbi Shtini

I had formatted my Mac and many suggested solutions did not work for me. What worked for me are these commands in the correct order:

Install Homebrew: /usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)" Install Ruby: brew install ruby Install Compass: sudo gem install compass

You should never need to use sudo to install something with gem. Using sudo installs it into the Ruby owned by the system, not into one you own. Using a sandboxed Ruby is much easier to manage and use when programming because you can create multiple disparate instances and try different things then destroy them when you're done.

B

Breedly

Older and wiser

Don't do what I say here, just know to be wary any time you use sudo. You probably want to use something like rbenv to isolate whatever work you're doing.

a way

learn about chown

I don't know if you like the command line, but this will make working on any project with any tool that installs packages to your system a breeze.

chown as far as I can tell, stands for change ownership.

The reason I came looking for this answer is because gem install threw this error at me today:

ERROR:  While executing gem ... (Gem::FilePermissionError)
    You don't have write permissions into the /var/lib/gems/1.9.1 directory.

This is a perfect opportunity to use chown. You see Ruby has given us the directory it needs access to, and it seems like it's a directory it will use pretty often.

In this case, there are only three things one needs to know to solve the problem, but chown is much more powerful, and grants you a lot more flexibility than I will demonstrate now. Please refer to the source at the bottom for more information.

The Two Things

Username Directory

If you're in a shell finding the username is easy. Just look at the prompt. Mine looks like:

breadly@breadly-desktop:~\Desktop

The current user is just the name before the @. We know the directory from the error messages, but you have two choices. You can either limit your permission to the current version by using ../gems/1.9.1, or give yourself write permission for gems of all version by using ../gems.

The command to actually change ownership would look like this.

chown -R $(whoami) /absolute/path/to/directory

The -R is known as a flag and the -R flag typically tells a command to do something recursively, or in other words perform the command on every thing that is contained in the directory, and all the things contained in the directories contained within, and so on till there isn't anything else.

Also, if you want to find out what group your user belongs in you can refer to this. stackoverflow.com/questions/350141/…

However, you might want to be careful about changing ownerships if it has to install to the /usr/local/bin directory.

Changing ownership of anything in the /usr, /Library or /var paths, among others, is a bad idea. The system can halt due to files and drivers being no longer accessible, and future updates can break if the installer senses that the paths are no longer owned by root:wheel. Fixing the damage can be really hard and is usually best done by reinstalling the OS. Naive/inexperienced users don't know enough about the OS to understand what files/directories could possibly be safe and should be cautioned to not try this at home.

Lol this is an embarrassing answer. :) Older and wiser now I guess.

v

vaskort

sudo chown -R $USER /Library/Ruby/Gems/

e

evya

Work for me:

sudo gem uninstall cocoapods

sudo gem install cocoapods

Amazing Worked for me aswel! Thanks. Saved effort of installing rbenv or RVM

Downvoting because, as has been noted in other comments, installing gems as root is a dangerous practice. The installer could do literally anything to your system.

@SomeGuy: "The installer could do literally anything"... it's more likely the user themselves could fat-finger the command and mangle the system. I can't think of a time an installer messed up my system, but I can clearly remember times I did. sudo is a command that newbies love because it makes it possible to do the wrong thing so easily, and it takes years to learn to be appropriately paranoid when using it.

The best answer!!!! After run these 2 command, please restart the Terminal and, that's all!!! Thanks a lot!!!

z

zhao

Install rbenv by brew install rbenv;

Then put eval "$(rbenv init -)" at the end of ~/.bash_profile (or ~/.zshrc of MacOS);

Open a new terminal and run gem install *** will work!

Did not work for me

❯ brew install rbenv -q Warning: rbenv 1.1.1 is already installed and up-to-date To reinstall 1.1.1, run `brew reinstall rbenv` ~/.gem/ruby/2.3.0/gems/colorls-1.1.1 ❯ eval "$(rbenv init -)" ~/.gem/ruby/2.3.0/gems/colorls-1.1.1 ❯ gem update Updating installed gems Updating CFPropertyList ERROR: While executing gem ... (Gem::FilePermissionError) You don't have write permissions for the /Library/Ruby/Gems/2.3.0 directory.

t

the Tin Man

Check to see if your Ruby version is right. If not, change it.

This works for me:

$ rbenv global 1.9.3-p547
$ gem update --system

This is the better solution : update > chown. Thanks! . I also had to run brew install ruby

M

Michael

As pointed out by bobbdelsol, rehash worked for me :

==> which ruby
/usr/bin/ruby

==> rbenv install 1.9.3-p551
Downloading ruby-1.9.3-p551.tar.bz2...
-> https://cache.ruby-lang.org/pub/ruby/1.9/ruby-1.9.3-p551.tar.bz2
Installing ruby-1.9.3-p551...
Installed ruby-1.9.3-p551 to /Users/username/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p551


==> which ruby
/Users/username/.rbenv/shims/ruby

==> which gem
/Users/username/.rbenv/shims/gem

==> gem install compass
ERROR:  While executing gem ... (Gem::FilePermissionError)
    You don't have write permissions for the /Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0 directory.


==> ruby -v
ruby 2.0.0p648 (2015-12-16 revision 53162) [universal.x86_64-darwin15]


==> rbenv global 1.9.3-p551


==> ruby -v
ruby 2.0.0p648 (2015-12-16 revision 53162) [universal.x86_64-darwin15]


==> rbenv global 1.9.3-p551


==> rbenv rehash


==> ruby -v
ruby 1.9.3p551 (2014-11-13 revision 48407) [x86_64-darwin15.4.0]


==> gem install compass
Fetching: sass-3.4.22.gem (100%)
Fetching: multi_json-1.11.3.gem (100%)
Fetching: compass-core-1.0.3.gem (100%)
Fetching: compass-import-once-1.0.5.gem (100%)
Fetching: chunky_png-1.3.5.gem (100%)
Fetching: rb-fsevent-0.9.7.gem (100%)
Fetching: ffi-1.9.10.gem (100%)
Building native extensions.  This could take a while...
Fetching: rb-inotify-0.9.7.gem (100%)
Fetching: compass-1.0.3.gem (100%)
    Compass is charityware. If you love it, please donate on our behalf at http://umdf.org/compass Thanks!
Successfully installed sass-3.4.22
Successfully installed multi_json-1.11.3
Successfully installed compass-core-1.0.3
Successfully installed compass-import-once-1.0.5
Successfully installed chunky_png-1.3.5
Successfully installed rb-fsevent-0.9.7
Successfully installed ffi-1.9.10
Successfully installed rb-inotify-0.9.7
Successfully installed compass-1.0.3
9 gems installed
Installing ri documentation for sass-3.4.22...
Installing ri documentation for multi_json-1.11.3...
Installing ri documentation for compass-core-1.0.3...
Installing ri documentation for compass-import-once-1.0.5...
Installing ri documentation for chunky_png-1.3.5...
Installing ri documentation for rb-fsevent-0.9.7...
Installing ri documentation for ffi-1.9.10...
Installing ri documentation for rb-inotify-0.9.7...
Installing ri documentation for compass-1.0.3...
Installing RDoc documentation for sass-3.4.22...
Installing RDoc documentation for multi_json-1.11.3...
Installing RDoc documentation for compass-core-1.0.3...
Installing RDoc documentation for compass-import-once-1.0.5...
Installing RDoc documentation for chunky_png-1.3.5...
Installing RDoc documentation for rb-fsevent-0.9.7...
Installing RDoc documentation for ffi-1.9.10...
Installing RDoc documentation for rb-inotify-0.9.7...
Installing RDoc documentation for compass-1.0.3...

sooo close. yet "ERROR: While executing gem ... (Gem::FilePermissionError) You don't have write permissions for the /Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0 directory."

M

Michael

A 2021 solution (using rvm):

If you type which ruby in terminal, and it shows /usr/bin/ruby, you can try this solution.

install rvm curl -L https://get.rvm.io | bash -s stable install ruby using rvm rvm install "ruby-3.0.0" use your installed version of ruby rvm use ruby-3.0.0 type which ruby again, which will show /Users/mac_user_name/.rvm/rubies/ruby-3.0.0/bin/ruby. It's a new path to use ruby.

work for me in MacOS Big Sur at 2022

M

Marcelo Gumiero

Tested on MacOS Mojave WITH SUCCESS:

Uninstall all your old ruby versions (let's say you have 2.00 and 2.3.0): $ rvm uninstall 2.0.0 $ rvm uninstall 2.3.0 Install brand new ruby version: $ brew install ruby Set a default alias to your version: $ rvm alias create default ruby Reboot your system because this is the safest way your computer loads the new ruby version, recently installed.

AFTER you done above procedure, you can successfully run any gem command.

K

Koray Güclü

You can change GEM_HOME. You have also under your home directory a gem folder to check it use

$ gem env

result is as follows. Unrelated parts are omitted.

...
  - GEM PATHS:
     - /Users/xxx/.gem/ruby/2.6.0
     - /Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0
     - /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/lib/ruby/gems/2.6.0
...

You can use your /Users/xxx/.gem/ruby/2.6.0 folder.

vim ~/.bash_profile

add the following line

export GEM_HOME=~/.gem/ruby/2.6.0/

After that you can use

source ~/.bash_profile

This is the same as my answer from 2015.

a

allthesignals

The issue for me was that I switched from zshell to bash earlier and was not logged in:

/bin/bash --login

Although I had rvm installed, it was not able to switch to my newly rvm-installed ruby version and was still trying to use the default Mac-installed ruby binary. Hence my confusion (user error!!!) and the continued permissions issues...

m

myklgee

cd /Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0

open .

right click get info

click lock

place password

make everything read and write.

Please take the time to format your answer for readability. The effort you put into research and explaining pays off.

H

Hardip Kalola

Installing gem or updating RubyGems fails with permissions error Then Type This Command

sudo gem install cocoapods

This has been covered in the other answers. Please read the other answers before creating one to ensure yours offers something new.

A

Alex_Burla

You can use: gem install cocoapods --pre --user

R

Rama Astadipati

give the user $whoami to create somethin in those folder

sudo chown -R user /Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0

No. That folder is owned by the system for a good reason, the system uses it for its own purposes. It's ok to run a script that points to it, but create and use a sandboxed Ruby if you want to mess with it.

F

Felipe Francisco

I used this and worked.

$ sudo chown myuser /var/lib/gems

See the comments in the other answers about using sudo.

M

Mohammad Arif

The reason of the error is because you are not logged in as the root user on terminal.

If you already have root use enable on your mac in terminal type

$ su

If you dont have root user, you need to enable it using the following steps

From the Apple menu choose System Preferences…. From the View menu choose Users & Groups. Click the lock and authenticate as an administrator account. Click Login Options…. Click the “Edit…” or “Join…” button at the bottom right. Click the “Open Directory Utility…” button. Click the lock in the Directory Utility window. Enter an administrator account name and password, then click OK. Choose Enable Root User from the Edit menu. Enter the root password you wish to use in both the Password and Verify fields, then click OK.

More at the same on http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1528

Atleast it works for me after getting stuck for couple of hours.

Why down vote? Can you guys please write the reason to do so?

Installing gems as root is a bad idea. stackoverflow.com/questions/2119064/…

How to install a gem or update RubyGems if it fails with a permissions error

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