It doesn't matter. You can leave everything where it is and alter your environment variables to use another version of ruby/rails installed where ever you like.
You DO NOT need to re-image the machine just to alter the shell's $PATH variable.
export PATH="/path/to/my/ruby:$PATH"
It's that simple.
Correct me if I am wrong but your fundamental problem is that somehow the rails environment is messed up. Your proposed solution is to delete it all and start again. No-one seems to know how to do this, though you do know how to remove individual gems (you did it for rails 2.3.8) so you could do this for each of the gems you do not want. You still have the problem that somehow rails -v does not work so somehow you have lost the rails startup script.
As everyone keeps advising a much better solution is to completely ignore the current installation and use rvm. You can then install just the versions of everything that you want within rvm and run your app within that environment. It appears that you tried that and had some problems, but why not try again and ask for help here if you run into problems. It seems to me it is much better than risking the integrity of your whole machine.
Colin
Uh, "somehow"?? It was deleted when the gem was uninstalled, as a previous post showed.
Hassan Schroeder wrote in post #966940:
Correct me if I am wrong but your fundamental problem is that somehow the rails environment is messed up. Your proposed solution is to delete it all and start again. No-one seems to know how to do this, though you do know how to remove individual gems (you did it for rails 2.3.8) so you could do this for each of the gems you do not want. You still have the problem that somehow rails -v does not work so somehow you have lost the rails startup script.
Uh, "somehow"?? It was deleted when the gem was uninstalled, as a previous post showed. ----------------------------- Select gem to uninstall: 1. rails-2.3.8 2. rails-2.3.8 3. All versions
3
Remove executables: rails
in addition to the gem? [Yn] Removing rails Successfully uninstalled rails-2.3.8 -----------------------------
The easiest thing to do would be `sudo gem uninstall rails` to get rid of *all* the rails versions and then install the one you want.
I would certainly do that before trying to manually remove the gems, though that's trivial (use `gem env` to find where they are and delete).
-- Hassan Schroeder ------------------------ hassan.schroeder@gmail.com twitter: @hassan
I thought uninstalling rails 2.3.8 would uninstall that version then a different version would be "current". I paused at that question. I have to admit.
BTW... gem list --local
*** LOCAL GEMS ***
actionmailer (2.3.5, 2.2.2, 1.3.6) actionpack (2.3.5, 2.2.2, 1.13.6) actionwebservice (1.2.6) activerecord (2.3.5, 2.2.2, 1.15.6) activeresource (2.3.5, 2.2.2) activesupport (2.3.5, 2.2.2, 1.4.4) acts_as_ferret (0.4.3) capistrano (2.5.2) cgi_multipart_eof_fix (2.5.0) daemons (1.0.10) dnssd (0.6.0) fastthread (1.0.1) fcgi (0.8.7) ferret (0.11.6) gem_plugin (0.2.3) highline (1.5.0) hpricot (0.6.164) libxml-ruby (1.1.2) mongrel (1.1.5) needle (1.3.0) net-scp (1.0.1) net-sftp (2.0.1, 1.1.1) net-ssh (2.0.4, 1.1.4) net-ssh-gateway (1.0.0) rack (1.0.1) rails (2.3.5, 2.2.2, 1.2.6) rake (0.8.3) RedCloth (4.1.1) ruby-openid (2.1.2) ruby-yadis (0.3.4) rubynode (0.1.5) rvm (1.1.3) sqlite3-ruby (1.2.4) termios (0.9.4) xmpp4r (0.4)
Looks like several versions of rails are still hanging around!
But...
sudo gem uninstall rails ERROR: While executing gem ... (Gem::InstallError) cannot uninstall, check `gem list -d rails`
And... gem list -d rails
*** LOCAL GEMS ***
rails (2.3.5, 2.2.2, 1.2.6) Author: David Heinemeier Hansson Rubyforge: http://rubyforge.org/projects/rails Homepage: http://www.rubyonrails.org Installed at (2.3.5): /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8 (2.2.2): /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8 (1.2.6): /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8
Web-application framework with template engine, control-flow layer, and ORM.
FYI
So it looks like heading over to /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8 and deleting gems/* may do it. In this directory there is an alias to /Library/Ruby/Site and one to /Library/Ruby/Gems, which has some interesting content.
So, Mr Schroeder, given this: gem env RubyGems Environment: - RUBYGEMS VERSION: 1.3.5 - RUBY VERSION: 1.8.7 (2009-06-12 patchlevel 174) [universal-darwin10.0] - INSTALLATION DIRECTORY: /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8 - RUBY EXECUTABLE: /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/bin/ruby - EXECUTABLE DIRECTORY: /usr/bin - RUBYGEMS PLATFORMS: - ruby - universal-darwin-10 - GEM PATHS: - /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8 - /Users/rob/.gem/ruby/1.8
I thought uninstalling rails 2.3.8 would uninstall that version then a different version would be "current".
It would have if you'd answered no 
Looks like several versions of rails are still hanging around!
But...
sudo gem uninstall rails ERROR: While executing gem ... (Gem::InstallError) cannot uninstall, check `gem list -d rails`
mmm, surprising. What happens if you try explicitly uninstalling e.g. 2.3.5 ? It would be preferable to removing directories willy-nilly, IMO.
If that works, uninstall the others also, then re-install 2.2.2.
Hassan Schroeder wrote in post #966954:
I thought uninstalling rails 2.3.8 would uninstall that version then a different version would be "current".
It would have if you'd answered no
Looks like several versions of rails are still hanging around!
But...
sudo gem uninstall rails ERROR: While executing gem ... (Gem::InstallError) cannot uninstall, check `gem list -d rails`
mmm, surprising. What happens if you try explicitly uninstalling e.g. 2.3.5 ? It would be preferable to removing directories willy-nilly, IMO.
If that works, uninstall the others also, then re-install 2.2.2.
-- Hassan Schroeder ------------------------ hassan.schroeder@gmail.com twitter: @hassan
gem uninstall rails -v=2.3.5 ERROR: While executing gem ... (Gem::InstallError) cannot uninstall, check `gem list -d rails`
gem list --local
*** LOCAL GEMS ***
actionmailer (2.3.5, 2.2.2, 1.3.6) actionpack (2.3.5, 2.2.2, 1.13.6) actionwebservice (1.2.6) activerecord (2.3.5, 2.2.2, 1.15.6) activeresource (2.3.5, 2.2.2) activesupport (2.3.5, 2.2.2, 1.4.4) acts_as_ferret (0.4.3) capistrano (2.5.2) cgi_multipart_eof_fix (2.5.0) daemons (1.0.10) dnssd (0.6.0) fastthread (1.0.1) fcgi (0.8.7) ferret (0.11.6) gem_plugin (0.2.3) highline (1.5.0) hpricot (0.6.164) libxml-ruby (1.1.2) mongrel (1.1.5) needle (1.3.0) net-scp (1.0.1) net-sftp (2.0.1, 1.1.1) net-ssh (2.0.4, 1.1.4) net-ssh-gateway (1.0.0) rack (1.0.1) rails (2.3.5, 2.2.2, 1.2.6) rake (0.8.3) RedCloth (4.1.1) ruby-openid (2.1.2) ruby-yadis (0.3.4) rubynode (0.1.5) rvm (1.1.3) sqlite3-ruby (1.2.4) termios (0.9.4) xmpp4r (0.4)
Even odder.
sudo gem uninstall rails -v 2.3.5 ERROR: While executing gem ... (Gem::InstallError) cannot uninstall, check `gem list -d rails` RobsiMac:~ rob$ sudo gem install rails -v 2.3.5 Successfully installed rails-2.3.5 1 gem installed Installing ri documentation for rails-2.3.5... Installing RDoc documentation for rails-2.3.5... RobsiMac:~ rob$ sudo gem uninstall rails -v 2.3.5 Successfully uninstalled rails-2.3.5 RobsiMac:~ rob$ rails -v Rails 2.3.5
Rob Th wrote in post #966961:
Even odder.
sudo gem uninstall rails -v 2.3.5 ERROR: While executing gem ... (Gem::InstallError) cannot uninstall, check `gem list -d rails` RobsiMac:~ rob$ sudo gem install rails -v 2.3.5 Successfully installed rails-2.3.5 1 gem installed Installing ri documentation for rails-2.3.5... Installing RDoc documentation for rails-2.3.5... RobsiMac:~ rob$ sudo gem uninstall rails -v 2.3.5 Successfully uninstalled rails-2.3.5 RobsiMac:~ rob$ rails -v Rails 2.3.5
Compare the output of "gem env" and "sudo gem env".
Best,
So what happens now if you `sudo gem uninstall rails` ?
Hassan Schroeder wrote in post #966968:
RobsiMac:~ rob$ sudo gem install rails -v 2.3.5 Successfully installed rails-2.3.5 1 gem installed RobsiMac:~ rob$ sudo gem uninstall rails -v 2.3.5 Successfully uninstalled rails-2.3.5 RobsiMac:~ rob$ rails -v Rails 2.3.5
So what happens now if you `sudo gem uninstall rails` ?
-- Hassan Schroeder ------------------------ hassan.schroeder@gmail.com twitter: @hassan
gem list --local
*** LOCAL GEMS ***
actionmailer (2.3.5, 2.2.2, 1.3.6) actionpack (2.3.5, 2.2.2, 1.13.6) actionwebservice (1.2.6) activerecord (2.3.5, 2.2.2, 1.15.6) activeresource (2.3.5, 2.2.2) activesupport (2.3.5, 2.2.2, 1.4.4) acts_as_ferret (0.4.3) capistrano (2.5.2) cgi_multipart_eof_fix (2.5.0) daemons (1.0.10) dnssd (0.6.0) fastthread (1.0.1) fcgi (0.8.7) ferret (0.11.6) gem_plugin (0.2.3) highline (1.5.0) hpricot (0.6.164) libxml-ruby (1.1.2) mongrel (1.1.5) needle (1.3.0) net-scp (1.0.1) net-sftp (2.0.1, 1.1.1) net-ssh (2.0.4, 1.1.4) net-ssh-gateway (1.0.0) rack (1.0.1) rails (2.3.5, 2.2.2, 1.2.6) rake (0.8.3) RedCloth (4.1.1) ruby-openid (2.1.2) ruby-yadis (0.3.4) rubynode (0.1.5) rvm (1.1.3) sqlite3-ruby (1.2.4) termios (0.9.4) xmpp4r (0.4) RobsiMac:~ rob$ sudo gem uninstall rails
Select gem to uninstall: 1. rails-2.2.2 2. rails-2.2.2 3. All versions
Ouch.
So select 3 and keep going
You can always add back the version you want later.
Hassan Schroeder wrote in post #966986:
RobsiMac:~ rob$ sudo gem uninstall rails
Select gem to uninstall: 1. rails-2.2.2 2. rails-2.2.2 3. All versions
Ouch.
So select 3 and keep going
You can always add back the version you want later.
-- Hassan Schroeder ------------------------ hassan.schroeder@gmail.com twitter: @hassan
sudo gem uninstall rails Password:
Select gem to uninstall: 1. rails-2.2.2 2. rails-2.2.2 3. All versions
3
Remove executables: rails
in addition to the gem? [Yn] y Removing rails Successfully uninstalled rails-2.2.2 Remove executables: rails
in addition to the gem? [Yn] y Removing rails Successfully uninstalled rails-2.2.2 RobsiMac:~ rob$ rails -v -bash: /usr/bin/rails: No such file or directory RobsiMac:~ rob$ sudo gem install rails -v 2.2.2 Successfully installed rails-2.2.2 1 gem installed Installing ri documentation for rails-2.2.2... Installing RDoc documentation for rails-2.2.2... RobsiMac:~ rob$ rails -v Rails 2.3.5
Oh, no. Night of the Living Dead.
Is there a way to run gem in verbose mode to see what is going on?
I don't know why you are so worried about other versions of rails that may be installed. If you look at environment.rb for the app you want to run you will see it requests a particular version of Rails. Any other versions installed will be ignored. They are entirely independent of each other. What you see when you type rails -v is pretty much irrelevant I think. It is not the version that the app will use, just the version that will be used if you create a new app (though even when you create a new app you can specify which version you want).
Colin
Is there a way to run gem in verbose mode to see what is going on?
maybe gem (un)install your_gem_here -V? The flag -V (that's the uppercase letter) tells the command to be 'verbose'.
OK as a famous fictional lawman once said "a man is got to do what a man has got to do", or as we do when a hydro-cylindar pin gets stuck on the back hoe and we break out the big hammer and torch, I just use the wonderful "drag to trash" on all the gem folders I could find, installed sudo gem install rails -v 2.2.2 and look here:
gem list --local
*** LOCAL GEMS ***
actionmailer (2.2.2) actionpack (2.2.2) activerecord (2.2.2) activeresource (2.2.2) activesupport (2.2.2) rails (2.2.2) rake (0.8.7)
Did a quick rails hello222 and got the whole mess.
script/server and up we go.
script/server => Booting WEBrick... => Rails 2.2.2 application started on http://0.0.0.0:3000 => Ctrl-C to shutdown server; call with --help for options [2010-12-07 17:10:32] INFO WEBrick 1.3.1 [2010-12-07 17:10:32] INFO ruby 1.8.7 (2009-06-12) [universal-darwin10.0] [2010-12-07 17:10:32] INFO WEBrick::HTTPServer#start: pid=67167 port=3000 127.0.0.1 - - [07/Dec/2010:17:11:18 EST] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 200 7385 - -> / 127.0.0.1 - - [07/Dec/2010:17:11:18 EST] "GET /javascripts/effects.js HTTP/1.1" 200 38675 http://localhost:3000/ -> /javascripts/effects.js 127.0.0.1 - - [07/Dec/2010:17:11:18 EST] "GET /javascripts/prototype.js HTTP/1.1" 200 129738 http://localhost:3000/ -> /javascripts/prototype.js 127.0.0.1 - - [07/Dec/2010:17:11:18 EST] "GET /images/rails.png HTTP/1.1" 200 6646 http://localhost:3000/ -> /images/rails.png 127.0.0.1 - - [07/Dec/2010:17:11:18 EST] "GET /favicon.ico HTTP/1.1" 200 0 http://localhost:3000/ -> /favicon.ico 127.0.0.1 - - [07/Dec/2010:17:11:21 EST] "GET /rails/info/properties HTTP/1.1" 500 15464 http://localhost:3000/ -> /rails/info/properties
Woohoo. Who said RoR is oblique??
localhost:3000 is responding.
One remaining glitch.
"About your application’s environment:
MissingSourceFile in Rails/infoController#properties
no such file to load -- sqlite3 RAILS_ROOT: /Users/rob/hello222
Is this a missing sqlite gem?
One remaining glitch.
"About your application’s environment:
MissingSourceFile in Rails/infoController#properties
no such file to load -- sqlite3 RAILS_ROOT: /Users/rob/hello222
Is this a missing sqlite gem?
I believe it could be. Try loading the gem and see what happens, you can always remove it. Is your application using sqlite as a DB?
Shoot. What the heck is this
sudo gem install sqlite3-ruby -v 1.2.4 Password: Building native extensions. This could take a while... ERROR: Error installing sqlite3-ruby: ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/bin/ruby extconf.rb mkmf.rb can't find header files for ruby at /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/ruby.h
Gem files will remain installed in /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/sqlite3-ruby-1.2.4 for inspection. Results logged to /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/sqlite3-ruby-1.2.4/ext/sqlite3_api/gem_make.out RobsiMac:~ rob$
That probably means that you need a C compiler or DevKit so the install command can build the gem.
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