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Gems, Eggs and Perl Modules
On a fresh OS X installation there are three empty directories:
/Library/Ruby /Library/Python /Library/Perl
When you gem install, cpan -i or easy_install stuff gets installed to these directories in a nicely segregated fashion similar to Homebrew.
These directories start empty — you are meant to fill them with your stuff and not worry about it.
On fresh OS X installing to these three directories doesn’t require sudo.
Executable files are the problem:
| Command | With sudo | Without sudo |
|---|---|---|
| easy_install foo | /usr/local/bin/foo | /usr/local/bin/foo |
| cpan -i foo | /usr/local/bin/foo | /usr/local/bin/foo |
| gem install foo | /usr/bin/foo | ~/.gem/bin/foo |
It would be nice if gem install foo would install to /usr/local/bin.
We need to add gem: -n/usr/local/bin to your ~/.gemrc. It’s YAML so do it manually or use this:
ruby -C$HOME -ryaml -e "
gemrc = YAML::load_file('.gemrc') rescue {}
gemrc['gem'] = '-n/usr/local/bin'
YAML::dump(gemrc, File.new('.gemrc', 'w'))"
Now when you run gem (without sudo) it will install executables to /usr/local/bin. With sudo, /usr/bin.
However all versions of RubyGems before 1.3.6 are buggy and ignore the above setting. Sadly a fresh install of Snow Leopard comes with 1.3.5. Currently the only known way to get round this is to upgrade rubygems as root:
sudo gem update --system
Now gem can be used without sudo.
If you are using RVM or similar software, don’t use gem: -n/usr/local/bin, which would force all gem installs for all Rubies into that same folder. Instead, set your GEM_HOME and GEM_PATH in your .bashrc before sourcing RVM.
If you ever did a sudo gem, etc. before then a lot of files will have been created chown root. Fix with:
sudo chown -R $USER /Library/Ruby /Library/Perl /Library/Python
There is no easy_uninstall. Homebrew provides pip, we suggest you use that instead of easy_install.
brew install pip
$ gem update --system
No sudo required because RubyGems is awesome and uses whatever is newest wherever the gems are installed.
cpanminus aka cpanm is a far friendlier installer for CPAN modules than either CPAN.pm or CPANPLUS. Just grab a copy and go.
$ wget http://xrl.us/cpanm $ chmod +x cpanm $ cpanm Some::Module
cpanm fails pretty often while trying to update very old perl modules on Mac OSX. To avoid it install ‘local::lib’ first and then use cpanm -l ~/perl5
thus having installed CPAN modules in your home directory.
Frankly, don’t bother. When CPAN works, you leave it alone!
$ cpan cpan> o conf prerequisites_policy # don't ask stupid questions cpan> install YAML # saves you a million warning messages cpan> upgrade CPAN # never seems to work
Some people prefer to keep everything inside Homebrew’s prefix. It looks like this:
$ cpan -i File::Rename $ brew ln CPAN $ brew ls CPAN /usr/local/Cellar/CPAN/5.8/bin/file-rename /usr/local/Cellar/CPAN/5.8/share/man1/file-rename.1 /usr/local/Cellar/CPAN/5.8/share/man3/File::Rename.3pm $ find /Library/Perl/5.8.8/File /Library/Perl/5.8.8/File /Library/Perl/5.8.8/File/Rename.pm
Note that you have to `brew ln` every time you install stuff.
echo "export GEM_HOME='$(brew --prefix)/Cellar/gems/1.8'" >> ~/.bashrc source ~/.bashrc gem install brewbygems
Brewbygems is a gem by indirect that runs brew link gems and brew unlink gems for you after gems are installed or uninstalled.
Change where Perl modules are installed:
cpan> o conf makepl_arg INSTALL_BASE=/usr/local/Cellar/CPAN cpan> o conf mbuild_arg --install_base=/usr/local/Cellar/CPAN cpan> o conf commit
Make sure you have at least ExtUtils::MakeMaker 6.31 installed. Its the first version that honors INSTALL_BASE. If not, install it immediately after reconfiguring. It will install itself with itself and honor INSTALL_BASE.
$ perl -wle 'use ExtUtils::MakeMaker; print $ExtUtils::MakeMaker::VERSION' 6.56
Note that this method does not work that well if you use virtualenv: the ~/.pydistutils.cfg file will overwrite the virtual environment install location. See issue 1061 for more details.
echo '[install] install-scripts=/usr/local/Cellar/PyPi/2.6/bin install-data=/usr/local/Cellar/PyPi/2.6/share' > ~/.pydistutils.cfg