+++
title = "archlinux + rubygems = gem executables will not run"
date = "2012-03-31T08:31:55+00:00"
author = "Gibheer"
draft = false
+++

Two weeks ago, I had a problem with installing rubygems on my laptop. Yesterday, another person had the same problem, so I will document what is wrong here.

The problem itself manifests in the way, that it installs gems with the error message

   WARNING:  You don't have /home/steven/.gem/rbx/1.8/bin in your PATH,
             gem executables will not run.

If you then want to use the binary provided with the gem, it will not work and it happens with all ruby versions, be it rubinius, jruby or 1.9. What makes it worse is the fact, that it only occurs on archlinux installations, till now. And it is not a problem of rvm!

So if you are on archlinux, look into `/etc/gemrc`. There will be a line saying

   gemrc: --user-install

To solve the problem, create a file `~/.gemrc` and put the line

   gemrc:

in it. By doing that, the file `/etc/gemrc` will be ignored. And if you are manipulating that file, look into [all the other options](http://docs.rubygems.org/read/chapter/11) you can set.