gem is the command-line interface to RubyGems. With it, you can install gems locally or remotely, see what you have installed, search for gems, and more.

It works on the following basis: you specify an operation and optionally some modifiers. Finally, you can have a configuration file to specify commonly-used command-line arguments and other settings.

See the QuickIntroduction for a task-driven hands-on overview of gem’s main features.

This reference covers ‘gem’ version 0.8.7.

gem is based on ’’commands’’, like build, install, and search. See the Table of Contents for a full list.

Each command takes ’’arguments’’ and/or ’’options’’. For example, if you run

gem install rake --remote

then install is the command, rake is the argument, and —remote is an option. (By the way, this command installs rake remotely.)

• To see a list of commands, run gem help commands.
• To get help on the install command, run gem help install.
• To see some examples of common usage, run gem help examples.
• For a reminder of all this, just run gem help.

The help on each command is also included in this document.