Comment 36 for bug 145267

2008/8/1 Mathias Gug <email address hidden>:
> I'm not sure I understand what you're referring to with 'packages' -
> the rubygem package ?

The Debian/Ubuntu dpkg package.

> What does the "gem from source" do ? Install in /usr/bin/ ? In
> /var/lib/gems/ruby1.{8,9}/bin ? How does "gem from source" handle the
> scenario you've outlined above ?

Source gem installs executable wrappers (essentially programmatic
symbolic links that select the correct gem executable) directly into
/usr/bin and stores gem libraries in the main ruby library area.
(/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8)

The way it deals with the version clash is that by default 'uninstall'
doesn't remove the executable wrapper.

That leads to the alternative bug of the program appearing to exist in
/usr/bin but but being unable to find the appropriate gem library
after you have done:

gem1.8 install
gem1.8 uninstall

So after a while your system ends up with a load of garbage wrappers
on the disk.

--
Neil Wilson