Ability to specify *.gem path in Gemfile

[DannyBen]

Hey all,

I was trying to figure out if this is possible, but this page did not reveal the answer.

I have an internal, private gem, that I wish to avoid pushing anywhere (not even a private gem repo).
I wish to just put it in directory in the project, and have it install normally when I run bundle install

I was hoping for something like this:

# Gemfile
source "https://rubygems.org"
gem "mygem", gem: 'mygem-0.0.1.gem'

or even better, without specifying the exact filename (which includes version), to just point bundler to a directory containing a file named <gem_name>-*.gem:

# Gemfile
source "https://rubygems.org"
gem "mygem", gempath: 'mygem-dir'

and in mygem-dir have mygem-0.0.1.gem, and bundler will search for/install the latest version or the one specified in the lock file.

Is something like this possible? If not, any proposed alternative for this scenario (other than the usual install from source) are welcome.

[simi]

You can point to gem source code using gem 'abc', path: 'vendor/abc'. You can vendor your gem in git repository for example or alternatively you can extract your gem somewhere. gem file on its own is just tar.

In theory you should be able to do:

mkdir /gems/mygem
mv mygem-0.0.1.gem /gems/mygem
cd /gems/mygem
tar -xvf mygem-0.0.1.gem # this extracts 3 file -> metadata.gz, data.tar.gz, checksums.yaml.gz
tar -xvzf data.tar.gz # extract data

and in Gemfile point to that path using gem 'mygem', path: '/gems/mygem'.

[DannyBen]

Yeah, I am familiar with path, and I was hoping it can accept path to a *.gem file.
It surprised me that out of all the options for sourcing a gem, providing path to a .gem file is not available.

[simi]

AFAIK there is no way to source gem file directly. But it is interesting idea, I think that PR would be accepted.

[simi]

It could work in similar way to pointing to git, just install the gem from local source into bundle path.

[DannyBen]

But it is interesting idea, I think that PR would be accepted.

I wish I could. This seems above my paygrade.

It could work in similar way to pointing to git, just install the gem from local source into bundle path.

I imagined it more like the path argument, even using the same attribute.

[DannyBen]

By the way, these instructions

tar -xvf mygem-0.0.1.gem
tar -xvzf data.tar.gz

# Gemfile
gem 'mygem', path: '/gems/mygem'

do not work for me unless the directory also contains the gemspec file...

[simi]

Ahh, you're right. That should be part of metadata, but serialized probably.

[DannyBen]

Yup. Ended up trying with a simple zip file containing lib/* and the gemspec, which worked of course, but felt really hacky.
Was quite sure this would be a built in feature. I will abandon it for now.

Thanks for the help.

[mensfeld]

@simi what would be the expected option? should it work with path, file or something else?