I would set the environment variable (in .bashrc)

GEM_HOME=<gems dir>

where <gems dir> is the directory with the folders: cache  doc  gems 
specifications. I'm not positive it will work, but I do this on my 
computer (for the opposite setup, with a central ruby install and gems 
in my home dir), and it works fine. Note that rubygems has some bugs and 
may not always pay attention to this environment variable when it should...

Dan

jzakiya wrote:
> I have Linux on a Toshiba Satellite laptop.
> 
> In my home dir I'm running Ruby 1.8.6.
> In my root dir I have Ruby 1.8.4 which was
> installed from my distro's (PCLinuxOS) repositories.
> 
> All my gems are loaded and run under root/1.8.4 control.
> I cannot access these gems from my home dir with 1.8.6.
> 
> What do I need to do to be able to access these gems
> from my home dir with 1.8.6?
> 
> Thanks
> 
> jz
> 
> 
>