On Jun 10, 2008, at 07:49 AM, miles.sterrett / gmail.com wrote:
> On Jun 10, 4:10 am, Martin DeMello <martindeme... / gmail.com> wrote:
>> I've recently switched distributions to ubuntu, and I'm having
>> problems getting webby up and running. (I suspect this a general
>> problem with gems that need to install executables). I ran gem  
>> install
>> webby, and it installed happily enough into
>> /var/lib/gems/1.8/gems/webby-0.8.4/, but didn't install the webby
>> executable anywhere in path. I checked for an ubuntu package, but
>> there wasn't one. Of course, I could simply install it all by hand,
>> but that seems like the wrong thing to do - I'd rather figure out how
>> to get my gems playing nicely with ubuntu.
>>
>> ruby -v: ruby 1.8.6 (2007-09-24 patchlevel 111) [i486-linux]
>> gem -v: 0.9.4
>> /etc/lsb-release:DISTRIB_CODENAME=hardy
>>
>> martin
>
> I am running Ubuntu 8.04.  I installed RubyGems from source.  I just
> installed webby, and it placed an executable file in /usr/bin.
>
> Incidentally, it is acceptable, if not recommended, to install
> RubyGems from source.  Because RubyGems can update itself, you can run
> into issues with both apt/aptitude/Synaptic and RubyGems trying to
> update RubyGems.

I don't recommend installing RubyGems from source over a package.   
Choose whichever makes you most comfortable.

I do recommend only continuing to upgrade RubyGems however you  
initially installed it.   Upgrading RubyGems via `gem update --system`  
instead of through the packager you installed it with may lead to  
undesired behavior.