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Asked: 2026-05-11T19:50:13+00:00

I have a custom Ruby library directory that I’d like to have automatically added

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I have a custom Ruby library directory that I’d like to have automatically added to Ruby’s load path whenever Ruby is executed. I know I can use the -I option to Ruby, but is there something like an environment variable that I can set that will globally determine Ruby’s load path.

I want to install Ruby Gems on a Linux box where I don’t have root privileges, so I need to have a Ruby load path in a non-standard location. I installed RubyGems per “Installing RubyGems in a User Directory“, but the gem command isn’t picking up the non-standard load path.

Maybe I’m missing something obvious here and making things harder for myself?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    See the “Ruby and Its World” chapter from The Pickaxe Book, specifically the section on environment variables. Excerpt:

    RUBYLIB 
  Additional search path for Ruby programs ($SAFE must be 0).
DLN_LIBRARY_PATH
  Search path for dynamically loaded modules.
RUBYLIB_PREFIX
  (Windows only) Mangle the RUBYLIB search path by adding this
  prefix to each component.
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