Question

I’m trying to setup gitlab and thus install some gems from another user account using sudo,
but I’m constantly getting Permission denied error.

sudo -u gitlab -H bundle install --deployment --without development test postgres

> Using ... ( a lot of successful gems there )
> Using pygments.rb (0.3.2) from https://github.com/gitlabhq/pygments.rb.git (at master) 
> Errno::EACCES: Permission denied - pygments.rb-0.3.2.gem
> An error occurred while installing pygments.rb (0.3.2), and Bundler cannot continue.
> Make sure that `gem install pygments.rb -v '0.3.2'` succeeds before bundling.\



sudo -u gitlab -H gem install pygments.rb -v '0.3.2'

> Successfully installed pygments.rb-0.3.2
> 1 gem installed
> Installing ri documentation for pygments.rb-0.3.2...
> Installing RDoc documentation for pygments.rb-0.3.2...
# no matter how many times I run this command, I always get the same output
# as if the gem installation doesn't stick 


# I've tried to chmod
chmod 777 -R /usr/local/lib/ruby



# then Again
sudo -u gitlab -H bundle install --deployment --without development test postgres
# same result, Errno::EACCES: Permission denied - pygments.rb-0.3.2.gem

Answer 1

Lain suggested to try to install the bundles into another sub directory. When that worked out, it became clear the problem was about permissions in the current directory.

Executing chown -R gitlab:gitlab . has solved the problem.

In the gitlab installation guide there is a gem install command preceding our story that was ran as root and probably the gemfile or some other file had permissions change during that.