Question

Is there a Ruby method I can call to get the list of installed gems?

I want to parse the output of gem list.

Is there a different way to do this?

Answer 1

The Gem command is included with Ruby 1.9+ now, and is a standard addition to Ruby pre-1.9.

require 'rubygems'

name = /^/i
dep = Gem::Dependency.new(name, Gem::Requirement.default)
specs = Gem.source_index.search(dep)
puts specs[0..5].map{ |s| "#{s.name} #{s.version}" }
# >> Platform 0.4.0
# >> abstract 1.0.0
# >> actionmailer 3.0.5
# >> actionpack 3.0.5
# >> activemodel 3.0.5
# >> activerecord 3.0.5

---

Here’s an updated way to get a list:

require 'rubygems'

def local_gems
   Gem::Specification.sort_by{ |g| [g.name.downcase, g.version] }.group_by{ |g| g.name }
end

Because local_gems relies on group_by, it returns a hash of the gems, where the key is the gem’s name, and the value is an array of the gem specifications. The value is an array of the instances of that gem that is installed, sorted by the version number.

That makes it possible to do things like:

my_local_gems = local_gems()

my_local_gems['actionmailer']
# => [Gem::Specification.new do |s|
#       s.authors = ["David Heinemeier Hansson"]
#       s.date = Time.utc(2013, 12, 3)
#       s.dependencies = [Gem::Dependency.new("actionpack",
#         Gem::Requirement.new(["= 4.0.2"]),
#         :runtime),
#        Gem::Dependency.new("mail",
#         Gem::Requirement.new(["~> 2.5.4"]),
#         :runtime)]
#       s.description = "Email on Rails. Compose, deliver, receive, and test emails using the familiar controller/view pattern. First-class support for multipart email and attachments."
#       s.email = "[e-mail]"
#       s.homepage = "http://www.rubyonrails.org"
#       s.licenses = ["MIT"]
#       s.name = "actionmailer"
#       s.require_paths = ["lib"]
#       s.required_ruby_version = Gem::Requirement.new([">= 1.9.3"])
#       s.requirements = ["none"]
#       s.rubygems_version = "2.0.14"
#       s.specification_version = 4
#       s.summary = "Email composition, delivery, and receiving framework (part of Rails)."
#       s.version = Gem::Version.new("4.0.2")
#       end]

And:

puts my_local_gems.map{ |name, specs| 
  [ 
    name,
    specs.map{ |spec| spec.version.to_s }.join(',')
  ].join(' ') 
}
# >> actionmailer 4.0.2
...
# >> arel 4.0.1,5.0.0
...
# >> ZenTest 4.9.5
# >> zucker 13.1

The last example is similar to the gem query --local command-line, only you have access to all the information for a particular gem’s specification.