How do I install rails and create a new application without root access?

Question

I am trying to install Ruby on Rails on a Linux machine in my home directory (without root access). My ruby version is ruby 2.1.5p273 (2014-11-13) [x86_64-linux-gnu]. So far I was able to:

$ gem install --user-install rails

which apparently has installed rails into ~/.gem/ruby/2.1.0/bin/rails:

$ ./.gem/ruby/2.1.0/bin/rails --version
Rails 4.2.6

But then it fails to create the application:

$ ~/.gem/ruby/2.1.0/bin/rails new myapp
  create  
  create  README.rdoc
  create  Rakefile
  create  config.ru
  create  .gitignore
  create  Gemfile
  create  app
  create  app/assets/javascripts/application.js
  create  app/assets/stylesheets/application.css
  create  app/controllers/application_controller.rb
  create  app/helpers/application_helper.rb
  create  app/views/layouts/application.html.erb
  create  app/assets/images/.keep
  create  app/mailers/.keep
  create  app/models/.keep
  create  app/controllers/concerns/.keep
  create  app/models/concerns/.keep
  create  bin
  create  bin/bundle
  create  bin/rails
  create  bin/rake
  create  bin/setup
  create  config
  create  config/routes.rb
  create  config/application.rb
  create  config/environment.rb
  create  config/secrets.yml
  create  config/environments
  create  config/environments/development.rb
  create  config/environments/production.rb
  create  config/environments/test.rb
  create  config/initializers
  create  config/initializers/assets.rb
  create  config/initializers/backtrace_silencers.rb
  create  config/initializers/cookies_serializer.rb
  create  config/initializers/filter_parameter_logging.rb
  create  config/initializers/inflections.rb
  create  config/initializers/mime_types.rb
  create  config/initializers/session_store.rb
  create  config/initializers/wrap_parameters.rb
  create  config/locales
  create  config/locales/en.yml
  create  config/boot.rb
  create  config/database.yml
  create  db
  create  db/seeds.rb
  create  lib
  create  lib/tasks
  create  lib/tasks/.keep
  create  lib/assets
  create  lib/assets/.keep
  create  log
  create  log/.keep
  create  public
  create  public/404.html
  create  public/422.html
  create  public/500.html
  create  public/favicon.ico
  create  public/robots.txt
  create  test/fixtures
  create  test/fixtures/.keep
  create  test/controllers
  create  test/controllers/.keep
  create  test/mailers
  create  test/mailers/.keep
  create  test/models
  create  test/models/.keep
  create  test/helpers
  create  test/helpers/.keep
  create  test/integration
  create  test/integration/.keep
  create  test/test_helper.rb
  create  tmp/cache
  create  tmp/cache/assets
  create  vendor/assets/javascripts
  create  vendor/assets/javascripts/.keep
  create  vendor/assets/stylesheets
  create  vendor/assets/stylesheets/.keep
     run  bundle install
There was an error while trying to write to `/var/lib/gems/2.1.0`. It is likely that you need to
grant write permissions for that path.
     run  bundle exec spring binstub --all
bundler: command not found: spring
Install missing gem executables with `bundle install`

Does rails require root access??

Thanks!

Answer 1

Yes and no.

A typical development environment is set up with RVM (or rbenv, never tried it) and is contained entirely in your home folder: Ruby interpreter (possibly more than one!), its gems and configuration. For that you don't need root access.

When installing Ruby via RVM, you might get a prompt for installing dependencies required to compile Ruby from sources. That's one case. (And, as it turns out, this may fail if sudo is not available, and it might be, so see this question for possible alternatives)

You might occasionally need root access for installing development libraries needed to compile native extensions for certain gems. For instance, for gem pg you'll need libpq-dev on Debian and derivatives (Ubuntu, Mint, etc.). While you could try downloading the sources to your home folder and point the compiler in that direction, that takes time. So that's two cases.

---

But given no RVM...

In your specific case rails has done the job just fine: it generated the template, it just failed to bundle install the template's dependencies. It uses whatever gem directory is default for RubyGems. Seeing that it's /var/lib/gems/2.1.0, I'm guessing you're using system-wide Ruby. This isn't ideal for development as you might want to switch back and forth between different interpreter versions (or even implementations, such as Rubinius), use a version manager constrained to your home folder.

Not that you can do nothing else. Try cding into the generated folder and running:

bundle --help install

There are many options, you see. --path or even --standalone can probably save you here, it overrides gem installation path and remembers the fact that it's overridden, so it knows where to look for gems.

---

Anyway, once the application is set up and dependencies are resolved and installed, you won't need root access for neither running it (on non-privileged ports, of course) or setting up another application, since any necessary system-wide dependencies will already be installed by then.

Answer 2

As I know, Ruby on Rails application require root access by default for install gems. Possible it may be configured, but there is more simple solution - Ruby Version Manager or something similar.

Rvm installs ruby gems in user's home directory and root access doesn't required for gems installing. Excepts unnecessary root Rvm allows to run different Ruby environments (eg different Ruby or RoR versions) in one user profile.

And look how to install Rvm without root access, look eg here, here or find it yourself