ruby - How to make --no-ri --no-rdoc the default for gem install?

Question

I don't use the RI or RDoc output from the gems I install in my machine or in the servers I handle (I use other means of documentation).

Every gem I install installs RI and RDoc documentation by default, because I forget to set --no-ri --no-rdoc.

Is there a way to make those two flags the default?

Answer 1

You just add the following line to your local ~/.gemrc file (it is in your home folder):

gem: --no-document

or you can add this line to the global gemrc config file.

Here is how to find it (in Linux):

strace gem source 2>&1 | grep gemrc

Answer 2

From RVM’s documentation:

Just add this line to your ~/.gemrc or /etc/gemrc:

gem: --no-document

---

Note: The original answer was:

install: --no-rdoc --no-ri 
update: --no-rdoc --no-ri 

This is no longer valid; the RVM docs have since been updated, thus the current answer to only include the gem directive is the correct one.

Answer 3

Note that --no-ri and --no-rdoc have been deprecated according to the new guides. The recommended way is to use --no-document in ~/.gemrc or /etc/gemrc.

install: --no-document
update: --no-document

or

gem: --no-document

Answer 4

On Linux (and probably Mac):

echo 'gem: --no-document' >> ~/.gemrc

This one-liner used to be in comments here, but somehow disappeared.

Answer 5

# /home/{user}/.gemrc

---
:update_sources: true
:sources:
- http://gems.rubyforge.org/
- http://gems.github.com
:benchmark: false
:bulk_threshold: 1000
:backtrace: false
:verbose: true
gem: --no-ri --no-rdoc

http://webonrails.com/2008/12/03/skiping-installation-of-ri-and-rdoc-documentation-while-installing-gems/

Answer 6

On Windows XP the path to the .gemrc file is

c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\gemrc 

and this file is not created by default, you should create it yourself.

Answer 7

A oneliner for the windows 7 users:

(echo install: --no-document && echo update: --no-document) >> c:\ProgramData\gemrc

Answer 8

You can specify default options using the .gemrc configuration file.

Documentation about gem configuration file

Answer 9

As mentioned above, put gem: --no-document in your gem file. However, the system-wide gemrc will not always necessarily go into /etc/gemrc. If you are using RVM, or you have Ruby installed under /usr/local/bin, it needs to go in a different location. You can find this location by running irb and typing...

require 'rubygems'
Gem::ConfigFile::SYSTEM_WIDE_CONFIG_FILE

See the original post on this over here.

Answer 10

Step by steps:

To create/edit the .gemrc file from the terminal:

vi  ~/.gemrc

You will open a editor called vi. paste in:

gem: --no-ri --no-rdoc

click 'esc'-button.

type in:

:exit

You can check if everything is correct with this command:

sudo /Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/MacOS/TextEdit ~/.gemrc

Answer 11

On Windows7 the .gemrc file is not present, you can let Ruby create one like this (it's not easy to do this in explorer).

gem sources --add http://rubygems.org

You will have to confirm (it's unsafe). Now the file is created in your userprofile folder (c:\users\)

You can edit the textfile to remove the source you added or you can remove it with

gem sources --remove http://rubygems.org

Answer 12

For Windows users, Ruby doesn't set up .gemrc file. So you have to create .gemrc file in your home directory (echo %USERPROFILE%) and put following line in it:

gem: --no-document

As already mentioned in previous answers, don't use --no-ri and --no-rdoc cause its deprecated. See it yourself:

gem help install