MacOS Installation Gem::FilePermissionError

[taco]

When installing Discourse (for development) on my Mac I get this error:

ERROR:  While executing gem ... (Gem::FilePermissionError)
    You don't have write permissions for the /Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0 directory.

How can I resolve this?
Thanks.

[justin (Justin DiRose)]

Did you run through the script install of Discourse here?

Install Discourse on macOS for development

This guide covers installation instructions for a macOS development environment, for production guides see: Install Discourse in production with the official, supported instructions So you want to set up Discourse on macOS to hack on and develop with? We’ll assume that you don’t have Ruby/Rails/Postgres/Redis installed on your Mac. Let’s begin ! Install Discourse Dependencies Run this script in your Terminal (or equivalent), to setup your machine for Discourse developmen…

Are you running macOS Catalina? If that’s the case, it sounds like you’re running into Discourse trying to use the system version of ruby. You’ll want to use something like rbenv to set your ruby version to avoid this.

[taco]

I am running MacOS Catalina. And I did run that script but it failed half way through because it was installed I think.

[justin (Justin DiRose)]

Can you paste the output of which rbenv?

And do you have a custom .bashrc or .zshrc?

[taco]

@justin

Can you paste the output of which rbenv ?

/usr/local/bin/rbenv

@justin

And do you have a custom .bashrc or .zshrc ?

Not really sure. I don’t think so but maybe.

[justin (Justin DiRose)]

Can you cd into your discourse directory and share the output of which ruby?

[taco]

Oops, didn’t notice. I did it and got /usr/bin/ruby

[justin (Justin DiRose)]

Okay, so you’re using the system ruby for Discourse which is why you’re getting that issue.

Check the PATH variable by typing in echo $PATH. You should see /Users/<your username>/.rbenv/bin and /Users/<your username>/.rbenv/shims listed in there.

If not, add them in your shell’s configuration file .bashrc or .zshrc. For ZSH you can add it like this: export PATH=/path/number/1:/path/number/2:$PATH

If you do see them, check to see what order they’re in. If they are later in the chain, they’re probably not getting loaded before the system ruby meaning the system ruby is being used for Discourse. You can use the same approach above for moving the paths further up the chain.

[codinghorror (Jeff Atwood)]

I thought @david added a Ruby version check to our dev environment stuff?

[justin (Justin DiRose)]

I believe that was for the theme cli.

[codinghorror (Jeff Atwood)]

Is there some way to add an equivalent check here?

[justin (Justin DiRose)]

I think we already check in Discourse for ruby version compatibility — the issue here is our Discourse bundle can’t write gems for the system level version of ruby bundled with macOS. I could be wrong on the specific details but I think it has to do with a change Apple made with macOS Catalina. I ran into this same issue myself and it took a good deal of troubleshooting to figure out.

[rudzainy (Rudzainy Rahman)]

1. Me encontré con el mismo error que el OP.

2. Lee esto:

@justin

Si no, agrégalos en el archivo de configuración de tu shell .bashrc o .zshrc.

3. Pensé que en realidad no era un error de permisos de archivo, sino que el instalador estaba mirando en el lugar equivocado.

4. Sabía que reiniciar el terminal recargaría mi archivo .zshrc, así que cerré y abrí el terminal.

5. Volví a ejecutar el script de instalación y ya no me encontré con este error.

¿Podría resolverse este problema con una actualización del terminal estratégicamente colocada durante el proceso de instalación?