snippet.txt

[andre /usr/local]$ sudo mkdir Rubygems
[andre /usr/local]$ sudo chown andre:staff Rubygems/
[andre /usr/local]$ export GEM_HOME=/usr/local/Rubygems
[andre /usr/local]$ export PATH=/usr/local/Rubygems/bin:$PATH

# now you can install gems to /usr/local/Rubygems without sudo
[andre /usr/local]$ gem install oniguruma -- --with-onig=/usr/local
Building native extensions.  This could take a while...
Successfully installed oniguruma-1.1.0
1 gem installed
[andre /usr/local]$ gem list -d oniguruma

*** LOCAL GEMS ***

oniguruma (1.1.0)
    Authors: Dizan Vasquez, Nikolai Lugovoi
    Rubyforge: http://rubyforge.org/projects/oniguruma
    Homepage: http://oniguruma.rubyforge.org
    Installed at: /usr/local/Rubygems

    Bindings for the oniguruma regular expression library
[andre /usr/local]$ irb
>> require 'oniguruma'
=> true


# note that rubygems still loads system-installed rubygems just fine
[andre /usr/local]$ gem list -d highline

*** LOCAL GEMS ***

highline (1.5.0)
    Author: James Edward Gray II
    Rubyforge: http://rubyforge.org/projects/highline
    Homepage: http://highline.rubyforge.org
    Installed at: /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8

    HighLine is a high-level command-line IO library.
[andre /usr/local]$ irb
>> require 'highline'
=> true