Practical Ruby Gems

Companion title to the book - along with bonus documentation for 45 Ruby gems with version histories, statistics, and more.

About the Practical Ruby Gems Book

Discover how to enhance your Ruby and Rails projects using Ruby Gems. Practical Ruby Gems, Second Edition is a comprehensive guide written to equip Ruby programmers and web developers with the knowledge and skills to effectively utilize existing Gems - and also create new Gem releases, allowing easy distribution, dependency management, and streamlined integration.

The modernized Second Edition is updated to reflect the latest version of Ruby Gems (7.0.4) and Ruby language (3.2). The author introduces new software tools and systems like Bundler, Docker, and Nix, demonstrating how to integrate them seamlessly with Ruby Gems, as well as a significantly expanded section on how to create your own gems – including practical examples of problems faced in real-world scenarios.

As dependency management creates challenges for Ruby developers, this is the only book of its kind to offer Ruby Gems as an important solution. Explore and embrace the modern Ruby Gems ecosystem and learn best practices for creation, distribution, and integration with other dependency management systems.

Featured Gems

What's in the Book

Getting Started

  • • Introduction to RubyGems
  • • Installing gems with Bundler
  • • Managing Ruby versions
  • • Tool management with Mise
  • • RubyGems with Nix

Working with Gems

  • • Gem and Bundle commands
  • • RubyGems and Bundler APIs
  • • Working with local gems
  • • Dockerizing applications
  • • Creating your own gems

Advanced Topics

  • • Gemstash for caching
  • • Serving gems via HTTP
  • • Native package bundling

Purchase the Book

Get comprehensive coverage of Ruby package management with practical, real-world examples

Contact us for purchasing information

Explore Our Gem Library

Browse 45 documented Ruby gems with version histories and upgrade guidance

Browse Gem Library →