How to remove installed ri and rdoc?

Solution 1:

You can simply remove the doc directory in the RubyGems installation directory.

rm -r `gem env gemdir`/doc

On Mac OS X by default, it's /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/doc.

Keep in mind that there might be several installation directories for RubyGems.

• RubyGems will try to install to your user directory (something like ~/.gem/ruby/1.8/) if it can't access the normal installation directory (e.g. you installed a gem without sudo).
• RVM also installs RubyGems for each Ruby it installs which will contain a doc directory containing rdoc and ri files (e.g. ~/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-preview1/doc).

This will merely remove existing files, but new ones will come with new installations anyway, unless you use the --no-document flag for gem install or make it a default.

Solution 2:

It worked for me when I tried this:

gem rdoc <gem name> --no-ri --overwrite

Then you can remove only ri of the gem, and leave the gem itself. I don't see we need any other way around for this.

Solution 3:

I just had this problem to, after thinking it would be a good idea to have some local rdoc for the train etc, I completely filled up my disc!

So, I bit the bullet, and did it (the hard way).

First, this is how I got in this stupid predicament :-

$ gem install rdoc-data
$ rdoc-data --install
$ gem rdoc --all --overwrite

To undo this, I thought I'd uninstall the gems, and then install them as needed (but without rdoc!)

1. Get list :-

   $ gem list
   
   *** LOCAL GEMS ***
   
   aasm (2.1.1)
   actionmailer (3.2.3, 3.2.2, 3.1.4, 3.1.3, 3.1.1, 3.1.0, 2.3.8, 2.3.5)
   actionpack (3.2.3, 3.2.2, 3.1.4, 3.1.3, 3.1.1, 3.1.0, 2.3.8, 2.3.5)
   active_support (3.0.0)
   ... +100 ...
   

2. Copy and search/replace \(.*\) with '\'

3. Bulk uninstall :-

   $ gem uninstall actionmailer \
   actionpack \
   active_support \
   ... 100 more ...
   ZenTest \
   -a -x -I
   

4. Watch as the disc gains GB's of free space! (~11GB!)

Twas a stupid idea in the first place, and my solution may be just as much so, but it worked.