ERROR: RDoc documentation generator not installed: no such file to load — rdoc/rdoc

I recently setup a new server with Ruby and Rubygems however I received an error when attempting to install my first gem which happened to be ruby-lsapi. Below I explain the error including an example of the error in the output of installing a gem as well as what was done to resolve the error.

RDoc Error Installing Ruby Gem On CentOS Linux:

[root@dev rubygems-1.3.7]# gem install ruby-lsapi
Building native extensions.  This could take a while...
Successfully installed ruby-lsapi-4.0
1 gem installed
ERROR:  While executing gem ... (Gem::DocumentError)
    ERROR: RDoc documentation generator not installed: no such file to load -- rdoc/rdoc
[root@dev rubygems-1.3.7]#

While the gem actually installed the documentation did not so it is an issue that should be resolved in case you ever need the documentation of a gem you are installing. Resolving this problem is done by installing the ruby-rdoc package which will have a dependency of ruby-irb. As you can see below the install is quick and can be completed by Yum depending on what repositories you have installed.

Install ruby-rdoc On CentOS Linux Via Yum:

[root@dev ~]# yum install ruby-rdoc
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
 * addons: mirrors.xmission.com
 * base: centos.mirror.facebook.net
 * extras: mirrors.netdna.com
 * updates: mirrors.versaweb.com
Setting up Install Process
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package ruby-rdoc.i686 0:1.8.6.111-1 set to be updated
--> Processing Dependency: ruby-irb = 1.8.6.111-1 for package: ruby-rdoc
--> Running transaction check
---> Package ruby-irb.i686 0:1.8.6.111-1 set to be updated
--> Finished Dependency Resolution

Dependencies Resolved

====================================================================================================================================
 Package                          Arch                        Version                             Repository                   Size
====================================================================================================================================
Installing:
 ruby-rdoc                        i686                        1.8.6.111-1                         ruby                        137 k
Installing for dependencies:
 ruby-irb                         i686                        1.8.6.111-1                         ruby                         70 k

Transaction Summary
====================================================================================================================================
Install       2 Package(s)
Upgrade       0 Package(s)

Total download size: 206 k
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
(1/2): ruby-irb-1.8.6.111-1.i686.rpm                                                                         |  70 kB     00:00
(2/2): ruby-rdoc-1.8.6.111-1.i686.rpm                                                                        | 137 kB     00:00
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total                                                                                                91 kB/s | 206 kB     00:02
Running rpm_check_debug
Running Transaction Test
Finished Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Running Transaction
  Installing     : ruby-irb                                                                                                     1/2
  Installing     : ruby-rdoc                                                                                                    2/2

Installed:
  ruby-rdoc.i686 0:1.8.6.111-1

Dependency Installed:
  ruby-irb.i686 0:1.8.6.111-1

Complete!
[root@dev ~]#

After installing ruby-rdoc I reinstalled the gem and this time the documentation installed without issue.

Install ruby-lsapi Gem On CentOS Linux:

[root@dev rubygems-1.3.7]# gem install ruby-lsapi
Building native extensions.  This could take a while...
Successfully installed ruby-lsapi-4.0
1 gem installed
Installing ri documentation for ruby-lsapi-4.0...
Installing RDoc documentation for ruby-lsapi-4.0...
[root@dev rubygems-1.3.7]#

The RDoc error no longer occurs and the ruby-lsapi gem installs without issue.

See larger image Distributed Programming with Ruby (Paperback) By (author) Mark Bates List Price: $39.99 USD New From: $20.90 In Stock Used from: $15.00 In Stock

See larger image Beginning Ruby: From Novice to Professional (Expert's Voice in Open Source) (Paperback) By (author) Peter Cooper List Price: $39.99 USD New From: $23.06 In Stock Used from: $18.97 In Stock

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 9th, 2010 at 2:15 PM and is filed under Errors. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.