gem install jekyll failed on Mac OS X 10.11

$ gem install jekyll

ERROR: While executing gem ... (Gem::FilePermissionError)
You don't have write permissions for the /Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0 directory.

Mac OS X 10.11 (15A282a)
Xcode 7.0 (7A220)

[jaybe-jekyll]

I prefer...

$ gem install --user-install --bindir ~/bin --no-document --pre --verbose jekyll

Then... i.e....

• $ ~/bin/jekyll new ~/Sites/testjekyll
• $ ~/bin/jekyll serve --watch --verbose ~/Sites/testjekyll

And or add ~/bin to your $PATH shell variable to avoid requiring full path to jekyll.

Installing this way installs for and within the user account [only], instead of system-wide.

[envygeeks]

This is not a Jekyll bug, please ask your question at https://talk.jekyllrb.com as this medium is for bugs.

@jaybe-jekyll Brilliant, thanks.

Successfully installed jekyll-3.0.0.pre.beta8
17 gems installed

FYI, I think Apple has locked down the system directories in OS X 10.11, so the easy-install instructions on http://jekyllrb.com may need to change. Even using sudo won't work.

@envygeeks Is there a process for reporting documentation bugs?

[envygeeks]

What do you think is a bug @chmaynard?

The easy-install instructions for jekyll don't seem to work in OS X 10.11 (El Capitan). Apple plans to release this new version of OS X in a few weeks, so you folks might want to investigate.

[envygeeks]

If you are using RVM or Rbenv to do the install ( -- they installed ruby and rubygems -- ) via non-root userland you'll need to file a bug with them, if you are using system Ruby, it never worked the way you expected it to because you need to sudo to do system installs. If it did work before that then that is a glaring security bug for OS X.

[envygeeks]

We also hint at t he need to sudo in the troubleshooting: http://jekyllrb.com/docs/troubleshooting/#installation-problems it could use a reworking though and if I recall somebody submitted or is going to submit the changes.

@envygeeks I know almost nothing about Ruby, so please excuse my ignorance. It sounds like I must have used "sudo gem install" at some point in the past. I'm now wondering what will happen when the average user tries to install jekyll on a clean copy of OS X 10.11. Maybe I'll try that myself.

[fulldecent]

If the install instructions do not work on Mac, it should not be stated that this project supports Mac OS X.

[envygeeks]

Your comments help us none @fulldecent provide more information or refrain from commenting.

[fulldecent]

My sarcasm is used to illustrate that this issue should remain open.

This approach worked for me with OS X 10.11 15A282b. However, the other Mac advice at http://jekyllrb.com/docs/troubleshooting/#installation-problems did not work.

ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
brew install ruby
gem install jekyll

This is contrast to Yosemite where I needed to use sudo:

sudo gem install jekyll

Since I no longer have a "stock" system, it would be helpful if someone else who just installed could validate this approach.

@fulldecent Thanks for your advice. I hadn't thought about using Homebrew to install Ruby. That makes perfect sense because Homebrew will install Ruby into /usr/local instead of /Library/Ruby, which may be off-limits if Apple SIP is enabled.

Summary

The installation problem occurs because OS X ships with a copy of Ruby in /Library/Ruby, a directory which is owned and controlled by the OS. In past versions of OS X, a new jekyll user could use sudo gem install jekyll to install software into this directory. That may not be possible in OS X 10.11, because Apple is now using System Integrity Protection (SIP) to further restrict write access to some system directories.

@fulldecent found a good work-around for 10.11:

ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
brew install ruby
gem install jekyll

A drawback with this work-around is that the user needs to install Homebrew and Ruby before installing jekyll. The user may also need to update their $PATH variable to give /usr/local/bin precedence over /usr/bin.