<em class="text-neutral-600">Start with an idea, end with a distributable package of Ruby code.</em>

Ways to share your gem code with other users.

* [Introduction](#introduction)
* [Sharing Source Code](#sharing-source-code)
* [Serving Your Own Gems](#serving-your-own-gems)
* [Publishing to RubyGems.org](#publishing-to-rubygemsorg)
* [Push Permissions on RubyGems.org](#push-permissions-on-rubygemsorg)
* [Gem Security](#gem-security)

Introduction
------------

Now that you've [created your gem](/make-your-own-gem), you're probably ready
to share it.  While it is perfectly reasonable to create private gems solely to
organize the code in large private projects, it's more common to build gems so
that they can be used by multiple projects.  This guide discusses the various
ways that you can share your gem with the world.

Sharing Source Code
-------------------

The simplest way (from the author's perspective) to share a gem for other
developers' use is to distribute it in source code form. If you place the full
source code for your gem on a public git repository (often, though not always,
this means sharing it via [GitHub](https://github.com)), then other users can
install it with [Bundler's git functionality](/gemfile/#GIT).

For example, you can install the latest code for the wicked_pdf gem in a
project by including this line in your Gemfile:

    gem "wicked_pdf", :git => "https://github.com/mileszs/wicked_pdf.git"

> Installing a gem directly from a git repository is a feature of Bundler, not
> a feature of RubyGems. Gems installed this way will not show up when you run
> `gem list`.

Serving Your Own Gems
---------------------

If you want to control who can install a gem, or directly track the activity
surrounding a gem, then you'll want to set up a private gem server. You can
[set up your own gem server](/run-your-own-gem-server) or use a commercial
service such as [Gemfury](http://www.gemfury.com/).

RubyGems 2.2.0 and newer support the `allowed_push_host` metadata value to
restrict gem pushes to a single host.  If you are publishing private gems you
should set this value to prevent accidental pushes to rubygems.org:

    Gem::Specification.new 'my_gem', '1.0' do |s|
      # ...
      s.metadata['allowed_push_host'] = 'https://gems.my-company.example'
    end

Publishing to RubyGems.org
--------------------------

The simplest way to distribute a gem for public consumption is to use
[RubyGems.org](https://rubygems.org/).  Gems that are published to RubyGems.org
can be installed via the `gem install` command or through the use of tools such
as Isolate or Bundler.

To begin, you'll need to create an account on RubyGems.org. Visit the [sign
up](https://rubygems.org/users/new) page and supply an email address that you
control, a handle (username) and a password.

After creating the account, use your email and password when pushing the gem.
(RubyGems saves the credentials in ~/.gem/credentials for you so you only need
to log in once.)

Note that your gem name must be unique. It cannot have a name that is already
in use by another gem already published to [RubyGems.org](https://rubygems.org/).

To publish version 0.1.0 of a new gem named 'squid-utils':

    $ gem push squid-utils-0.1.0.gem
    Enter your RubyGems.org credentials.
    Don't have an account yet? Create one at https://rubygems.org/sign_up
       Email:   gem_author@example
    Password:
    Signed in.
    Pushing gem to RubyGems.org...
    Successfully registered gem: squid-utils (0.1.0)

Congratulations! Your new gem is now ready for any ruby user in the world to
install!

Push Permissions on RubyGems.org
--------------------------------

If you have multiple maintainers for your gem you can give your fellow
maintainers permission to push the gem to rubygems.org through the [gem
owner command](/command-reference/#gem-owner).

"Access Denied" Error When Pushing to RubyGems.org
--------------------------------------------------

In certain situations, you may get this error:

    Pushing gem to https://rubygems.org...
    Access Denied. Please sign up for an account at https://rubygems.org

If you encounter this error and aren't sure why, try running `gem signout`
and then `gem signin`.

There is [an open issue about improving how this is
handled](https://github.com/rubygems/rubygems/issues/7595).

Gem Security
------------

See [Security](/security) page.