"gem install" freezes at "updating Gem source index for [..]"

Question

For some weeks now I simply can't run gem install in windows. It sticks on this line:

C:\Windows\System32>gem install rails --version 2.1.2
Bulk updating Gem source index for: http://gems.rubyforge.org/

Any ideas what it could be?

Answer 1

It worked fine on my Windows Server 2003 machine. I am using gem version 1.3.0.

Answer 2

Have you been able to install stuff previously?

The gem index is pretty big, about 26MB it seems - what sort of connection do you have? If you have dialup (or 512kbit "broadband" etc), it will take quite a while to update.

You could just grab the rails gem file and install it with gem install rails.gem - http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=307

Alternatively you could use one of the prepackage-rails installers, for example InstantRails

Answer 3

I had this same problem with gem version < 1.2. Upgrading to 1.2 fixed it.