New version of Ruby Gems has been released. The new version is said to fix problems with ‘gem install’ hogging up your system’s memory.

Upgrade using the command:

sudo gem update --system

Release 1.2.0 adds new features and fixes some bugs.

New features:

* RubyGems no longer performs bulk updates and instead only fetches the gemspec
files it needs. Alternate sources will need to upgrade to RubyGems 1.2 to
allow RubyGems to take advantage of the new metadata updater. If a pre 1.2
remote source is in the sources list, RubyGems will revert to the bulk update
code for compatibility.
* RubyGems now has runtime and development dependency types. Use
#add_development_dependency and #add_runtime_dependency. All typeless
dependencies are considered to be runtime dependencies.
* RubyGems will now require rubygems/defaults/operating_system.rb and
rubygems/defaults/#{RBX_ENGINE}.rb if they exist. This allows packagers and
ruby implementers to add custom behavior to RubyGems via these files. (If
the RubyGems API is insufficient, please suggest improvements via the
RubyGems list.)
* /etc/gemrc (and windows equivalent) for global settings
* setup.rb now handles –vendor and –destdir for packagers
* `gem stale` command that lists gems by last access time

Bugs Fixed:

* File modes from gems are now honored, patch #19737
* Marshal Gem::Specification objects from the future can now be loaded.
* A trailing / is now added to remote sources when missing, bug #20134
* Gems with legacy platforms will now be correctly uninstalled, patch #19877
* `gem install –no-wrappers` followed by `gem install –wrappers` no longer
overwrites executables
* `gem pristine` now forces reinstallation of gems, bug #20387
* RubyGems gracefully handles ^C while loading .gemspec files from disk, bug
#20523
* Paths are expanded in more places, bug #19317, bug #19896
* Gem::DependencyInstaller resets installed gems every install, bug #19444
* Gem.default_path is now honored if GEM_PATH is not set, patch #19502