How to re-install Ruby, Rails, Homebrew etc from scratch

Question

I completely messed up my local environment following a few tutorials on how to get Rails, Python and POW/Apache to play nice. Now I cant call commands like rails new without getting bundle errors, failed installations of gems galore. I want to start from scratch, but dont know how to remove all the junk from my machine and start from a clean slate. Any help is greatly appreciated as my machine seems screwed at this point.

Answer 1

Hate to say it, but a complete system refresh is likely the fastest way to get things working again. Assuming you're on Mountain Lion, here's a great article on how to make an installation drive out of it.

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-57479690-263/how-to-create-an-os-x-10.8-mountain-lion-install-drive/

I'm pretty sure there's a way to burn a dvd too, I'd google it. Lastly, since you do own a license, there are plenty of sources out there where you could snag a DVD image without feeling too bad about yourself.

Answer 2

IF you installed everything with homebrew and rvm, you can just uninstall the two and start over... If you've done anything else, you would do well to refresh your system. Google the uninstall instructions.

If you need to rebuild your system, what I usually do is create a new partition, install clean to that, get rid of the old partition, then resize the new partition. A little wonky, but I don't have to much about with creating bootable DVDs and such. Plus you get the niceness of a completely clean install.