RubyGems Clone Plugin

A RubyGems plugin that allows you to clone gem repositories using ghq based on gem metadata.

Installation

gem install gem-clone

Or build and install locally:

gem build gem-clone.gemspec
gem install gem-clone-0.1.0.gem

Prerequisites

This plugin works best with ghq but will automatically fall back to git clone if ghq is not available.

Recommended: Install ghq

# Install ghq (example for macOS)
brew install ghq

# Or install via Go
go install github.com/x-motemen/ghq@latest

Fallback: Git only

If ghq is not installed, the plugin will automatically use git clone instead. Make sure git is available in your PATH.

Usage

# Clone a gem repository
gem clone sinatra

# Clone with verbose output
gem clone rails --verbose

# Show repository URL without cloning
gem clone rails --show-url

The command will:

1. Fetch gem metadata from RubyGems.org API
2. Extract repository URL from:
   • source_code_uri metadata
   • homepage_uri (if it looks like a repository URL)
3. Clone the repository using:
   • ghq get (preferred method if available)
   • git clone (fallback if ghq is not available)
   • Skip cloning if --show-url is specified

Options

• -v, --verbose: Show verbose output during execution
• -u, --show-url: Display the repository URL without executing the clone operation

Examples

# With ghq available
$ gem clone sinatra
Executing: ghq get https://github.com/sinatra/sinatra
Successfully cloned repository: https://github.com/sinatra/sinatra

# With verbose output
$ gem clone rails --verbose
Fetching gem metadata for 'rails'...
Found repository URL: https://github.com/rails/rails
Executing: ghq get https://github.com/rails/rails
Successfully cloned repository: https://github.com/rails/rails

# Fallback to git clone when ghq is not available
$ gem clone rails --verbose
Fetching gem metadata for 'rails'...
Found repository URL: https://github.com/rails/rails
ghq not found, falling back to git clone
Executing: git clone https://github.com/rails/rails
Successfully cloned repository: https://github.com/rails/rails

# Show URL only
$ gem clone rails --show-url
https://github.com/rails/rails

Development

After checking out the repo, run tests and build the gem:

gem build gem-clone.gemspec
gem install gem-clone-0.1.0.gem

License

The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.