Remove Gems By Prefix

If you are working with Merb or DM you know that approximately a gazillion gems are involved.  When, for whatever reason, I want to remove them it is a pain to do by hand.

Here is a simple script to help:

#!/bin/bash

prefix=$1

gem list --local | grep $prefix  | awk '{ print $1 }' | xargs sudo gem uninstall

I saved mine as remove_gem_by_prefix, gave it executable permissions and placed it in my path.

Now I can issue the commands:

$ remove_gem_by_prefix merb

or 

$ remove_gem_by_prefix dm

And they all get blasted.  You do need to be careful to make sure the prefix you provide is unique to the gems you wish to remove.