A Bundler plugin that allows you to ignore version constraints on Ruby, RubyGems, or gem dependencies during resolution.

Install the plugin:

bundler plugin install bundler-ignore-dependency

Then add this line at the top of your Gemfile to load the plugin:

require File.join(Bundler::Plugin.index.load_paths("bundler-ignore-dependency")[0], "bundler/ignore_dependency") rescue nil

This is necessary because the plugin extends the Gemfile DSL, which must happen before Bundler parses the rest of your Gemfile.

The plugin adds an ignore_dependency! method to your Gemfile DSL.

ignore_dependency! :ruby                      # Ignore Ruby version completely
ignore_dependency! :ruby, type: :upper        # Ignore only upper bounds on Ruby version
ignore_dependency! :rubygems                  # Ignore RubyGems version completely
ignore_dependency! :rubygems, type: :upper    # Ignore only upper bounds on RubyGems version
ignore_dependency! "gem_name"                 # Ignore gem dependency completely
ignore_dependency! "gem_name", type: :upper   # Ignore only upper bounds on gem dependency

• type: :complete (default) - Completely ignore the dependency constraint
• type: :upper - Only ignore upper bound constraints (<, <=), keeping lower bounds (>=, >, =)

You are upgrading to Ruby 4.0 but a gem specifies required_ruby_version = ">= 3.2", "< 4.0":

# Gemfile
source "https://rubygems.org"

plugin "bundler-ignore-dependency"
ignore_dependency! :ruby, type: :upper

gem "legacy_gem"  # Works even if it claims to only support Ruby < 4.0

This keeps the lower bound (>= 3.2) but ignores the upper bound (< 3.0). The gem could still have compatibility problems with Ruby 4.0 when installed this way, but you can at least run your test suite to see if it works or not.

For testing purposes, you might want to completely ignore Ruby version constraints:

# Gemfile
source "https://rubygems.org"

plugin "bundler-ignore-dependency"
ignore_dependency! :ruby

gem "future_gem"  # Works even if it requires Ruby >= 99.0

# Gemfile
source "https://rubygems.org"

plugin "bundler-ignore-dependency"
ignore_dependency! :rubygems, type: :upper

gem "some_gem"

If a gem has an overly restrictive dependency on another gem:

# Gemfile
source "https://rubygems.org"

plugin "bundler-ignore-dependency"
ignore_dependency! "nokogiri", type: :upper

gem "some_gem"  # Even if it requires nokogiri < 1.14, newer versions will be allowed

If you have a fork of a gem published under a different name, you can ignore the original dependency and use your fork instead:

# Gemfile
source "https://rubygems.org"

plugin "bundler-ignore-dependency"
ignore_dependency! "redis"

gem "redis-mycompany"  # Your fork, published under a different name
gem "sidekiq"          # Depends on "redis", but we're using our fork instead

This removes redis from dependency resolution entirely, allowing redis-mycompany to satisfy the runtime requirements (assuming it provides the same require path and API).

You can combine multiple ignore rules:

# Gemfile
source "https://rubygems.org"

plugin "bundler-ignore-dependency"
ignore_dependency! :ruby, type: :upper
ignore_dependency! :rubygems, type: :upper
ignore_dependency! "nokogiri"

gem "rails"
gem "legacy_gem"

This plugin is useful when:

• You're running a newer Ruby version than a gem officially supports, but the gem works fine
• You need to test compatibility with newer Ruby/RubyGems versions before gems update their constraints
• A gem has overly conservative version constraints that prevent resolution
• You're doing development/testing and need to bypass version checks temporarily

• Use this plugin carefully - version constraints exist for a reason
• Ignoring constraints may lead to runtime errors if there are actual incompatibilities
• Consider reporting overly restrictive constraints to gem maintainers
• This is primarily intended for development, testing, and working around temporary issues

Thanks to John Hawthorn for the original idea to ignore dependencies completely, not just upper bounds.

MIT