ruby-build is a command-line utility that makes it easy to install virtually any version of Ruby, from source.
It is available as a plugin for rbenv that
provides the rbenv install
command, or as a standalone program.
# Using Homebrew on macOS
$ brew install ruby-build
# As an rbenv plugin
$ mkdir -p "$(rbenv root)"/plugins
$ git clone https://github.com/rbenv/ruby-build.git "$(rbenv root)"/plugins/ruby-build
# As a standalone program
$ git clone https://github.com/rbenv/ruby-build.git
$ PREFIX=/usr/local ./ruby-build/install.sh
# Via Homebrew
$ brew update && brew upgrade ruby-build
# As an rbenv plugin
$ cd "$(rbenv root)"/plugins/ruby-build && git pull
# As an rbenv plugin
$ rbenv install --list # lists all available versions of Ruby
$ rbenv install 2.2.0 # installs Ruby 2.2.0 to ~/.rbenv/versions
# As a standalone program
$ ruby-build --definitions # lists all available versions of Ruby
$ ruby-build 2.2.0 ~/local/ruby-2.2.0 # installs Ruby 2.2.0 to ~/local/ruby-2.2.0
ruby-build does not check for system dependencies before downloading and attempting to compile the Ruby source. Please ensure that all requisite libraries are available on your system.
If you wish to develop and install a version of Ruby that is not yet supported by ruby-build, you may specify the path to a custom “build definition file” in place of a Ruby version number.
Use the default build definitions as a template for your custom definitions.
The build process may be configured through the following environment variables:
Variable | Function |
---|---|
TMPDIR |
Where temporary files are stored. |
RUBY_BUILD_BUILD_PATH |
Where sources are downloaded and built. (Default: a timestamped subdirectory of TMPDIR ) |
RUBY_BUILD_CACHE_PATH |
Where to cache downloaded package files. (Default: ~/.rbenv/cache if invoked as rbenv plugin) |
RUBY_BUILD_HTTP_CLIENT |
One of aria2c , curl , or wget to use for downloading. (Default: first one found in PATH) |
RUBY_BUILD_ARIA2_OPTS |
Additional options to pass to aria2c for downloading. |
RUBY_BUILD_CURL_OPTS |
Additional options to pass to curl for downloading. |
RUBY_BUILD_WGET_OPTS |
Additional options to pass to wget for downloading. |
RUBY_BUILD_MIRROR_URL |
Custom mirror URL root. |
RUBY_BUILD_SKIP_MIRROR |
Always download from official sources, not mirrors. (Default: unset) |
RUBY_BUILD_ROOT |
Custom build definition directory. (Default: share/ruby-build ) |
RUBY_BUILD_DEFINITIONS |
Additional paths to search for build definitions. (Colon-separated list) |
CC |
Path to the C compiler. |
RUBY_CFLAGS |
Additional CFLAGS options (e.g., to override -O3 ). |
CONFIGURE_OPTS |
Additional ./configure options. |
MAKE |
Custom make command (e.g., gmake ). |
MAKE_OPTS / MAKEOPTS |
Additional make options. |
MAKE_INSTALL_OPTS |
Additional make install options. |
RUBY_CONFIGURE_OPTS |
Additional ./configure options (applies only to Ruby source). |
RUBY_MAKE_OPTS |
Additional make options (applies only to Ruby source). |
RUBY_MAKE_INSTALL_OPTS |
Additional make install options (applies only to Ruby source). |
Both rbenv install
and ruby-build
support the --patch
(-p
) flag to apply
a patch to the Ruby (/JRuby/Rubinius/TruffleRuby) source code before building.
Patches are read from STDIN
:
# applying a single patch
$ rbenv install --patch 1.9.3-p429 < /path/to/ruby.patch
# applying a patch from HTTP
$ rbenv install --patch 1.9.3-p429 < <(curl -sSL http://git.io/ruby.patch)
# applying multiple patches
$ cat fix1.patch fix2.patch | rbenv install --patch 1.9.3-p429
If you have the shasum
, openssl
, or sha256sum
tool installed, ruby-build will
automatically verify the SHA2 checksum of each downloaded package before
installing it.
Checksums are optional and specified as anchors on the package URL in each definition. (All bundled definitions include checksums.)
By default, ruby-build downloads package files from a mirror hosted on Amazon CloudFront. If a package is not available on the mirror, if the mirror is down, or if the download is corrupt, ruby-build will fall back to the official URL specified in the definition file.
You can point ruby-build to another mirror by specifying the
RUBY_BUILD_MIRROR_URL
environment variable--useful if you'd like to run your
own local mirror, for example. Package mirror URLs are constructed by joining
this variable with the SHA2 checksum of the package file.
If you don't have an SHA2 program installed, ruby-build will skip the download
mirror and use official URLs instead. You can force ruby-build to bypass the
mirror by setting the RUBY_BUILD_SKIP_MIRROR
environment variable.
The official ruby-build download mirror is sponsored by Basecamp.
Both ruby-build
and rbenv install
accept the -k
or --keep
flag, which
tells ruby-build to keep the downloaded source after installation. This can be
useful if you need to use gdb
and memprof
with Ruby.
Source code will be kept in a parallel directory tree ~/.rbenv/sources
when
using --keep
with the rbenv install
command. You should specify the
location of the source code with the RUBY_BUILD_BUILD_PATH
environment
variable when using --keep
with ruby-build
.
Please see the ruby-build wiki for solutions to common problems.
If you can't find an answer on the wiki, open an issue on the issue tracker. Be sure to include the full build log for build failures.