For Ruby 3.1.2 I did this:
sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/ruby/build /usr/local/ruby/3.1.2
sudo chown $USER:$USER /usr/local/ruby
cd /usr/local/ruby/build/
wget https://cache.ruby-lang.org/pub/ruby/3.1/ruby-3.1.2.tar.gz
tar xzvf ruby-3.1.2.tar.gz
cd ruby-3.1.2
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/ruby/3.1.2
make && make check && make install
/usr/local/ruby/3.1.2/bin/gem install rails
Common Flexible Binary
To make the different versions of Ruby easy to use and change,
the Ruby binaries have to be in the PATH. Typically
/usr/local/bin/ is in the path,
so that is where I want to put my Ruby binaries.
Because I want to use my custom Ruby binaries by default,
I will check my path and make sure
/usr/local/bin/
comes before
/usr/bin/
(or wherever the packaged Ruby binaries are located)
[1].
I will then create a default Ruby symbolic link at
/usr/local/ruby/current
and point it at the Ruby version I want to use by default.
su -
cd /usr/local/ruby
ln -s 3.0.4 current
ln -s 3.0.4 current3
ln -s 2.7.6 current2
ln -s 3.1.2 test
I also want the other versions to be available without typing the full path, so I will do this:
cd /usr/local/bin/
for f in /usr/local/ruby/2.7.6/bin/* ; do echo $f ; b=`basename $f` ; ln -s $f ${b}276 ; done
but, then again, typing the full path is not too hard (and that is a lot of links).
You be the judge if that is a useful thing for command comparisons or not.
I will then make the default binary links:
cd /usr/local/bin/
for f in /usr/local/ruby/current/bin/* ; do echo $f ; b=`basename $f` ; if [ ! -f $b ]; then ln -s $f $b ; fi ; done
The
if avoids name collisions with version specific binaries.
Keep in mind than you may want to limit what you put into /usr/local/bin/,
or at least make it easy to clean up (like with a 'rm *276' or something).
Keeping Ruby Up To Date
If you don't care, and just want the latest of everything, just do this:
/usr/local/ruby/2.6.10/bin/gem update
/usr/local/ruby/2.7.6/bin/gem update
/usr/local/ruby/3.0.4/bin/gem update
/usr/local/ruby/3.1.2/bin/gem update
Each process could take a considerable amount of time. Again, I often use
screen to make it easier on me.
Managing Ownership Of Ruby
I like having my Ruby installations owned by someone other than
root. Running a ton of code as
root can be avoided here, and so it should
[2].
On my own personal servers, I don't mind that person being me (but I see that it could be a risk), but that arrangement may not work for groups larger than one.
For those situations, I think making a
rubyadm user and group might serve:
sudo groupadd rubyadm
sudo useradd -m -g rubyadm -c "Ruby Install Administrator" rubyadm
Then apply the permissions to the installations:
cd /usr/local/
sudo chown -R rubyadm:rubyadm ruby
When you need to update or change an installation in some way, you will then want to become the 'rubyadm' user with
su or
sudo.
Notes:
[1]
Different shells want the PATH set in different places. You'll probably
be modifying a file within the /etc/ directory to change the default
path for the entire system.
[2]
The more limited the user, the less risk. I want my updates to work within
the filesystem tree it owns and not outside it.
© 2022
Troy Johnson
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2
or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover
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