# ruby-build ruby-build is a command-line tool that simplifies installation of any Ruby version from source on Unix-like systems. It is available as a plugin for [rbenv][] as the `rbenv install` command, or as a standalone program as the `ruby-build` command. ## Installation ### Homebrew package manager ```sh brew install ruby-build ``` Upgrade with: ```sh brew update && brew upgrade ruby-build ``` ### Clone as rbenv plugin using git ```sh git clone https://github.com/rbenv/ruby-build.git "$(rbenv root)"/plugins/ruby-build ``` Upgrade with: ```sh git -C "$(rbenv root)"/plugins/ruby-build pull ``` ### Install manually as a standalone program First, download a tarball from https://github.com/rbenv/ruby-build/releases/latest. Then: ```sh tar -xzf ruby-build-*.tar.gz PREFIX=/usr/local ./ruby-build-*/install.sh ``` ## Usage ### Basic Usage ```sh # 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 ``` > **Warning** > ruby-build mostly does not verify that system dependencies are present before downloading and attempting to compile Ruby from source. Please ensure that [all requisite libraries][build-env] such as build tools and development headers are already present on your system. Basically, what ruby-build does when installing a Ruby version is this: - Downloads an official tarball of Ruby source code; - Extracts the archive into a temporary directory on your system; - Executes `./configure --prefix=/path/to/destination` in the source code; - Runs `make install` to compile Ruby; - Verifies that the installed Ruby is functional. Depending on the context, ruby-build does a little bit more than the above: for example, it will try to link Ruby to the appropriate OpenSSL version, even if that means downloading and compiling OpenSSL itself; it will discover and link to Homebrew-installed instances of some libraries like libyaml and readline, etc. ### Advanced Usage #### Custom Build Definitions To install a version of Ruby that is not recognized by ruby-build, you can specify the path to a custom build definition file in place of a Ruby version number. Check out [default build definitions][definitions] as examples on how to write definition files. #### Custom Build Configuration 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_MIRROR_PACKAGE_URL` | Custom complete mirror URL (e.g. http://mirror.example.com/package-1.0.0.tar.gz). | | `RUBY_BUILD_SKIP_MIRROR` | Bypass the download mirror and fetch all package files from their original URLs. | | `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). | #### Applying Patches Both `rbenv install` and `ruby-build` commands support the `-p/--patch` flag to apply a patch to the Ruby source code before building. Patches are read from standard input: ```sh # 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 ``` #### Checksum Verification All Ruby definition files bundled with ruby-build include checksums for packages, meaning that all externally downloaded packages are automatically checked for integrity after fetching. See the next section for more information on how to author checksums. #### Package Mirrors To speed up downloads, ruby-build fetches package files from a mirror hosted on Amazon CloudFront. To benefit from this, the packages must specify their checksum: ```sh # example: install_package "ruby-2.6.5" "https://ruby-lang.org/ruby-2.6.5.tgz#" ``` ruby-build will first try to fetch this package from `$RUBY_BUILD_MIRROR_URL/` (note: this is the complete URL), where `` is the checksum for the file. It will fall back to downloading the package from the original location if: - the package was not found on the mirror; - the mirror is down; - the download is corrupt, i.e. the file's checksum doesn't match; - no tool is available to calculate the checksum; or - `RUBY_BUILD_SKIP_MIRROR` is enabled. You may specify a custom mirror by setting `RUBY_BUILD_MIRROR_URL`. If a mirror site doesn't conform to the above URL format, you can specify the complete URL by setting `RUBY_BUILD_MIRROR_PACKAGE_URL`. It behaves the same as `RUBY_BUILD_MIRROR_URL` except being a complete URL. The default ruby-build download mirror is sponsored by [Basecamp](https://basecamp.com/). #### Keeping the build directory after installation 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`. ## Getting Help Please see the [ruby-build wiki][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. [rbenv]: https://github.com/rbenv/rbenv#readme [definitions]: https://github.com/rbenv/ruby-build/tree/master/share/ruby-build [wiki]: https://github.com/rbenv/ruby-build/wiki [build-env]: https://github.com/rbenv/ruby-build/wiki#suggested-build-environment [issue tracker]: https://github.com/rbenv/ruby-build/issues