Installing Ruby

With package managers or third-party tools, you have plenty of options to install and manage Ruby.

You may already have Ruby installed on your computer. You can check inside a terminal emulator by typing:

ruby -v

This should output some information on the installed Ruby version.

Choose Your Installation Method

There are several ways to install Ruby:

  • On a UNIX-like operating system, using your system’s package manager is easiest. However, the packaged Ruby version may not be the newest one.
  • Installers can be used to install a specific or multiple Ruby versions. There is also an installer for Windows.
  • Managers help you to switch between multiple Ruby versions on your system.
  • Finally, you can also build Ruby from source.

On Windows 10, you can also use the Windows Subsystem for Linux to install one of the supported Linux distributions and use any of the installation methods available on that system.

Here are available installation methods:

Package Management Systems

If you cannot compile your own Ruby, and you do not want to use a third-party tool, you can use your system’s package manager to install Ruby.

Some members of the Ruby community feel that you should avoid package managers to install Ruby and that you should use dedicated tools instead.

It is possible that major package managers will install older Ruby versions instead of the latest release. To use the latest Ruby release, check that the package name matches its version number. Or use a dedicated installer.

apt (Debian or Ubuntu)

Debian GNU/Linux and Ubuntu use the apt package manager. You can use it like this:

$ sudo apt-get install ruby-full

yum (CentOS, Fedora, or RHEL)

CentOS, Fedora, and RHEL use the yum package manager. You can use it like this:

$ sudo yum install ruby

The installed version is typically the latest version of Ruby available at the release time of the specific distribution version.

snap (Ubuntu or other Linux distributions)

Snap is a package manager developed by Canonical. It is available out-of-the-box on Ubuntu, but snap also works on many other Linux distributions. You can use it like this:

$ sudo snap install ruby --classic

We have several channels per Ruby minor series. For instance, the following commands switch to Ruby 2.3:

$ sudo snap switch ruby --channel=2.3/stable
$ sudo snap refresh

portage (Gentoo)

Gentoo uses the portage package manager.

$ sudo emerge dev-lang/ruby

To install a specific version, set RUBY_TARGETS in your make.conf. See the Gentoo Ruby Project website for details.

pacman (Arch Linux)

Arch Linux uses a package manager named pacman. To get Ruby, just do this:

$ sudo pacman -S ruby

This should install the latest stable Ruby version.

Homebrew (macOS)

Ruby versions 2.0 and above are included by default in macOS releases since at least El Capitan (10.11).

Homebrew is a commonly used package manager on macOS. Installing Ruby using Homebrew is easy:

$ brew install ruby

This should install the latest Ruby version.

FreeBSD

FreeBSD offers both pre-packaged and source-based methods to install Ruby. Prebuilt packages can be installed via the pkg tool:

$ pkg install ruby

A source-based method can be used to install Ruby using the Ports Collection. This is useful if you want to customize the build configuration options.

More information about Ruby and its surrounding ecosystem on FreeBSD can be found on the FreeBSD Ruby Project website.

OpenBSD

OpenBSD as well as its distribution adJ has packages for the three major versions of Ruby. The following command allows you to see the available versions and to install one:

$ doas pkg_add ruby

You can install multiple major versions side by side, because their binaries have different names (e.g. ruby27, ruby26).

The HEAD branch of the OpenBSD ports collection might have the most recent version of Ruby for this platform some days after it is released, see directory lang/ruby in the most recent ports collection.

Ruby on OpenIndiana

To install Ruby on OpenIndiana, please use the Image Packaging System (IPS) client. This will install the Ruby binaries and RubyGems directly from the OpenIndiana repositories. It’s easy:

$ pkg install runtime/ruby

However, the third-party tools might be a good way to obtain the latest version of Ruby.

Windows Package Manager

On Windows, you can use the Windows Package Manager CLI to install Ruby:

> winget install RubyInstallerTeam.Ruby.{MAJOR}.{MINOR}
# Example
> winget install RubyInstallerTeam.Ruby.3.2
# To see all versions available
> winget search RubyInstallerTeam.Ruby
# Note: if you are installing ruby for projects, you may want to install RubyWithDevKit
> winget install RubyInstallerTeam.RubyWithDevKit.3.2

Chocolatey package manager for Windows

Also on Windows, you can use the Chocolatey Package Manager to install Ruby:

> choco install ruby

It will reuse existing msys2, or install own for complete Ruby development environment

Other Distributions

On other systems, you can search the package repository of your Linux distribution’s manager for Ruby. Alternatively, you can use a third-party installer.

Installers

If the version of Ruby provided by your system or package manager is out of date, a newer one can be installed using a third-party installer.

Some installers allow you to install multiple versions on the same system; associated managers can help to switch between the different Rubies.

If you are planning to use RVM as a version manager you don’t need a separate installer, it comes with its own.

ruby-build

ruby-build is a plugin for rbenv that allows you to compile and install different versions of Ruby. ruby-build can also be used as a standalone program without rbenv. It is available for macOS, Linux, and other UNIX-like operating systems.

ruby-install

ruby-install allows you to compile and install different versions of Ruby into arbitrary directories. chruby is a complimentary tool used to switch between Ruby versions. It is available for macOS, Linux, and other UNIX-like operating systems.

RubyInstaller

On Windows, RubyInstaller gives you everything you need to set up a full Ruby development environment.

Just download it, run it, and you are done!

Ruby Stack

If you are installing Ruby in order to use Ruby on Rails, you can use the following installer:

  • Bitnami Ruby Stack provides a complete development environment for Rails. It supports macOS, Linux, Windows, virtual machines, and cloud images.

Managers

Many Rubyists use Ruby managers to manage multiple Rubies. They allow easy or even automatic switching between Ruby versions depending on the project and other advantages but are not officially supported. You can however find support within their respective communities.

asdf-vm

asdf-vm is an extendable version manager that can manage multiple language runtime versions on a per-project basis. You will need the asdf-ruby plugin (which in turn uses ruby-build) to install Ruby.

chruby

chruby allows you to switch between multiple Rubies. It can manage Rubies installed by ruby-install or even built from source.

rbenv

rbenv allows you to manage multiple installations of Ruby. While it can’t install Ruby by default, its ruby-build plugin can. Both tools are available for macOS, Linux, or other UNIX-like operating systems.

rbenv for Windows

rbenv for Windows allows you to install and manage multiple installations of Ruby on Windows. It’s written in PowerShell thus providing a native way to use Ruby for Windows users. Besides, the command line interface is compatible with rbenv on UNIX-like systems.

RVM (“Ruby Version Manager”)

RVM allows you to install and manage multiple installations of Ruby on your system. It can also manage different gemsets. It is available for macOS, Linux, or other UNIX-like operating systems.

RVM 4 Windows

RVM 4 Windows allows you to install and manage multiple installations of Ruby on Windows. It is a clone of the original RVM and supports the classic command line as well as Powershell by providing the same command line interface as the original RVM.

uru

Uru is a lightweight, multi-platform command line tool that helps you to use multiple Rubies on macOS, Linux, or Windows systems.

Building from Source

Of course, you can install Ruby from source. Download and unpack a tarball, then just do this:

$ ./configure
$ make
$ sudo make install

By default, this will install Ruby into /usr/local. To change, pass the --prefix=DIR option to the ./configure script.

You can find more information about building from source in the Building Ruby instructions.

Using the third-party tools or package managers might be a better idea, though, because the installed Ruby won’t be managed by any tools.