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Installing Ruby
For current information on downloading and installing Ruby see the Installation or Downloads page.
What operating systems support Ruby?
This section or parts of it might be out-dated or in need of confirmation.
Ruby is developed under Linux, and is written in fairly straightforward C. It runs under Linux and other UNIX-like operating systems, macOS, Windows, DOS, BeOS, Amiga, Acorn Risc OS, and OS/2.
Where can I get Ruby sources?
The latest version of Ruby can be downloaded from: www.ruby-lang.org/en/downloads/. Mirror sites are also listed on this page.
Also on this page is a link to a nightly snapshot of the development tree.
Can I get to the development source tree?
This section or parts of it might be out-dated or in need of confirmation.
If you have a CVS client, you can check out the current source tree using:
$ cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.netlab.co.jp:/home/cvs login
(Logging in to anonymous@cvs.netlab.co.jp)
CVS password: guest
$ cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.netlab.co.jp:/home/cvs co ruby
If you do not have CVS you can get a nightly snapshot of the development source from https://cache.ruby-lang.org/pub/ruby/snapshot.tar.gz.
How do I compile Ruby?
Under Unix, Ruby uses the autoconf system to configure the build
environment. You don’t need the autoconf command on your box to build Ruby
from a distribution; just use the commands:
$ ./configure [configure options]
$ make
$ make test
$ make install
You may need superuser privileges to install Ruby if you don’t override the
default installation location (/usr/local). You can get a full list of
configure options using:
$ ./configure --help
If you are working from the source repository, you may need to run
autoconf before running configure.
How do I tell Ruby where my libraries are?
This section or parts of it might be out-dated or in need of confirmation.
On some systems, the build process may fail to find libraries used by
extension modules (for example the dbm libraries).
You can tell Ruby where to find libraries using options to configure.
From [ruby-talk:5041]:
$ ./configure --with-xxx-yyy=DIR
where xxx is either
opt extra software path in general
dbm path for dbm library
gdbm path for gdbm library
x11 ...for X11..
tk ...for Tk...
tcl ...for Tcl...
and yyy is either
dir specifies -I DIR/include -L DIR/lib
include specifies -I DIR
lib specifies -L DIR
On HP-UX, there may be problems building with gcc. Try using the native
compiler instead. WATANABE Tetsuya recommends:
$ CC="cc -Ae" CFLAGS=-O ./configure --prefix=/opt/gnu
There may also be problems with HP’s native sed.
He recommends installing the GNU equivalent.
Are precompiled binaries available?
A single download that contains everything you need to run Ruby under various Windows operating systems is available from RubyInstaller.
Reuben Thomas writes:
You could mention that there’s a port to Acorn RISC OS, currently of v1.4.3. I made the port, and have no plans to maintain it, but I did send the patches to matz, so newer versions may well compile too.
What’s all this “cygwin”, “mingw”, and “djgpp” stuff?
This section or parts of it might be out-dated or in need of confirmation.
Ruby is written to take advantage of the rich feature set of a Unix environment. Unfortunately, Windows is missing some of the functions, and implements others differently. As a result, some kind of mapping layer is needed to run Ruby (and other Unix-based programs) under Windows.
You may come across different versions of the Ruby executable that use different wrapper mapping layers.
The rbdj version is a stand-alone version of the Windows binary of Ruby. It uses the DJ Delorie tools (http://www.delorie.com).
The rbcw version is a Windows binary of Ruby that requires the cygwin library, available at http://www.cygwin.com or from the Ruby download pages. Cygwin is both an emulation layer and a set of utilities initially produced by Cygnus Solutions (now part of Redhat). The cygwin version of Ruby probably has the fullest set of features under Windows, so most programmers will want to use it.
To use the rbcw version, you will need to install the cygwin .dll separately.
Once you have installed cygwin on your computer, copy cygwin1.dll (which
is found in the bin subdirectory of the cygwin distribution) to your
Windows\System32 folder (or somewhere else on your path).
Thanks to Anders Schneiderman for the basis of this description.
Why doesn’t Tk graphics work under Windows?
This section or parts of it might be out-dated or in need of confirmation.
Is Tk installed correctly on your Windows box? Go to http://dev.scriptics.com/software/tcltk/ to find a precompiled binary Tcl/Tk distribution for your box.
Are the environment variables TCL_LIBRARY and TK_LIBRARY pointing to the
directories containing tcl and tk?
Is the tk library in your path?