We released the official snap package of the Ruby language.

<https://snapcraft.io/ruby>

Snap is a package system developed by Canonical. It allows you to distribute
a software with its dependencies for many different Linux systems.
This solves the problem that a user cannot install the latest Ruby release
from the default repository of their system like in `rpm` or `apt`.

On Ubuntu 16.04 or later, you can install the Ruby snap with the
following command:

```
sudo snap install ruby --classic
```

(If you use other Linux distributions, please refer to
<https://docs.snapcraft.io/installing-snapd/6735>.)

Our snap uses the "channel" feature to release multiple Ruby series
concurrently. For example, without specifying a channel, currently
Ruby 2.5.3 will be installed. But if you want to use Ruby 2.4,
specify the 2.4 channel as follows:

```
sudo snap install ruby --classic --channel=2.4/stable
```

You can also use multiple channels. The following commands switch to Ruby 2.3:

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

Our snap sets the `GEM_HOME` and `GEM_PATH` environment variables
to `$HOME/.gem`.
So if you want to execute commands installed by gems, such as `rails` and
`rspec`, without using `bundle exec`, you have to add the following line
to your shell rc files (like `.bashrc`):

```
eval `ruby.env`
```

Since `$HOME/.gem` is shared by multiple versions, if you switch versions
and use them, you will need to recompile C extensions using the
`gem pristine --extensions` command.

The initial version of the official Ruby snap has been released during
the Snapcraft summit held at the Canonical office in London on Nov 6-8th, 2018.
Any feedback is welcome at <https://github.com/ruby/snap.ruby>.

Enjoy!