How to setup Ruby and RubyGems on CentOS?

Question

I have a CentOS 5.5 (64-bit server)

I'd like to install Ruby 1.8.7 (current patch level) and RubyGems

What's the best way to go about this?

disclaimer: I'm a CentOS noob

Answer 1

You can install it with default yum install -y ruby ruby-devel rubygems

Other way is to compile it by yourself

Ruby

wget http://ftp.ruby-lang.org/pub/ruby/1.8/ruby-1.8.7-p302.tar.gz
tar -zxvf ruby-1.8.7-p302.tar.gz
cd ruby-1.8.7-p302
./configure --with-openssl-dir=/usr/lib/openssl
make
make install

Rubygems

wget http://production.cf.rubygems.org/rubygems/rubygems-1.3.7.tgz
tar -zxvf rubygems-1.3.7.tgz
cd rubygems-1.3.7
ruby setup.rb config
ruby setup.rb setup
ruby setup.rb install

Check if installed

ruby -v
gem -v

Answer 2

In what capacity are you trying to use Ruby? If you don't need it systemwide, Have you considered using RVM locally so you can install ruby into your local directory? Additionally you can install rvm systemwide. It takes some doing, but it's a better solution that tossing files across your server.

Installing RVM

I'd test it out first in your local directory until you get comfortable with it.