How to Install Ruby on CentOS/RHEL 7/6

How to Install Ruby on CentOS/RHEL 7/6 . Ruby is a dynamic, object-oriented programming language focused on simplicity and productivity. RVM (Ruby Version Manager) is a tool for installing and managing multiple Ruby versions on single operating systems. This tutorial will help you to install RVM on your system. After that install the latest Ruby on CentOS and RedHat systems using RVM.

Step 1 – Installing Requirements

First of all, you need to install all required packages for ruby installation on our system using the following command.

yum install gcc-c++ patch readline readline-devel zlib zlib-devel \
   libyaml-devel libffi-devel openssl-devel make \
   bzip2 autoconf automake libtool bison iconv-devel sqlite-devel

Step 2 – Install RVM

Now, install the latest stable version of RVM on your system using the following command. This command will automatically download all required files and install on your system.

curl -sSL https://rvm.io/mpapis.asc | gpg2 --import -
curl -sSL https://rvm.io/pkuczynski.asc | gpg2 --import -

curl -L get.rvm.io | bash -s stable

Also, run below command to load the RVM environment.

source /etc/profile.d/rvm.sh
rvm reload

Step 3 – Verify Dependencies

Now use the following command to verify all dependencies are properly installed. This will install any missing dependencies on your system.

rvm requirements run

Checking requirements for centos.
Requirements installation successful.

Step 4 – Install Ruby on CentOS

Now, your system is ready for the Ruby installation. You can find the available Ruby version for installation using below command.

rvm list known

Then install the required Ruby version on your system. Here, I am installing Ruby 2.6 on my CentOS system. You can simply replace the version to below command of your choice and install.

rvm install 2.6

Step 5 – Setup Default Ruby Version

First of all, check the currently installed ruby versions on your system. So that we can find which version is using currently by the system and which is set to default.

rvm list 

   ruby-2.4.4 [ x86_64 ]
 * ruby-2.5.1 [ x86_64 ]
=> ruby-2.6.0 [ x86_64 ]

# => - current
# =* - current && default
#  * - default

After that use rvm command to set up the default ruby version to be used by applications.

rvm use 2.6 --default

Using /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.6.0

Step 6 – Verify Active Ruby Version

Using following command you can check the current ruby version is used.

ruby --version

ruby 2.6.0p0 (2018-12-25 revision 66547) [x86_64-linux]

Congratulation’s, Finally you have successfully installed Ruby on your system. Read our next articles to deploy Ruby with Apache or Ruby with Nginx web server with simple steps.

References: 
1. http://rvm.io/rubies/installing