# Best way to install Ruby 1.9 **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [April 16, 2009, 7:53pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-way-to-install-ruby-1-9/165724 "2009-04-16T19:53:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![juan\_zanos](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/4da419/32.png) [@juan\_zanos](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/juan_zanos)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2009, 7:53pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-way-to-install-ruby-1-9/165724/1 "2009-04-16T19:53:09Z")
I’d like to start using Ruby 1.9 more often. Often I could use the extra performance. However, I’m still concerned about bugs and incompatibilities. Is there a practical way to use 1.9 in such a way that these potential problems are minimized? I mostly use Linux and OSX, and on rare occasions Windows. ---
**Author:** ![juan\_zanos](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/4da419/32.png) [@juan\_zanos](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/juan_zanos)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2009, 8:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-way-to-install-ruby-1-9/165724/2 "2009-04-16T20:30:48Z")
On Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 7:52 PM, Juan Z. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > I’d like to start using Ruby 1.9 more often. Often I could use the extra > performance. However, I’m still concerned about bugs and incompatibilities. > Is there a practical way to use 1.9 in such a way that these potential > problems are minimized? I mostly use Linux and OSX, and on rare occasions > Windows. Sure, install JRuby(1) and run it with --1.9 switch ;). Well if this is not an option you can do something painful like I did, I installed 1.9.1, 1.8.7 and 1.8.6 into $HOME/opt and have scripts that relink those directories to $HOME/ruby and put $HOME/ruby/bin into my PATH. However I have issues with gems and my _only_ stable Ruby release is JRuby. I have aliases to all Ruby tools of JRuby like e.g. jgems, jspec, jri, jirb… not to get completely confused, which I am anyway… (1) Using JRuby will probably give you the extra speed for 1.8.6 too 🙂 HTH Robert > – Si tu veux construire un bateau … Ne rassemble pas des hommes pour aller chercher du bois, préparer des outils, répartir les tâches, alléger le travail… mais enseigne aux gens la nostalgie de l’infini de la mer. If you want to build a ship, don’t herd people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea. ---
**Author:** ![juan\_zanos](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/4da419/32.png) [@juan\_zanos](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/juan_zanos)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2009, 8:33pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-way-to-install-ruby-1-9/165724/3 "2009-04-16T20:33:10Z")
On Apr 16, 2009, at 12:52 PM, Juan Z. wrote: > I’d like to start using Ruby 1.9 more often. Often I could use the > extra performance. However, I’m still concerned about bugs and > incompatibilities. Is there a practical way to use 1.9 in such a > way that these potential problems are minimized? I mostly use Linux > and OSX, and on rare occasions Windows. One easy way is just to install 1.9 separate from your 1.8 install. You can do that by feeding the configure script a --program-suffix=19 option which would add a 19 to the end of all the executables it installs. Thus you would use ruby19, irb19, etc. Hope that helps. James Edward G. II ---
**Author:** ![juan\_zanos](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/4da419/32.png) [@juan\_zanos](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/juan_zanos)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2009, 8:38pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-way-to-install-ruby-1-9/165724/4 "2009-04-16T20:38:26Z")
On Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 8:32 PM, James G. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: ows. > One easy way is just to install 1.9 separate from your 1.8 install. You can > do that by feeding the configure script a --program-suffix=19 option which > would add a 19 to the end of all the executables it installs. Thus you > would use ruby19, irb19, etc. > OMG why did I not ask you, or err, reading ./configure --help a little > bit more carefully, before installing!!! > This avoids probably the kind of compatibility problems I ran into. > Juan, by all means, follow James’ approach if you cannot go with > JRuby. > R. ---
**Author:** ![juan\_zanos](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/4da419/32.png) [@juan\_zanos](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/juan_zanos)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2009, 10:26pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-way-to-install-ruby-1-9/165724/5 "2009-04-16T22:26:34Z")
On 16 avr. 09, at 14:32, James G. wrote: > program-suffix=19 option which would add a 19 to the end of all the > executables it installs. Thus you would use ruby19, irb19, etc. > > Hope that helps. > > James Edward G. II I think that’s a great way to keep ruby 1.9 separate from 1.8. I’m still not sure how to manage various versions of 1.9 across various operating systems. ---
**Author:** ![juan\_zanos](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/4da419/32.png) [@juan\_zanos](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/juan_zanos)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2009, 10:45pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-way-to-install-ruby-1-9/165724/6 "2009-04-16T22:45:20Z")
On Apr 16, 2009, at 7:52 PM, Juan Z. wrote: > I’d like to start using Ruby 1.9 more often. Often I could use the > extra performance. However, I’m still concerned about bugs and > incompatibilities. Is there a practical way to use 1.9 in such a > way that these potential problems are minimized? I mostly use Linux > and OSX, and on rare occasions Windows. I have installed several Ruby versions in the following directories (using --prefix): /usr/local/pkgs/ruby-1.8.5-p231 /usr/local/pkgs/ruby-1.8.6-p368 /usr/local/pkgs/ruby-1.8.7-p72 /usr/local/pkgs/ruby-1.9.1-p0 I have /usr/local/pkgs/ruby-current which is a symlink to one of the above directories. I also have a script that changes the symlink so I can switch to any version of Ruby at any time. Lastly, I have /usr/ local/pkgs/ruby-current/bin in my $PATH. –program-suffix is IMHO not a great solution. I prefer keeping the different Ruby versions entirely separate (no shared gems for instance). In addition, some applications that use Ruby don’t work well with a Ruby installation that has a custom program suffix (NetBeans jumps to mind). Regards, Denis ---
**Author:** ![juan\_zanos](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/4da419/32.png) [@juan\_zanos](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/juan_zanos)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2009, 12:16am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-way-to-install-ruby-1-9/165724/7 "2009-04-17T00:16:44Z")
On 16 avr. 09, at 16:44, Denis D. wrote: > (using --prefix): > > – > Denis D. > removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid I hadn’t realized that different gems might not like --program- suffix. That’s good to know. If that’s so then the symlink method seems more robust. I’m still not sure how I’d maintain those different version efficiently across different machines. I don’t want to introduce too much maintenance or too much testing perplexity. It seems like I’d either have to carefully keep track of tarballs (store, backup, catalog) or do checkouts for each of the separate versions. Every update of a separate tag is then another download for every machine and even then it’s difficult to be sure that a particular tag hasn’t actually changed. ---
**Author:** ![juan\_zanos](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/4da419/32.png) [@juan\_zanos](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/juan_zanos)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2009, 10:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-way-to-install-ruby-1-9/165724/8 "2009-04-16T22:34:46Z")
On 16 avr. 09, at 14:37, Robert D. wrote: > > would use ruby19, irb19, etc. > > OMG why did I not ask you, or err, reading ./configure --help a little > > bit more carefully, before installing!!! > > This avoids probably the kind of compatibility problems I ran into. > > Juan, by all means, follow James’ approach if you cannot go with > > JRuby. > > R. Maybe JRuby is the way to go except when I absolutely have to depend on interfacing to C. I don’t have to worry about OS differences as much. Also, the way jruby’s is distributed is great. I can download it’s entire history and easily and update it easily. It’s trivial to move between different versions, keep them in sync across different systems, and not worry about screwing everything up. With ruby1.9 it’s a different story. I admire the work that’s going into ruby1.9. I’m just not sure it’s going to be so easy to manage. I could try to deal with whatever versions happen to be in various package managers. I could maintain a collection of tar balls. I could maintain directories of different source trees. None of those seem like very good solutions.