# Building Ruby From Source? **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [July 17, 2009, 2:56pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/building-ruby-from-source/172250 "2009-07-17T14:56:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![azzoti](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@azzoti](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/azzoti)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2009, 2:56pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/building-ruby-from-source/172250/1 "2009-07-17T14:56:15Z")
I am new to Ruby, but fairly used to Linux. I was wondering if those developing on Linux compile ruby, gems, and any other libs you may use from source, or do you use the premade packages provided by your distro? Just curious… Tim A. ---
**Author:** ![azzoti](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@azzoti](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/azzoti)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2009, 3:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/building-ruby-from-source/172250/2 "2009-07-17T15:30:08Z")
Hi – On Fri, 17 Jul 2009, Tim A. wrote: > I am new to Ruby, but fairly used to Linux. I was wondering if those > developing on Linux compile ruby, gems, and any other libs you may use from > source, or do you use the premade packages provided by your distro? Just > curious… I always compile Ruby from source, partly just to have control over exactly what I’ve got and partly as a vote of no-confidence in some of the silly packaging practices (splitting Ruby up into separate packages). David ---
**Author:** ![azzoti](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@azzoti](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/azzoti)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2009, 3:31pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/building-ruby-from-source/172250/3 "2009-07-17T15:31:20Z")
Tim A. wrote: > I am new to Ruby, but fairly used to Linux. I was wondering if those > developing on Linux compile ruby, gems, and any other libs you may use > from > source, or do you use the premade packages provided by your distro? Just > curious… > > Tim A. I build from source because I develop a fairly widely used Ruby extension and I want to test it with multiple versions of Ruby. Building from source lets me install multiple distinct versions of Ruby by specifying the target directory with the --prefix option on the configure script. But if you just want to write a little Ruby code and the package version is sufficient for your needs, why not use it? The only concern I’d have is that the version of Ruby in the package has a bug for which you need the fix. ---
**Author:** ![azzoti](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@azzoti](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/azzoti)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2009, 3:42pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/building-ruby-from-source/172250/4 "2009-07-17T15:42:24Z")
On Fri, 17 Jul 2009, David A. Black wrote: > exactly what I’ve got and partly as a vote of no-confidence in some of > the silly packaging practices (splitting Ruby up into separate > packages). Oh, also: you can’t use premade packages for all of these: [http://ruby-versions.net](http://ruby-versions.net) 🙂 David ---
**Author:** ![azzoti](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@azzoti](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/azzoti)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2009, 8:06pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/building-ruby-from-source/172250/5 "2009-07-19T20:06:37Z")
On Fri, Jul 17, 2009 at 8:52 AM, Tim A.[removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > I am new to Ruby, but fairly used to Linux. I was wondering if those > developing on Linux compile ruby, gems, and any other libs you may use from > source, or do you use the premade packages provided by your distro? Just > curious… I always build from source because I’ve never personally ran into snags doing it, and it gives me full control. -greg ---
**Author:** ![azzoti](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@azzoti](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/azzoti)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2009, 4:43pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/building-ruby-from-source/172250/6 "2009-07-17T16:43:11Z")
Tim A. wrote: > I am new to Ruby, but fairly used to Linux. I was wondering if those > developing on Linux compile ruby, gems, and any other libs you may use from > source, or do you use the premade packages provided by your distro? Just > curious… I build from source on Kubuntu. The pre-built packages tend to be too out of date, and compiling from source is easy. – James B. [www.jamesbritt.com](http://www.jamesbritt.com) - Playing with Better Toys [www.ruby-doc.org](http://www.ruby-doc.org) - Ruby Help & Documentation [www.rubystuff.com](http://www.rubystuff.com) - The Ruby Store for Ruby Stuff [www.neurogami.com](http://www.neurogami.com) - Smart application development ---
**Author:** ![azzoti](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@azzoti](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/azzoti)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2009, 4:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/building-ruby-from-source/172250/7 "2009-07-22T16:07:57Z")
- James B. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) (2009-07-17) schrieb: > Tim A. wrote: > > > I am new to Ruby, but fairly used to Linux. I was wondering if those > > developing on Linux compile ruby, gems, and any other libs you may use from > > source, or do you use the premade packages provided by your distro? Just > > curious… > > I build from source on Kubuntu. The pre-built packages tend to be too > out of date, and compiling from source is easy. The current Debian lenny packages of Ruby 1.8 are 1.8.7, how out-of-date is that? I still use Ruby 1.8.5, that so far hasn’t been a problem for me. mfg, simon … one voice for premade packages