# Can't find ruby after installation

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/cant-find-ruby-after-installation/51676>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [January 5, 2006, 9:09pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/cant-find-ruby-after-installation/51676 "2006-01-05T21:09:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Nirav](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/f1d935/32.png) [@Nirav](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Nirav)\
**Post date:** [January 5, 2006, 9:09pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/cant-find-ruby-after-installation/51676/1 "2006-01-05T21:09:37Z")

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I skipped ruby selection while installing mandrake 10.1 with an  
intention of building the latest version (1.8.3).  
After untarring the download in /usr/local/src, I followed README (1.  
…/configure 2. make 3. and optional make test (successful)).  
“which ruby” returns ruby: but I can’t find ruby in /usr/local/bin or  
/usr/local/lib.

Where is it?

Thanks in advance.

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**Author:** ![Nirav](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/f1d935/32.png) [@Nirav](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Nirav)\
**Post date:** [January 5, 2006, 9:21pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/cant-find-ruby-after-installation/51676/2 "2006-01-05T21:21:38Z")

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Nirav wrote:

> I skipped ruby selection while installing mandrake 10.1 with an  
> intention of building the latest version (1.8.3).  
> After untarring the download in /usr/local/src, I followed README (1.  
> …/configure 2. make 3. and optional make test (successful)).  
> “which ruby” returns ruby: but I can’t find ruby in /usr/local/bin or  
> /usr/local/lib.
> 
> Where is it?

It’s probably in your current working directory (i.e. from wherever you  
called ‘which ruby’). To make sure, take a look at the Makefile that was  
generated by configure. Search for the ‘prefix’ variable about a dozen  
lines from the top.

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**Author:** ![Nirav](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/f1d935/32.png) [@Nirav](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Nirav)\
**Post date:** [January 5, 2006, 9:24pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/cant-find-ruby-after-installation/51676/3 "2006-01-05T21:24:38Z")

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jason r tibbetts wrote:

> It’s probably in your current working directory (i.e. from wherever  
> you called ‘which ruby’). To make sure, take a look at the Makefile  
> that was generated by configure. Search for the ‘prefix’ variable  
> about a dozen lines from the top.

During the .configure you can pass the parameters to set that at runtime  
too, I’m not sure if it was as short as --PREFIX=myPath or not but it  
was that simple.

-Zach

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**Author:** ![Nirav](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/f1d935/32.png) [@Nirav](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Nirav)\
**Post date:** [January 5, 2006, 9:27pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/cant-find-ruby-after-installation/51676/4 "2006-01-05T21:27:39Z")

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You might need to run ‘make install’ as root to actually install it,  
right now you have just  
compiled it.

On 5. jan. 2006, at 21.07, Nirav wrote:

> 

–  
Sir Bedevere: …and that, my liege, is how we know the Earth to be  
banana shaped.  
King Arthur: This new learning amazes me, Sir Bedevere. Explain again  
how sheep’s bladders may be employed to prevent earthquakes.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Nirav](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/f1d935/32.png) [@Nirav](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Nirav)\
**Post date:** [January 5, 2006, 10:15pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/cant-find-ruby-after-installation/51676/5 "2006-01-05T22:15:43Z")

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Strange!! last time I kept the distro version, and  
compiled/build/install 1.8.3 in /usr space using same instructions in  
README. It worked then!

Is it possible that configuration script assumes that user will always  
keep the linux distro version, but unable to find that in this case and  
got confused?

Anyways, thank you all, I will try the options you’ve provided.