# Getting Ruby **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [June 13, 2007, 4:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/getting-ruby/106721 "2007-06-13T16:17:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![lycanthrope](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@lycanthrope](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lycanthrope)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2007, 4:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/getting-ruby/106721/1 "2007-06-13T16:17:19Z")
Given that Debian and UBUNTU break ruby up into a multitude of sub installs, I think the comment below from [Download Ruby](http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/downloads/) can be misleading to new users. ``` However, on some platforms, there are package management ``` solutions that make installing Ruby extremely easy. ``` For example, on Debian or Ubuntu apt-get provides an easy and ``` elegant solution: ``` % sudo apt-get install ruby irb rdoc For irb and rdoc you will need to enable the universe repository. ``` Many people will not read the description where it states ``` On Debian, Ruby 1.8 is provided as separate packages. You can get full Ruby 1.8 distribution by installing following packages. ruby1.8 ruby1.8-dev ri1.8 rdoc1.8 irb1.8 ruby1.8-elisp ruby1.8-examples libdbm-ruby1.8 libgdbm-ruby1.8 libtcltk-ruby1.8 libopenssl-ruby1.8 libreadline-ruby1.8 ``` apt-get install ruby only installs /usr/bin/ruby1.8 /usr/bin/erb1.8 /usr/bin/testrb1.8 /usr/share /usr/share/man /usr/share/man/man1 /usr/share/man/man1/erb1.8.1.gz /usr/share/man/man1/ruby1.8.1.gz /usr/share/man/man1/testrb1.8.1.gz /usr/share/doc /usr/share/doc/ruby1.8 /usr/share/doc/ruby1.8/NEWS.Debian.gz /usr/share/doc/ruby1.8/changelog.gz /usr/share/doc/ruby1.8/LEGAL.gz /usr/share/doc/ruby1.8/COPYING /usr/share/doc/ruby1.8/COPYING.ja /usr/share/doc/ruby1.8/ToDo.gz /usr/share/doc/ruby1.8/README /usr/share/doc/ruby1.8/README.ja /usr/share/doc/ruby1.8/README.Debian /usr/share/doc/ruby1.8/copyright /usr/share/doc/ruby1.8/changelog.Debian.gz /usr/share/doc/ruby1.8/NEWS.gz ---
**Author:** ![lycanthrope](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@lycanthrope](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lycanthrope)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2007, 5:06pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/getting-ruby/106721/2 "2007-06-13T17:06:28Z")
On a related topic, it turns out that if you try to compile ruby from source, it won’t work unless you already have ruby installed. I tried it yesterday, on an ubuntu fiesty box that didn’t have ruby installed, and the build stopped with an error, because in one place, a script tries to invoke ruby. It wasn’t a huge problem for me, because I was able to install the ruby 1.8 package using apt, and then continue compiling 1.9. But presumably there are some people out there who are compiling ruby because they can’t get a binary (e.g., people using unusual operating systems or cpu architectures), and it would be a problem for them. I also feel that the testing after the compile is through is a little excessive. My old laptop compiled ruby in an hour or two yesterday afternoon, but the test suite is still running this morning. ---
**Author:** ![lycanthrope](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@lycanthrope](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lycanthrope)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2007, 5:25pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/getting-ruby/106721/3 "2007-06-13T17:25:33Z")
On 6/13/07, Ben C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > On a related topic, it turns out that if you try to compile ruby > from source, it won’t work unless you already have ruby installed. > I tried it yesterday, on an ubuntu fiesty box that didn’t have > ruby installed, and the build stopped with an error, because in > one place, a script tries to invoke ruby. That’s not been the case for me installing on Ubuntu, where I only ever use sources. That said, I’m talking about the general releases (1.8.6, etc) and not development builds. Usually all that’s required from a bare install is the usual “apt-get build-essential” and then the ./configure, make, make install combo on the Ruby source… generally works a treat 🙂 That said, it’s been a month or two since I last did it, and I’m actually installing Ubuntu on a new machine now, so I’ll post here again if anything’s different from what I said 😉 Cheers, Peter C. > **[Ruby Inside: The Ruby Blog](http://www.rubyinside.com/)** > > The biggest Ruby and Rails blog since 2006 - tutorials, news, and lots more ---
**Author:** ![lycanthrope](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@lycanthrope](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lycanthrope)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2007, 5:31pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/getting-ruby/106721/4 "2007-06-13T17:31:34Z")
On Wed, 13 Jun 2007 08:02:39 -0700, Ben C. wrote: > On a related topic, it turns out that if you try to compile ruby from > source, it won’t work unless you already have ruby installed. FYI, it compiles fine on Gentoo: # ruby -v ruby 1.8.6 (2007-06-07 patchlevel 36) [i686-linux] # ruby -v ruby 1.8.6 (2007-06-07 patchlevel 36) [x86\_64-linux] # ruby -v ruby 1.8.6 (2007-06-07 patchlevel 36) [sparc-linux] Compile time is just under 15 minutes on cpu : TI UltraSparc II Cpu0Bogo : 592.40 Cpu1Bogo : 592.03 ---
**Author:** ![lycanthrope](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@lycanthrope](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lycanthrope)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2007, 5:36pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/getting-ruby/106721/5 "2007-06-13T17:36:35Z")
Ben C. wrote: > I also feel that the testing after the compile is through is a > little excessive. My old laptop compiled ruby in an hour or two > yesterday afternoon, but the test suite is still running this > morning. I suspect your system isn’t configured correctly. I’ve re-compiled Ruby hundreds of times. There is a “miniruby” built during the install that runs scripts, but there should _not_ be any need to install a Ruby binary in order to build Ruby from source. If you’d like, email me off list or post your error messages here, and I’ll see if I can figure out what’s wrong. ---
**Author:** ![lycanthrope](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@lycanthrope](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lycanthrope)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2007, 8:08pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/getting-ruby/106721/6 "2007-06-13T20:08:02Z")
On 6/13/07, Reid T. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > that make installing Ruby extremely easy. > > ``` > /usr/share/man/man1/testrb1.8.1.gz > /usr/share/doc/ruby1.8/README.Debian > /usr/share/doc/ruby1.8/copyright > /usr/share/doc/ruby1.8/changelog.Debian.gz > /usr/share/doc/ruby1.8/NEWS.gz > > ``` Here is my tutorial for installing Ruby/Rails on Ubuntu. I hope this is helpful. > **[Installing Ruby and Rails on Ubuntu](https://eyesontheprize.wordpress.com/2006/08/15/installing-ruby-and-rails-on-ubuntu/)** > > UPDATED: This has been updated, as of 5 November 2007. I run Ubuntu in a Parallels VM on my Macbook, as well as on a couple of machines for work. I subscribe to the “Ruby on Rails” mail… Cheers, Aaron K. ---
**Author:** ![lycanthrope](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@lycanthrope](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lycanthrope)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2007, 7:33pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/getting-ruby/106721/7 "2007-06-13T19:33:55Z")
On 6/13/07, Peter C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Usually all that’s required from a bare install is the usual “apt-get > build-essential” and then the ./configure, make, make install combo on > the Ruby source… generally works a treat 🙂 Same experience here. However it should be noted that although this should build ruby, some of the extensions in the standard library might fail if you don’t have their pre-requisite development packages loaded, things like readline, tk, zlib etc. The trick here once you’ve got a partially built ruby on a debian system is to figure out what debian ruby packages the missing pieces are in, and then do an apt-get build\_dep on those packages, then make again, maybe after ./configure When I was struggling with getting everything I needed for Ruby and Rails on Ubuntu, Andy H. suggested that I build from source, I took that advice and haven’t looked back. – Rick DeNatale My blog on Ruby [http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/](http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/) ---
**Author:** ![lycanthrope](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@lycanthrope](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lycanthrope)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2007, 11:45pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/getting-ruby/106721/8 "2007-06-13T23:45:44Z")
M. Edward (Ed) Borasky wrote: > > architectures), and it would be a problem for them. > > I suspect your system isn’t configured correctly. I’ve re-compiled Ruby > hundreds of times. There is a “miniruby” built during the install that > runs scripts, but there should _not_ be any need to install a Ruby > binary in order to build Ruby from source. If you’d like, email me off > list or post your error messages here, and I’ll see if I can figure out > what’s wrong. Other people have posted that it works fine for them with ruby 1.8. However, nobody has posted to say that it works for them with ruby 1.9, which is what I was compiling. So my guess would be that it’s a bug that’s crept into the packaging of ruby 1.9. I no longer have the error message, and don’t need a solution myself, since I simply installed the 1.8 binary from the ubuntu repositories, and then resumed my compile. This should be trivial to reproduce, however. Just try to compile a recent nightly build on any machine that doesn’t already have ruby installed. ---
**Author:** ![lycanthrope](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@lycanthrope](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lycanthrope)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2007, 8:49pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/getting-ruby/106721/9 "2007-06-13T20:49:11Z")
I guess I was a bit terse in my original email. What I was hoping to point out is that for anyone new to Ruby / linux / Debian / UBUNTU, the notes on the download page re apt-get may leave them in a less than happy state when they attempt to ‘…get started in programming with Ruby…’. If they follow the apt-get instructions pointed out on the page, then start running through tutorials/book examples, etc, I think they’re pretty quickly going to start hitting errors due to missing components. I think it would be beneficial if the apt-get install instructions on the download page were updated to include the broken out sub portions of Ruby, or if it was noted that they SHOULD read the ruby apt description to find out what other sub packages they should install.