# Install ruby 1.9.1 **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [December 8, 2009, 7:19am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/install-ruby-1-9-1/179925 "2009-12-08T07:19:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![rubyfreak](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/e9c0ed/32.png) [@rubyfreak](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rubyfreak)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 7:19am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/install-ruby-1-9-1/179925/1 "2009-12-08T07:19:17Z")
I spent an hour trying to find reasonable instructions on how to install ruby 1.9.1 as a standalone ruby instance. Everything seems to be directed at side-by-side 1.8/1.9 installation. I found this in some ad swamp, but it was sadly more appropriate than anything else I could find on the web that wasn’t apt-get ruby.(1.8.7) ruby 1.9.1 is installed in opt/ruby but the system doesn’t know about it. opt/ruby/bin/ruby -v works, but ruby -v tells me ruby isn’t installed. I guess I need to put ruby in the path or create a symlink or something, but I am not sure what to do. Thanks in advance. Here is what I did: 1: Download ruby 1.9.1, ftp://ftp.ruby-lang.org/pub/ruby/1.9/ruby-1.9.1-p0.tar.gz ( I actually got p243 at ftp://ftp.ruby-lang.org/pub/ruby/1.9/ruby-1.9.1-p243.tar.gz) 2: To ensure that the installation of the necessary tools sudo apt-get install build-essential sudo apt-get install autoconf 3: tar xzvf ruby-1.9.1-p0.tar.gz cd ruby-1.9.1-p0(actually p243) autoconf sudo makedir /opt/ruby ./configure --prefix=/opt/ruby --enable-pthread make sudo make install 4 Installed? /opt/ruby/bin/ruby -v ---
**Author:** ![rubyfreak](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/e9c0ed/32.png) [@rubyfreak](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rubyfreak)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 7:53am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/install-ruby-1-9-1/179925/2 "2009-12-08T07:53:49Z")
Ruby F. wrote: > I spent an hour trying to find reasonable instructions on how to > install ruby 1.9.1 as a standalone ruby instance. Everything seems to > be directed at side-by-side 1.8/1.9 installation. Hi! > I found this in some ad swamp, but it was sadly more appropriate than > anything else I could find on the web that wasn’t apt-get ruby.(1.8.7) > > ruby 1.9.1 is installed in opt/ruby but the system doesn’t know about > it. > opt/ruby/bin/ruby -v works, but ruby -v tells me ruby isn’t installed. > > I guess I need to put ruby in the path or create a symlink or > something, but I am not sure what to do. Looks like, you using some kind of debian based system…for which /opt is made for ‘foreign’ software like Adobe-Reader. /opt/bin has to be added to the PATH-variable. Depending on which kind of shell you use, or if this ruby installation should be accessible for all users, you should edit ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc (enable ruby only for you) bashrc: PATH=/opt/bin:$PATH zshrc: path=(/opt/bin $path) or /etc/profile or a single script under /etc/profile.d/ (for all user) It all depends on you operating system. apt-get is quite comfortable despite of the fact, that ruby (like any another reasonable composed software) is debianized, i.e. hacked into tiny little packages. Do you need a special ruby version? regards ralf ---
**Author:** ![rubyfreak](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/e9c0ed/32.png) [@rubyfreak](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rubyfreak)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 5:33pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/install-ruby-1-9-1/179925/3 "2009-12-08T17:33:51Z")
> it. > 1.9.1-p0.tar.gz > autoconf > sudo makedir /opt/ruby > ./configure --prefix=/opt/ruby --enable-pthread > make > sudo make install > > 4 Installed? > /opt/ruby/bin/ruby -v Why the special configure options? On my Ubuntu system I simply did ./configure make sudo make install Done! Everything works properly. Hope that helps. ---
**Author:** ![rubyfreak](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/e9c0ed/32.png) [@rubyfreak](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rubyfreak)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 6:10pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/install-ruby-1-9-1/179925/4 "2009-12-08T18:10:43Z")
Thanks for all your help. I guess I neglected to mention that I am running Ubuntu 9.10 (which is flippin wonderful) and I wanted to run the latest and greatest and had the impression that Rails 2.3 and Ruby 1.9.1 where a match made in heaven. Maybe-so I need to back off a bit. It is a new install so if I muck it up, I will just wipe the box and start over. TW Scannell ---
**Author:** ![rubyfreak](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/e9c0ed/32.png) [@rubyfreak](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rubyfreak)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 8:58am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/install-ruby-1-9-1/179925/5 "2009-12-08T08:58:12Z")
On Tuesday 08 December 2009 12:15:06 am Ruby F. wrote: > I spent an hour trying to find reasonable instructions on how to > install ruby 1.9.1 as a standalone ruby instance. sudo apt-get install ruby1.9.1 > Everything seems to > be directed at side-by-side 1.8/1.9 installation. Mostly because it’s not really to where we can safely ignore either of them. But you could probably adapt this: \<[http://groups.google.com/group/rails-](http://groups.google.com/group/rails-) oceania/browse\_thread/thread/8a2b256d117db49f\> Just ignore the parts about 1.8. Or, better yet – the only real reason you can’t just ‘apt-get install ruby1.9.1’, or for that matter, ‘apt-get install ruby1.9.1 rubygems1.9.1 irb1.9.1 ruby1.9.1-dev …’ …is because it installs the binary as /usr/bin/ruby1.9.1, which is going to be annoying and inconvenient. But yeah, basically, anything that told you to install rubyfoo or libfoo-ruby or anything like that, chances are, there’s an equivalent package for 1.9.1. > 3: > tar xzvf ruby-1.9.1-p0.tar.gz > cd ruby-1.9.1-p0(actually p243) > autoconf > sudo makedir /opt/ruby > ./configure --prefix=/opt/ruby --enable-pthread > make > sudo make install > > 4 Installed? > /opt/ruby/bin/ruby -v yuck. I guess you could upgrade, since it may be awhile before Ubuntu/Debian pick up the latest patch set. But since this is the version you’d be doing anyway, I’d do: sudo rm -rf /opt/ruby Then do this: cd /usr/local/bin for i in /usr/bin/\*1.9.1; do sudo ln -s $i `basename $i 1.9.1`; done And you’re done. Be aware that not everything works in 1.9.1 yet, so you may end up wanting some options after all. ---
**Author:** ![rubyfreak](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/e9c0ed/32.png) [@rubyfreak](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rubyfreak)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 12:00am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/install-ruby-1-9-1/179925/6 "2009-12-09T00:00:10Z")
On Tuesday 08 December 2009 11:10:08 am Ruby F. wrote: > Thanks for all your help. > I guess I neglected to mention that I am running Ubuntu 9.10 (which is > flippin wonderful) > and I wanted to run the latest and greatest and had the impression > that Rails 2.3 and Ruby 1.9.1 where a match made in heaven. I’m on Ubuntu 9.10, and the instructions I gave you will almost certainly work for using Rails 2.3 and Ruby 1.9.1. All you need to do is create symlinks to the ruby1.9.1, gem1.9.1, rdoc1.9.1, and generally foo1.9.1 programs somewhere in your PATH, and you can use the Ubuntu Ruby 1.9.1 packages. By “not everything works”… Rails works, and a lot of things do work. Occasionally, though, you’ll find a gem or library that hasn’t been updated yet – and it’s much harder to find stuff that doesn’t work in 1.8.