# Installing Ruby under Mac OS X

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-ruby-under-mac-os-x/83377>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [January 25, 2007, 5:23pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-ruby-under-mac-os-x/83377 "2007-01-25T17:23:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![markcasio](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@markcasio](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/markcasio)\
**Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 5:23pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-ruby-under-mac-os-x/83377/1 "2007-01-25T17:23:54Z")

</div>

I just downloaded the source for Ruby 1.8.5-p12 and built it under  
Mac OS X using the following steps.

unzip and untar the downloaded file  
cd to the directory createed by untarring  
su root  
./configure  
make  
make test - reports “test succeeded”  
make install  
make install-doc

When I run “ruby -v”, I get “ruby 1.8.5 (2006-12-25 patchlevel 12)  
[i686-darwin8.8.1]”.  
When I run “ruby -rrbconfig -e ‘p Config::CONFIG[“ruby\_version”]’”, I  
get “.”.  
I should be getting “1.8.5”. Am I doing something wrong in the way  
I’m installing Ruby?

This is preventing me from installing gems. I get the following.  
ERROR: While executing gem … (ArgumentError)  
install directory “/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/./gems/  
activesupport-1.4.0” not absolute

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![markcasio](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@markcasio](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/markcasio)\
**Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 5:27pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-ruby-under-mac-os-x/83377/2 "2007-01-25T17:27:49Z")

</div>

Mark V. wrote:

> I just downloaded the source for Ruby 1.8.5-p12 and built it under  
> Mac OS X using the following steps.

Mark -

I can’t speak to your specific error, but I had many issues with  
building ruby from source on OS X. It’s very painless, on the other  
hand, to use macports to install the latest version of ruby.

-Drew

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![markcasio](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@markcasio](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/markcasio)\
**Post date:** [January 26, 2007, 12:32am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-ruby-under-mac-os-x/83377/3 "2007-01-26T00:32:36Z")

</div>

On Jan 25, 2007, at 10:23 AM, Mark V. wrote:

> make install-doc  
> install directory “/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/./gems/  
> activesupport-1.4.0” not absolute

I fixed this by editing /usr/local/lib/ruby/i686-darwin8.8.1/  
rbconfig.rb. Here are the lines I changed.

CONFIG[“MAJOR”] = “1”  
CONFIG[“MINOR”] = “8”  
CONFIG[“TEENY”] = “5”

They were set to empty strings before my change and this was after a  
clean install.

I can now install gems again!