# Ruby Installation

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-installation/183882>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [February 22, 2010, 9:42am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-installation/183882 "2010-02-22T09:42:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![tom-mac](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/bc8723/32.png) [@tom-mac](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tom-mac)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2010, 9:42am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-installation/183882/1 "2010-02-22T09:42:33Z")

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Hi  
I have installed ruby from fedora repository (fedora12) with

yum install ruby ruby-devel ruby-docs ruby-irb ruby-libs ruby-mode  
ruby-rdoc ruby-ri

And I got ruby --version  
ruby 1.8.6 (2009-08-04 patchlevel 383) [i386-linux]

```
 This I did 2 months back . Now I am asked to repeat this process on

```

another machine. So my question is where can I find the same above  
version with same patch . I looked in  
[www.ruby-lang.org](http://www.ruby-lang.org) It says about 1.8.7 and 1.9.1

```
 My second question is if I install 1.8.7 from source on the next

```

machine, will the application work? So what is the preferred way  
Installing ruby from source or from a repository like fedora in my case?

Thanks  
Tom

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tom-mac](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/bc8723/32.png) [@tom-mac](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tom-mac)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2010, 1:44pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-installation/183882/2 "2010-02-22T13:44:02Z")

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Tom M. wrote:

> Hi  
> I have installed ruby from fedora repository (fedora12) with
> 
> yum install ruby ruby-devel ruby-docs ruby-irb ruby-libs ruby-mode  
> ruby-rdoc ruby-ri
> 
> And I got ruby --version  
> ruby 1.8.6 (2009-08-04 patchlevel 383) [i386-linux]
> 
> ```
> This I did 2 months back . Now I am asked to repeat this process on
> 
> ```
> 
> another machine. So my question is where can I find the same above  
> version with same patch . I looked in  
> [www.ruby-lang.org](http://www.ruby-lang.org) It says about 1.8.7 and 1.9.1

[ftp.ruby-lang.org](http://ftp.ruby-lang.org) has all the previous version releases.

> ```
> My second question is if I install 1.8.7 from source on the next
> 
> ```
> 
> machine, will the application work?

Probably. There are a number of changes in the ruby language for 1.8.7,  
such that a program written for 1.8.7 may well not work in 1.8.6, but  
one written for 1.8.6 probably works in 1.8.7.

> So what is the preferred way  
> Installing ruby from source or from a repository like fedora in my case?

If your distribution has a decent ruby repo, usually it’s a good idea to  
use that. Your distribution should be keeping track of things like  
security updates and you will automatically get a fixed version if you  
need it. It also saves hassles in compilation (e.g. if you don’t have  
the openssl-dev or zlib-dev packages installed when building yourself,  
then important ruby extensions won’t be built)

HTH,

Brian.