# Ruby18 vs. ruby **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [March 25, 2007, 4:59am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby18-vs-ruby/90028 "2007-03-25T04:59:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2007, 4:59am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby18-vs-ruby/90028/1 "2007-03-25T04:59:20Z")
Hi, I am using the ruby-stable-snapshot on a more or less regualr basis on a Gentoo Linux system. I do not install ruby via Gentoo’s emerge mechanism. Suddenly all my ruby scripts stops to work. 🙂 I noticed, that ruby was not installed as “ruby” but as “ruby18”. My script’s hash-bangs always are “#! /usr/bin/ruby”. How can I convince configure to install ruby as ruby? I tried to set an environment variable “RUBY\_INSTALL\_NAME” but it does not work (yes, it was “exported” 🙂 Thank you very much for any help in advance! Kind regards, mcc PS: May be it would be an idea to name the archive on rubys ftp-server like its contents: snapshot.tgz —\> ruby-snapshot.tgz stable-snapshot.tgz —\> ruby-stable-snapshot.tgz …one (at least me 😉 downloads a LOT of snapshots, source archives and so on. If not unpacked, configured,compiled, installed right directly after download - it is confusing to have archives “without name” like: source.tgz, stable-source.tgz, archive.zip, my\_distro.7z,… “That’s four small chars for a ftp-server, one giant leap for rubykind.” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2007, 6:10am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby18-vs-ruby/90028/2 "2007-03-25T06:10:23Z")
ranx [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) [07-03-25 06:02]: > > My script’s hash-bangs always are “#! /usr/bin/ruby”. > > ln -s /usr/bin/ruby18 /usr/bin/ruby > Hi, thanks for your reply, ranx…already know symlinks…being a UNIX freak since 14 years now… 😉 I wanted to install things correctly and dont “fix” problems by tweaking…otherwise other application/install may fail by finding “two” rubys…for example “RUBY\_INSTALL\_NAME” is used in the configure script at a lot of places. The libs also get their names from that. Symlinks will more harm than cure… How can I convince rubys configure/install system to use “ruby” instead of “ruby18” ? Keep scripting! mcc ---
**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2007, 7:01am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby18-vs-ruby/90028/3 "2007-03-25T07:01:27Z")
removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid wrote: > I run Gentoo Linux, but I use the Ruby from Portage. If you keyword it in “/etc/portage/package.keywords”, you’ll get a fairly recent Ruby. For example, Ruby 1.8.6 showed up in Portage only a day or so after the upstream release. But if you want to use Ruby snapshots as your main Ruby, there’s a couple of things you can do: 1. When you do the “./configure”, the _default_ is to install in “/usr/local”. However, if you use 2. I’ve never used this, but a number of Ruby scripts I’ve looked at start with 3. As someone pointed out, after you do the install, you should be able to go into /usr/bin (or /usr/local/bin, if you didn’t use a --prefix on your configure) and do 4. If you did the default install, change all your scripts to 5. Don’t forget – if you’re installing other things from Portage that have Ruby as a dependency, you’ll need to tell Portage that you’ve installed Ruby. Otherwise, it will download and install Ruby from Portage. To do this, you’ll need to add a line to /etc/portage/package.provided that says – M. Edward (Ed) Borasky, FBG, AB, PTA, PGS, MS, MNLP, NST, ACMC(P) [http://borasky-research.blogspot.com/](http://borasky-research.blogspot.com/) If God had meant for carrots to be eaten cooked, He would have given rabbits fire. ---
**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2007, 7:19am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby18-vs-ruby/90028/4 "2007-03-25T07:19:28Z")
M. Edward (Ed) Borasky [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) [07-03-25 07:01]: > removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid wrote: > Hi Ed, thanks for your reply. My question was: How can I convince the configure/install system of the ruby stable snapshot release to use ruby for RUBY\_INSTALL\_NAME instead of ruby18 ? Thanks a lot for any helpful answer to my above question. Kind regards, mcc ---
**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2007, 6:01am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby18-vs-ruby/90028/5 "2007-03-25T06:01:23Z")
On Mar 24, 10:58 pm, removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid wrote: > PS: May be it would be an idea to name the archive on rubys > “That’s four small chars for a ftp-server, one giant leap for rubykind.” 🙂 > > – > Please don’t send me any Word- or Powerpoint-Attachments > unless it’s absolutely neccessary. - Send simply Text. > Seehttp://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html > In a world without fences and walls nobody needs gates and windows. Can simply create a symbolic link called ruby that points to ruby18 as follows: ln -s /usr/bin/ruby18 /usr/bin/ruby ---
**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2007, 9:57am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby18-vs-ruby/90028/6 "2007-03-25T09:57:37Z")
The symlink is the best solution. It is equivalent to having two names. Paths will resolve to either name. you could also just rename it, but that is slightly less reliable than the symlink.