rbenv is a version manager tool for the Ruby programming language on Unix-like systems. It is useful for switching between multiple Ruby versions on the same machine and for ensuring that each project you are working on always runs on the correct Ruby version.
After rbenv injects itself into your PATH at installation time, any invocation of ruby, gem, bundler, or other Ruby-related executable will first activate rbenv. Then, rbenv scans the current project directory for a file named .ruby-version. If found, that file determines the version of Ruby that should be used within that directory. Finally, rbenv looks up that Ruby version among those installed under ~/.rbenv/versions/.
You can choose the Ruby version for your project with, for example:
cd myproject # choose Ruby version 3.1.2: rbenv local 3.1.2
Doing so will create or update the .ruby-version file in the current directory with the version that you've chosen. A different project of yours that is another directory might be using a different version of Ruby altogether—rbenv will seamlessly transition from one Ruby version to another when you switch projects.
Finally, almost every aspect of rbenv's mechanism is customizable via plugins written in bash.
The simplicity of rbenv has its benefits, but also some downsides. See the comparison of version managers for more details and some alternatives.
On systems with Homebrew package manager, the “Using Package Managers” method is recommended. On other systems, “Basic Git Checkout” might be the easiest way of ensuring that you are always installing the latest version of rbenv.
Install rbenv using one of the following approaches.
On macOS or Linux, we recommend installing rbenv with Homebrew.
Debian, Ubuntu, and their derivativesArch Linux and its derivatives[!CAUTION]
The version of rbenv that is packaged and maintained in official Debian and Ubuntu repositories is out of date. To install the latest version, it is recommended to install rbenv using git.
Archlinux has an official package which you can install:
Fedora has an official package which you can install:
Set up your shell to load rbenv.
Close your Terminal window and open a new one so your changes take effect.
That's it! You are now ready to install some Ruby versions.
Note
For a more automated install, you can use rbenv-installer. If you do not want to execute scripts downloaded from a web URL or simply prefer a manual approach, follow the steps below.
This will get you going with the latest version of rbenv without needing a system-wide install.
Clone rbenv into ~/.rbenv.
git clone https://github.com/rbenv/rbenv.git ~/.rbenv
Set up your shell to load rbenv.
If you are curious, see here to understand what init does.
Restart your shell so that these changes take effect. (Opening a new terminal tab will usually do it.)
When manually installing rbenv, it might be useful to note how completion scripts for various shells work. Completion scripts help with typing rbenv commands by expanding partially entered rbenv command names and option flags; typically this is invoked by pressing Tab key in an interactive shell.
The bash completion script for rbenv ships with the project and gets loaded by the rbenv init mechanism.
The zsh completion script ships with the project, but needs to be added to FPATH in zsh before it can be discovered by the shell. One way to do this would be to edit ~/.zshrc:
# assuming that rbenv was installed to `~/.rbenv` FPATH=~/.rbenv/completions:"$FPATH" autoload -U compinit compinit
The fish completion script for rbenv ships with the fish shell itself and is not maintained by the rbenv project.
The rbenv install command does not ship with rbenv out-of-the-box, but is provided by the ruby-build plugin.
Before attempting to install Ruby, check that your build environment has the necessary tools and libraries. Then:
# list latest stable versions: rbenv install -l # list all local versions: rbenv install -L # install a Ruby version: rbenv install 3.1.2
For troubleshooting BUILD FAILED scenarios, check the ruby-build Discussions section.
Note
If the rbenv install command wasn't found, you can install ruby-build as a plugin:
git clone https://github.com/rbenv/ruby-build.git "$(rbenv root)"/plugins/ruby-build
Set a Ruby version to finish installation and start using Ruby:
rbenv global 3.1.2 # set the default Ruby version for this machine # or: rbenv local 3.1.2 # set the Ruby version for this directory
Alternatively to the rbenv install command, you can download and compile Ruby manually as a subdirectory of ~/.rbenv/versions. An entry in that directory can also be a symlink to a Ruby version installed elsewhere on the filesystem.
Select a Ruby version for your project using rbenv local 3.1.2, for example. Then, proceed to install gems as you normally would:
Note
You should not use sudo to install gems. Typically, the Ruby versions will be installed under your home directory and thus writeable by your user. If you get the “you don't have write permissions” error when installing gems, it's likely that your "system" Ruby version is still a global default. Change that with rbenv global <version> and try again.
Check the location where gems are being installed with gem env:
gem env home # => ~/.rbenv/versions/<version>/lib/ruby/gems/...Uninstalling Ruby versions
As time goes on, Ruby versions you install will accumulate in your ~/.rbenv/versions directory.
To remove old Ruby versions, simply rm -rf the directory of the version you want to remove. You can find the directory of a particular Ruby version with the rbenv prefix command, e.g. rbenv prefix 2.7.0.
The ruby-build plugin provides an rbenv uninstall command to automate the removal process.
The main rbenv commands you need to know are:
Lists all Ruby versions known to rbenv, and shows an asterisk next to the currently active version.
$ rbenv versions
1.8.7-p352
1.9.2-p290
* 1.9.3-p327 (set by /Users/sam/.rbenv/version)
jruby-1.7.1
rbx-1.2.4
ree-1.8.7-2011.03
Displays the currently active Ruby version, along with information on how it was set.
$ rbenv version
1.9.3-p327 (set by /Users/sam/.rbenv/version)
Sets a local application-specific Ruby version by writing the version name to a .ruby-version file in the current directory. This version overrides the global version, and can be overridden itself by setting the RBENV_VERSION environment variable or with the rbenv shell command.
When run without a version number, rbenv local reports the currently configured local version. You can also unset the local version:
Sets the global version of Ruby to be used in all shells by writing the version name to the ~/.rbenv/version file. This version can be overridden by an application-specific .ruby-version file, or by setting the RBENV_VERSION environment variable.
The special version name system tells rbenv to use the system Ruby (detected by searching your $PATH).
When run without a version number, rbenv global reports the currently configured global version.
Sets a shell-specific Ruby version by setting the RBENV_VERSION environment variable in your shell. This version overrides application-specific versions and the global version.
When run without a version number, rbenv shell reports the current value of RBENV_VERSION. You can also unset the shell version:
Note that you'll need rbenv's shell integration enabled (step 3 of the installation instructions) in order to use this command. If you prefer not to use shell integration, you may simply set the RBENV_VERSION variable yourself:
export RBENV_VERSION=jruby-1.7.1
Installs shims for all Ruby executables known to rbenv (~/.rbenv/versions/*/bin/*). Typically you do not need to run this command, as it will run automatically after installing gems.
Displays the full path to the executable that rbenv will invoke when you run the given command.
$ rbenv which irb
/Users/sam/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p327/bin/irb
Lists all Ruby versions that contain the specified executable name.
$ rbenv whence rackup
1.9.3-p327
jruby-1.7.1
ree-1.8.7-2011.03
You can affect how rbenv operates with the following settings:
name default descriptionRBENV_VERSION Specifies the Ruby version to be used.
rbenv shell RBENV_ROOT ~/.rbenv Defines the directory under which Ruby versions and shims reside.
rbenv root RBENV_DEBUG Outputs debug information.
rbenv --debug <subcommand> RBENV_HOOK_PATH see wiki Colon-separated list of paths searched for rbenv hooks. RBENV_DIR $PWD Directory to start searching for .ruby-version files. How rbenv hooks into your shell
rbenv init is a helper command to hook rbenv into a shell. This helper is part of the recommended installation instructions, but optional, as an experienced user can set up the following tasks manually. The rbenv init command has two modes of operation:
rbenv init: made for humans, this command edits your shell initialization files on disk to add rbenv to shell startup. (Prior to rbenv 1.3.0, this mode only printed user instructions to the terminal, but did nothing else.)
rbenv init -: made for machines, this command outputs a shell script suitable to be eval'd by the user's shell.
When rbenv init is invoked from a bash shell, for example, it will add the following to the user's ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_profile:
# Added by `rbenv init` on <DATE> eval "$(rbenv init - --no-rehash bash)"
You may add this line to your shell initialization files manually if you want to avoid running rbenv init as part of the setup process. Here is what the eval'd script does:
Adds rbenv executable to PATH if necessary.
Prepends ~/.rbenv/shims directory to PATH. This is basically the only requirement for rbenv to function properly.
Installs bash shell completion for rbenv commands.
Regenerates rbenv shims. If this step slows down your shell startup, you can invoke rbenv init - with the --no-rehash flag.
Installs the "sh" dispatcher. This bit is also optional, but allows rbenv and plugins to change variables in your current shell, making commands like rbenv shell possible.
The simplicity of rbenv makes it easy to temporarily disable it, or uninstall from the system.
To disable rbenv managing your Ruby versions, simply comment or remove the rbenv init line from your shell startup configuration. This will remove rbenv shims directory from PATH, and future invocations like ruby will execute the system Ruby version, bypassing rbenv completely.
While disabled, rbenv will still be accessible on the command line, but your Ruby apps won't be affected by version switching.
To completely uninstall rbenv, perform step (1) and then remove the rbenv root directory. This will delete all Ruby versions that were installed under `rbenv root`/versions/:
If you've installed rbenv using a package manager, as a final step perform the rbenv package removal:
brew uninstall rbenvsudo apt purge rbenvsudo pacman -R rbenvTests are executed using Bats:
$ bats test
$ bats test/<file>.bats
Please feel free to submit pull requests and file bugs on the issue tracker.
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