In this blog post I explain how to install Wayne Seguin's
RVM (Ruby Version Manager) on CentOS 5.6. I will be following
the installation instructions for a "Single-User Installation as a standard user". I already have installed git 1.6 and Ruby 1.8.7.
What CentOS version are you running?
First, confirm what version of CentOS you're running:
$ cat /etc/issue
CentOS release 5.6 (Final)
As you can see, I'm running 5.6, but these instructions may work for earlier versions.
What git version are you running?
The RVM installation instructions recommend having git version 1.7 or later. What do I have?
$ git --version
git version 1.6.1
I'm okay with this for the moment. The standard CentOS repositories do not have a newer version; in the CentOS universe, this is the latest version of Git (although you could get a newer version by adding a different repo). If I run into trouble later, I'll have this potential git upgrade as a possible solution.
What terminal are you running?
I believe the RVM installation instructions assume you are using Bash as a terminal. Check what terminal you are using by running the following command:
$ ps -p$$ -ocmd=
ps -p$$ -ocmd=
bash -v
That tells me I'm running bash. Confirm by asking it for the specific version:
$ bash --version
bash --version
GNU bash, version 3.2.25(1)-release (i686-redhat-linux-gnu)
Copyright (C) 2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Installation: Three steps
The installation instructions list three steps for completing the RVM installation package:
- Download and run the RVM installation script
- Load RVM into your shell sessions as a function
- Reload shell configuration & test
We'll follow each of these in turn.
Download and run the RVM installation script
Copy the following line into your terminal:
$ bash < <(curl -sk https://rvm.beginrescueend.com/install/rvm)
For me, this produced the following output:
Initialized empty Git repository in /home/arsturges/.rvm/src/rvm/.git/
remote: Counting objects: 4930, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (2305/2305), done.
remote: Total 4930 (delta 3194), reused 3552 (delta 1943)
Receiving objects: 100% (4930/4930), 1.60 MiB | 1646 KiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (3194/3194), done.
RVM: Shell scripts enabling management of multiple ruby environments.
RTFM: https://rvm.beginrescueend.com/
HELP: http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=rvm (#rvm on irc.freenode.net)
Installing RVM to /home/arsturges/.rvm/~/.rvm ~/.rvm/src/rvm
~/.rvm/src/rvm
Correct permissions for base binaries in /home/arsturges/bin...
Copying manpages into place.
Notes for Linux ( CentOS release 5.6 (Final) )
NOTE: 'ruby' represents Matz's Ruby Interpreter (MRI) (1.8.X, 1.9.X)
This is the *original* / standard Ruby Language Interpreter
'ree' represents Ruby Enterprise Edition
'rbx' represents Rubinius
bash >= 3.2 is required
curl is required
git is required (>= 1.7 recommended)
patch is required (for ree and some ruby-head's).
If you wish to install rbx and/or Ruby 1.9 head (MRI) (eg. 1.9.2-head),
then you must install and use rvm 1.8.7 first.
If you wish to have the 'pretty colors' again,
set 'export rvm_pretty_print_flag=1' in ~/.rvmrc.
dependencies:
# For RVM
rvm: yum install -y bash curl git # NOTE: For git you need the EPEL repository enabled
# For Ruby (MRI & Ree) you should install the following OS dependencies:
ruby: yum install -y gcc-c++ patch readline readline-devel zlib zlib-devel libyaml-devel libffi-devel openssl-devel ;
yum install -y make bzip2 ;
yum install -y iconv-devel # NOTE: For centos 5.4 final iconv-devel might not be available :(
# For JRuby (if you wish to use it) you will need:
jruby: yum install -y java
For rbx (Rubinius) more then 600MB of free RAM required.
You must now complete the install by loading RVM in new shells.
1) Place the folowing line at the end of your shell's loading files
(.bashrc or .bash_profile for bash and .zshrc for zsh),
after all PATH/variable settings:
[[ -s "/home/arsturges/.rvm/scripts/rvm" ]] && source "/home/arsturges/.rvm/scripts/rvm" # This loads RVM into a shell session.
You only need to add this line the first time you install rvm.
2) Ensure that there is no 'return' from inside the ~/.bashrc file,
otherwise rvm may be prevented from working properly.
This means that if you see something like:
'[ -z "$PS1" ] && return'
then you change this line to:
if [[ -n "$PS1" ]] ; then
# ... original content that was below the '&& return' line ...
fi # <= be sure to close the if at the end of the .bashrc.
# This is a good place to source rvm v v v
[[ -s "/home/arsturges/.rvm/scripts/rvm" ]] && source "/home/arsturges/.rvm/scripts/rvm" # This loads RVM into a shell session.
EOF - This marks the end of the .bashrc file
Be absolutely *sure* to REMOVE the '&& return'.
If you wish to DRY up your config you can 'source ~/.bashrc' at the bottom of your .bash_profile.
Placing all non-interactive (non login) items in the .bashrc,
including the 'source' line above and any environment settings.
3) CLOSE THIS SHELL and open a new one in order to use rvm.
Installation of RVM to /home/arsturges/.rvm/ is complete.
Andy Sturges,
Thank you very much for using RVM! I sincerely hope that RVM helps to
make your work both easier and more enjoyable.
If you have any questions, issues and/or ideas for improvement please
join#rvm on irc.freenode.net and let me know, note you must register
(http://bit.ly/5mGjlm) and identify (/msg nickserv ) to
talk, this prevents spambots from ruining our day.
My irc nickname is 'wayneeseguin' and I hang out in #rvm typically
~09:00-17:00EDT and again from ~21:00EDT-~23:00EDT
If I do not respond right away, please hang around after asking your
question, I will respond as soon as I am back. It is best to talk in
#rvm itself as then other users can help out should I be offline.
Be sure to get head often as rvm development happens fast,
you can do this by running 'rvm get head' followed by 'rvm reload'
or opening a new shell
w⦿‿⦿t
~ Wayne
Notice a few things about this comprehensive output:
- Wayne has customized his installation script (which produced this file) to produce output specific to my linux distribution (CentOS 5.6). This means he provides "yum" commands, instead of, say, Ubuntu's "apt-get".
- He notes several dependencies:
dependencies:
# For RVM
rvm: yum install -y bash curl git # NOTE: For git you need the EPEL repository enabled
# For Ruby (MRI & Ree) you should install the following OS dependencies:
ruby: yum install -y gcc-c++ patch readline readline-devel zlib zlib-devel libyaml-devel libffi-devel openssl-devel ;
yum install -y make bzip2 ;
yum install -y iconv-devel # NOTE: For centos 5.4 final iconv-devel might not be available :(
We can run these commands as-is, which I'll do below.
- He gives us three steps to complete the installation:
- Place the folowing line at the end of your shell's loading files
(.bashrc or .bash_profile for bash and .zshrc for zsh),
after all PATH/variable settings:
- Ensure that there is no 'return' from inside the ~/.bashrc file,
otherwise rvm may be prevented from working properly.
- CLOSE THIS SHELL and open a new one in order to use rvm.
These three steps basically take care of steps two and three in the on-line installation instructions.
- It talks about editing the .bashrc or .bash_profile. This can be done by using the vim text editor at the command line from your home (~) director:
$ cd ~
$ vim .bashrc
$ vim .bash_profile
So let's get to it.
Meet RVM's listed dependencies
As noted in the script output above, we should meet RVM's and Ruby's dependencies. I don't care about JRuby or other editions, so I'll ignore their dependencies. Copying the line from above:
$ yum install -y bash curl
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror
You need to be root to perform this command.
I need to be root, so I'll re-run the command, only prepending "sudo" in front of it:
$ sudo yum install -y bash curl
[sudo] password for arsturges:
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
* base: centos.mirror.facebook.net
* extras: mirror.nwresd.org
* rpmforge: ftp-stud.fht-esslingen.de
* updates: centos.mirrors.hoobly.com
Setting up Install Process
Package bash-3.2-24.el5.i386 already installed and latest version
Package curl-7.15.5-9.el5_6.2.i386 already installed and latest version
Nothing to do
This tells me those packages are all up-to-date. Next, try the Ruby OS dependencies (again adding "sudo"):
sudo yum install -y gcc-c++ patch readline readline-devel zlib zlib-devel libyaml-devel libffi-devel openssl-devel
This gives me the following output:
$ sudo yum install -y gcc-c++ patch readline readline-devel zlib zlib-devel libyaml-devel libffi-devel openssl-devel
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
* base: centos.mirror.facebook.net
* extras: mirror.5ninesolutions.com
* rpmforge: ftp-stud.fht-esslingen.de
* updates: centos.mirrors.hoobly.com
Setting up Install Process
Package gcc-c++-4.1.2-50.el5.i386 already installed and latest version
Package patch-2.5.4-31.el5.i386 already installed and latest version
Package readline-5.1-3.el5.i386 already installed and latest version
Package readline-devel-5.1-3.el5.i386 already installed and latest version
Package zlib-1.2.3-3.i386 already installed and latest version
Package zlib-devel-1.2.3-3.i386 already installed and latest version
Package openssl-devel-0.9.8e-12.el5_5.7.i386 already installed and latest version
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package libffi-devel.i386 0:3.0.9-1.el5.rf set to be updated
--> Processing Dependency: libffi = 3.0.9-1.el5.rf for package: libffi-devel
--> Processing Dependency: libffi.so.5 for package: libffi-devel
---> Package libyaml-devel.i386 0:0.1.3-1.el5.rf set to be updated
--> Processing Dependency: libyaml = 0.1.3-1.el5.rf for package: libyaml-devel
--> Processing Dependency: libyaml-0.so.2 for package: libyaml-devel
--> Running transaction check
---> Package libffi.i386 0:3.0.9-1.el5.rf set to be updated
---> Package libyaml.i386 0:0.1.3-1.el5.rf set to be updated
--> Finished Dependency Resolution
Dependencies Resolved
====================================================================================
Package Arch Version Repository Size
====================================================================================
Installing:
libffi-devel i386 3.0.9-1.el5.rf rpmforge 16 k
libyaml-devel i386 0.1.3-1.el5.rf rpmforge 12 k
Installing for dependencies:
libffi i386 3.0.9-1.el5.rf rpmforge 87 k
libyaml i386 0.1.3-1.el5.rf rpmforge 115 k
Transaction Summary
====================================================================================
Install 4 Package(s)
Upgrade 0 Package(s)
Total download size: 230 k
Downloading Packages:
(1/4): libyaml-devel-0.1.3-1.el5.rf.i386.rpm | 12 kB 00:00
(2/4): libffi-devel-3.0.9-1.el5.rf.i386.rpm | 16 kB 00:00
(3/4): libffi-3.0.9-1.el5.rf.i386.rpm | 87 kB 00:00
(4/4): libyaml-0.1.3-1.el5.rf.i386.rpm | 115 kB 00:00
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 84 kB/s | 230 kB 00:02
Running rpm_check_debug
Running Transaction Test
Finished Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Running Transaction
Installing : libyaml 1/4
Installing : libffi 2/4
Installing : libffi-devel 3/4
Installing : libyaml-devel 4/4
Installed:
libffi-devel.i386 0:3.0.9-1.el5.rf libyaml-devel.i386 0:0.1.3-1.el5.rf
Dependency Installed:
libffi.i386 0:3.0.9-1.el5.rf libyaml.i386 0:0.1.3-1.el5.rf
Complete!
As you can see, it found most of those packages installed and up-to-date, but it did find some new ones as well, which it installed without issue.
The next two lines I'll run together, as Wayne wrote them, split by a semi-collon:
sudo yum install -y make bzip2; sudo yum install -y iconv-devel
Without listing all the output, I'll say that these packages were found to be up-to-date.
Now that we've met all the listed dependencies, we continue by following the enumerated instructions. Step one is: Place the folowing line at the end of your shell's loading files (.bashrc or .bash_profile for bash and .zshrc for zsh), after all PATH/variable settings:
[[ -s "/home/arsturges/.rvm/scripts/rvm" ]] && source "/home/arsturges/.rvm/scripts/rvm" # This loads RVM into a shell session.
The .bashrc file is run each time you open a Bash shell terminal window, and since we'll be running RVM througha Bash shell, this line will be invoked before we ever need to use RVM. To add it, simply copy it, open the file with vim, and paste it in as the last line in the file.
$ cd ~
$ vim .bashrc
Here's what my file looks like after I've added the line:
# .bashrc
# Source global definitions
if [ -f /etc/bashrc ]; then
. /etc/bashrc
fi
# User specific aliases and functions
[[ -s "/home/arsturges/.rvm/scripts/rvm" ]] && source "/home/arsturges/.rvm/scripts/rvm" # This loads RVM into a shell session.
The next step, according the instructions:
Ensure that there is no 'return' from inside the ~/.bashrc file
The script instructs us to "Ensure that there is no 'return' from inside the ~/.bashrc file,
otherwise rvm may be prevented from working properly." I checked mine and saw no such thing, so I'll continue.
Restart the shell
The next step: "CLOSE THIS SHELL and open a new one in order to use rvm." Just close and re-open the terminal window.
That's it for the script instructions. To see what to do next, we return to the on-line instructions, where we've basically completed step three. The next thing to do is see if it worked.
Test the installation
Type the following command, which should return the phrase "rvm is a function":
$ type rvm | head -1
rvm is a function
I have no idea what that does or why it worked, but as you can see, it worked for me. Now run
rvm notes as recommended:
$ rvm notes
Notes for Linux ( CentOS release 5.6 (Final) )
NOTE: 'ruby' represents Matz's Ruby Interpreter (MRI) (1.8.X, 1.9.X)
This is the *original* / standard Ruby Language Interpreter
'ree' represents Ruby Enterprise Edition
'rbx' represents Rubinius
bash >= 3.2 is required
curl is required
git is required (>= 1.7 recommended)
patch is required (for ree and some ruby-head's).
If you wish to install rbx and/or Ruby 1.9 head (MRI) (eg. 1.9.2-head),
then you must install and use rvm 1.8.7 first.
If you wish to have the 'pretty colors' again,
set 'export rvm_pretty_print_flag=1' in ~/.rvmrc.
dependencies:
# For RVM
rvm: yum install -y bash curl git # NOTE: For git you need the EPEL repository enabled
# For Ruby (MRI & Ree) you should install the following OS dependencies:
ruby: yum install -y gcc-c++ patch readline readline-devel zlib zlib-devel libyaml-devel libffi-devel openssl-devel ;
yum install -y make bzip2 ;
yum install -y iconv-devel # NOTE: For centos 5.4 final iconv-devel might not be available :(
# For JRuby (if you wish to use it) you will need:
jruby: yum install -y java
For rbx (Rubinius) more then 600MB of free RAM required.
This just reminds us of the dependencies we've already met for Ruby, and of the dependencies we'd need to meet if we wanted to run JRuby or rbx. Otherwise, we should be done with the installation, and ready to use RVM on CentOS 5.6.
Try it out
$ rvm list known
# MRI Rubies
[ruby-]1.8.6[-p420]
[ruby-]1.8.6-head
[ruby-]1.8.7[-p334]
[ruby-]1.8.7-head
[ruby-]1.9.1-p378
[ruby-]1.9.1[-p431]
[ruby-]1.9.1-head
[ruby-]1.9.2[-p180]
[ruby-]1.9.2-head
ruby-head
# GoRuby
goruby
# JRuby
jruby-1.2.0
jruby-1.3.1
jruby-1.4.0
jruby-1.6.0
jruby-1.6.1
jruby[-1.6.2]
jruby-head
# Rubinius
rbx-1.0.1
rbx-1.1.0
rbx-1.1.1
rbx-1.2.0
rbx-1.2.1
rbx-1.2.2
rbx-1.2.3
rbx[-head]
# Ruby Enterprise Edition
ree-1.8.6
ree[-1.8.7][-2011.03]
ree-1.8.6-head
ree-1.8.7-head
# Kiji
kiji
# MagLev
maglev[-25913]
maglev-head
# Mac OS X Snow Leopard Only
macruby[-0.10]
macruby-nightly
macruby-head
# IronRuby -- Not implemented yet.
ironruby-0.9.3
ironruby-1.0-rc2
ironruby-head
This shows a list of all the versions of Ruby RVM is capable of installing. For the moment, I just want a standard installation of the latest Ruby version, which is Ruby 1.9.2:
$ rvm install 1.9.2
Installing Ruby from source to: /home/arsturges/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p180, this may take a while depending on your cpu(s)...
ruby-1.9.2-p180 - #fetching
ruby-1.9.2-p180 - #downloading ruby-1.9.2-p180, this may take a while depending on your connection...
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
100 8609k 100 8609k 0 0 828k 0 0:00:10 0:00:10 --:--:-- 1078k
ruby-1.9.2-p180 - #extracting ruby-1.9.2-p180 to /home/arsturges/.rvm/src/ruby-1.9.2-p180
ruby-1.9.2-p180 - #extracted to /home/arsturges/.rvm/src/ruby-1.9.2-p180
Fetching yaml-0.1.3.tar.gz to /home/arsturges/.rvm/archives
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
100 455k 100 455k 0 0 586k 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 730k
--no-same-owner
Configuring yaml in /home/arsturges/.rvm/src/yaml-0.1.3.
Compiling yaml in /home/arsturges/.rvm/src/yaml-0.1.3.
Installing yaml to /home/arsturges/.rvm/usr
ruby-1.9.2-p180 - #configuring
ruby-1.9.2-p180 - #compiling
ruby-1.9.2-p180 - #installing
Removing old Rubygems files...
Installing rubygems dedicated to ruby-1.9.2-p180...
Retrieving rubygems-1.6.2
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
100 236k 100 236k 0 0 1053k 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 9025k
Extracting rubygems-1.6.2 ...
Installing rubygems for /home/arsturges/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p180/bin/ruby
Installation of rubygems completed successfully.
ruby-1.9.2-p180 - adjusting #shebangs for (gem irb erb ri rdoc testrb rake).
ruby-1.9.2-p180 - #importing default gemsets (/home/arsturges/.rvm/gemsets/)
Install of ruby-1.9.2-p180 - #complete
This took about 10 minutes on this particular server. Now that it's done and installed, play around with it:
$ ruby -v
ruby 1.8.7 (2009-12-24 patchlevel 248) [i686-linux], MBARI 0x8770, Ruby Enterprise Edition 2010.01
$ which ruby
/usr/local/bin/ruby
$ rvm use 1.9.2
Using /home/arsturges/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p180
$ ruby -v
ruby 1.9.2p180 (2011-02-18 revision 30909) [i686-linux]
$ which ruby
~/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p180/bin/ruby
As you can see, it's important to use the "rvm use" command to actually switch to a version of Ruby installed by RVM.
Conclusion
We followed the on-line RVM installation instructions on CentOS 5.6, first running the bash script, then following the instructions output by the script, including installing dependencies and adding one line to the .bashrc file. We did this without needing to upgrade git beyond what the CentOS default repositories offer.
Summary of commands for power users
$ cat /etc/issue
$ git --version
$ bash --version
$ bash < <(curl -sk https://rvm.beginrescueend.com/install/rvm)
$ sudo yum install -y bash curl git ;
sudo yum install -y gcc-c++ patch readline readline-devel zlib zlib-devel libyaml-devel libffi-devel openssl-devel ;
sudo yum install -y make bzip2 ;
yum install -y iconv-devel
Now place the following line in your .bashrc (but copy the one generated by your own installation, not mine):
[[ -s "/home/arsturges/.rvm/scripts/rvm" ]] && source "/home/arsturges/.rvm/scripts/rvm" # This loads RVM into a shell session.
Next, make sure that there is no 'return' from inside the ~/.bashrc file.
Now restart the shell, and test the installation:
$ type rvm | head -1
rvm is a function
This should return the phrase "rvm is a function".
$ rvm notes
$ rvm list known
$ rvm install 1.9.2
Now try it out:
$ ruby -v
ruby 1.8.7 (2009-12-24 patchlevel 248) [i686-linux], MBARI 0x8770, Ruby Enterprise Edition 2010.01
$ which ruby
/usr/local/bin/ruby
$ rvm use 1.9.2
Using /home/arsturges/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p180
$ ruby -v
ruby 1.9.2p180 (2011-02-18 revision 30909) [i686-linux]
$ which ruby
~/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p180/bin/ruby
Thank you to Wayne Seguin for RVM, and for all who contribute code, time, and money to open source software.
Donate to RVM to show your support.
~fin~
