Installs Ruby, JRuby, TruffleRuby (native / GraalVM), or mruby.

• Supports installing arbitrary versions.
• Supports downloading the latest versions and checksums from ruby-versions.
• Supports installing into /opt/rubies/ for root and ~/.rubies/ for users by default.
• Supports installing into arbitrary directories.
• Supports downloading from arbitrary URLs.
• Supports downloading from mirrors.
• Supports downloading/applying patches.
• Supports specifying arbitrary ./configure options.
• Supports downloading archives using wget or curl.
• Supports verifying downloaded archives via MD5, SHA1, SHA256 or SHA512 checksums.
• Supports installing build dependencies via the package manager:
  • apt
  • dnf
  • yum
  • pacman
  • zypper
  • xbps
  • pkg
  • macports
  • brew
• Has tests.

• Does not require updating every time a new Ruby version comes out.
• Does not require recipes for each individual Ruby version or configuration.
• Does not support installing trunk/HEAD or nightly rolling releases.
• Does not support installing unsupported/unmaintained versions of Ruby.

• bash >= 3.x
• grep
• wget > 1.12 or curl
• md5sum or md5
• sha1sum or sha1
• sha256sum or sha256
• sha512sum or sha512
• tar
• bzip2
• xz
• patch (if --patch is specified)
• gcc >= 4.2 or clang

List supported Rubies and their current stable versions:

$ ruby-install

Updates then list the supported Rubies and their current stable versions:

$ ruby-install --update

Install the current stable version of Ruby:

$ ruby-install ruby

Install the latest version of Ruby:

$ ruby-install --update ruby

Install a stable version of Ruby:

$ ruby-install ruby 3.1

Install a specific version of Ruby:

$ ruby-install ruby 3.1.2

Install a Ruby into a specific directory:

$ ruby-install --install-dir /path/to/dir ruby

Install a Ruby into a specific rubies directory:

$ ruby-install --rubies-dir /path/to/rubies/ ruby

Install a Ruby into /usr/local:

$ ruby-install --system ruby 3.1.2

Install a Ruby from an official site with directly download:

$ ruby-install -M https://ftp.ruby-lang.org/pub/ruby ruby 3.1.2

Install a Ruby from a mirror:

$ ruby-install -M http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/ftp.ruby-lang.org/pub/ruby ruby 3.1.2

Install a Ruby with a specific patch:

$ ruby-install -p https://raw.github.com/gist/4136373/falcon-gc.diff ruby 1.9.3-p551

Install a Ruby with a specific C compiler:

$ ruby-install ruby 3.1.2 -- CC=clang

Install a Ruby with specific configuration:

$ ruby-install ruby 3.1.2 -- --enable-shared --enable-dtrace CFLAGS="-O3"

Install a Ruby without installing dependencies first:

$ ruby-install --no-install-deps ruby 3.1.2

Uninstall a Ruby version:

$ rm -rf ~/.rubies/ruby-3.1.2

Using ruby-install with RVM:

$ ruby-install --rubies-dir ~/.rvm/rubies ruby-3.2.0-preview3

Using ruby-install with rbenv:

$ ruby-install --install-dir ~/.rbenv/versions/3.2.0-preview3 ruby-3.2.0-preview3

ruby-install can even be used with Chef.

wget https://github.com/postmodern/ruby-install/releases/download/v0.9.3/ruby-install-0.9.3.tar.gz
tar -xzvf ruby-install-0.9.3.tar.gz
cd ruby-install-0.9.3/
sudo make install

All releases are PGP signed for security. Instructions on how to import my PGP key can be found on my blog. To verify that a release was not tampered with:

wget https://github.com/postmodern/ruby-install/releases/download/v0.9.3/ruby-install-0.9.3.tar.gz.asc
gpg --verify ruby-install-0.9.3.tar.gz.asc ruby-install-0.9.3.tar.gz

ruby-install can also be installed with homebrew:

brew install ruby-install

Or the absolute latest ruby-install can be installed from source:

brew install ruby-install --HEAD

ruby-install is already included in the AUR:

yaourt -S ruby-install

ruby-install is available on Fedora Copr.

ruby-install is included in the official FreeBSD ports collection:

cd /usr/ports/devel/ruby-install/ && make install clean

Please see the wiki.

• RVM
• ruby-build

I like the approach you're taking. Curious to see how it plays out.

-- Sam Stephenson of rbenv