Merge pull request #8 from juliotrigo/installing-ruby-on-a-mac

New article: installing Ruby on a Mac

_posts/2023-02-26-installing-ruby-on-a-mac.md

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+---
+layout: post
+title: "Installing Ruby on a Mac"
+author: Julio Trigo
+date: 2023-02-28 20:45:00 +0100
+modified_date: 2023-02-28 20:45:00 +0100
+last_modified_at: 2023-02-28 20:45:00 +0100
+permalink: /articles/installing-ruby-on-a-mac/
+tags:
+  - Ruby
+  - chruby
+  - ruby-install
+
+---
+
+There are already quite a few guides and articles that explain how to install Ruby so I don't intend to create another one.
+What I'm going to do is to document the steps I took to install Ruby on my Mac and summarise how I made it work.
+
+This is a fantastic article about [the fastest and easiest way to install Ruby on a Mac](https://www.moncefbelyamani.com/how-to-install-xcode-homebrew-git-rvm-ruby-on-mac/), linked from the [Jekyll on macOS](https://jekyllrb.com/docs/installation/macos/) installation page.
+
+This is another article that explains the benefits of using `chruby`: [why I use chruby instead of RVM or rbenv](https://stevemarshall.com/journal/why-i-use-chruby/).
+
+The [Why You Should Never Use sudo to Install Ruby Gems](https://www.moncefbelyamani.com/why-you-should-never-use-sudo-to-install-ruby-gems/) article is also worth reading.
+
+<!--more-->
+
+## Install chruby and ruby-install
+I’m going to use [chruby](https://github.com/postmodern/chruby) as a Ruby version manager and [ruby-install](https://github.com/postmodern/ruby-install) as a tool to install Ruby.
+
+They can be both installed using [Homebrew](https://brew.sh/).
+
+```shell
+$ brew install chruby ruby-install
+```
+
+## Install Ruby using ruby-install
+
+Then we can install all the Ruby versions that we need with `ruby-install`:
+
+```shell
+$ ruby-install 2.7.7
+>>> Updating ruby versions ...
+>>> Installing ruby 2.7.7 into /Users/<username>/.rubies/ruby-2.7.7 ...
+>>> Installing dependencies for ruby 2.7.7 ...
+# ...
+>>> Successfully installed ruby 2.7.7 into /Users/<username>/.rubies/ruby-2.7.7
+
+$ ruby-install 3.1.3
+>>> Installing ruby 3.1.3 into /Users/<username>/.rubies/ruby-3.1.3 ...
+>>> Installing dependencies for ruby 3.1.3 ...
+# ...
+installing bundled gem cache:       /Users/<username>/.rubies/ruby-3.1.3/lib/ruby/gems/3.1.0/cache
+>>> Successfully installed ruby 3.1.3 into /Users/<username>/.rubies/ruby-3.1.3
+```
+
+## Configure chruby in the shell
+
+The next step is to configure `chruby` in the shell:
+
+```bash
+$ echo "source $(brew --prefix)/opt/chruby/share/chruby/chruby.sh" >> ~/.zshrc
+$ echo "source $(brew --prefix)/opt/chruby/share/chruby/auto.sh" >> ~/.zshrc
+$ echo "chruby ruby-3.1.3" >> ~/.zshrc
+```
+
+A few notes:
+* The Ruby version in `chruby ruby-3.1.3` should match the version of Ruby that we want to use,
+  which should have previously been installed
+* Without that third line, we’d need to manually call `chruby` every time we want to use something
+  different than the system Ruby
+* It assumes we’re using  `zsh`
+
+## Check the installation
+
+In a new terminal (once the additions to `.zshrc` have been executed),
+check that we’re using the right version of Ruby, which already comes with `bundle` installed:
+
+```shell
+$ ruby -v
+ruby 3.1.3p185 (2022-11-24 revision 1a6b16756e) [x86_64-darwin21]
+
+$ bundle --version
+Bundler version 2.3.26
+```
+
+At this point, we already have Ruby `3.1.3` installed and activated!
+
+## List available Ruby versions
+
+```shell
+$ chruby
+   ruby-2.7.7
+ * ruby-3.1.3
+```
+
+## Switch between Ruby versions
+
+```shell
+$ ruby -v
+ruby 3.1.3p185 (2022-11-24 revision 1a6b16756e) [x86_64-darwin21]
+$ chruby 2.7.7
+$ ruby -v
+ruby 2.7.7p221 (2022-11-24 revision 168ec2b1e5) [x86_64-darwin21]
+$ chruby 3.1.3
+$ ruby -v
+ruby 3.1.3p185 (2022-11-24 revision 1a6b16756e) [x86_64-darwin21]
+```
+
+## Set the Ruby version in the repository
+
+`chruby` will auto-switch Ruby versions based on the presence of a `.ruby-version` file in
+the folder we `cd` to.
+
+**NOTE**: this assumes that the `auto.sh` script has been sourced in the `.zshrc` file,
+as described in one of the previous sections.
+
+It's recommended to create a `.ruby-version` file to both document the Ruby version and
+to enable the auto-switch mechanism.
+
+```shell
+$ cd /full/path/to/my_project
+$ echo '3.1.3' >> .ruby-version
+```
+
+**NOTE**: remember not to add any trailing newlines to this file, as mentioned
+[here](https://docs.netlify.com/configure-builds/manage-dependencies/#ruby).
+
+Verify that it's working:
+
+```shell
+$ ruby -v
+ruby 2.6.10p210 (2022-04-12 revision 67958) [universal.x86_64-darwin21]
+$ cd my_project
+$ ruby -v
+ruby 3.1.3p185 (2022-11-24 revision 1a6b16756e) [x86_64-darwin21]
+```
+
+## Install Ruby gems
+
+We can now install gems with `gem install` or use bundler to install them:
+
+```shell
+$ bundle add webrick
+$ bundle install
+```
+
+And check the RubyGems paths:
+
+```shell
+$ gem env
+RubyGems Environment:
+  - RUBYGEMS VERSION: 3.3.26
+  - RUBY VERSION: 3.1.3 (2022-11-24 patchlevel 185) [x86_64-darwin21]
+  - INSTALLATION DIRECTORY: /Users/<username>/.gem/ruby/3.1.3
+  - USER INSTALLATION DIRECTORY: /Users/<username>/.gem/ruby/3.1.0
+  - RUBY EXECUTABLE: /Users/<username>/.rubies/ruby-3.1.3/bin/ruby
+  - EXECUTABLE DIRECTORY: /Users/<username>/.gem/ruby/3.1.3/bin
+  - SPEC CACHE DIRECTORY: /Users/<username>/.local/share/gem/specs
+  - SYSTEM CONFIGURATION DIRECTORY: /Users/<username>/.rubies/ruby-3.1.3/etc
+# ...
+```
+
+**NOTE**: a previous step could have been to configure a location where the gems can be
+installed for our project, in isolation from the rest of the other projects we might have,
+but I won't be covering it in this article.