Install Ruby from source - Centos 6

March 31, 2015

Install the required dependencies:

$ yum -y groupinstall "Development Tools"
$ yum -y install openssl-devel

Download, compile, and install Ruby 2.2.1:

$ cd /tmp
$ wget http://cache.ruby-lang.org/pub/ruby/2.2/ruby-2.2.1.tar.gz
$ tar xvfvz ruby-2.2.1.tar.gz
$ cd ruby-2.2.1
$ ./configure
$ make                 # this will take a while
$ make install

Update gems:

$ gem update --system       # updates rubygems itself
$ gem install bundler
$ gem update                # updates default gems

Check that Ruby and Rubygems are installed:

$ ruby --version       # 2.2.1
$ gem --version        # 2.4.6

Finally, clean up:

$ rm -rf /tmp/ruby-2.2.1
$ rm -f /tmp/ruby-2.2.1.tar.gz

And now you can...

$ irb
irb(main):001:0> puts "Hello #{ENV['HOSTNAME']}"
Hello plato
=> nil