How To Upgrade Ruby

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Upgrading Ruby is essential for keeping your applications up-to-date with the latest features, bug fixes, and security patches. In this guide, we will cover how to upgrade Ruby on your machine in a few simple steps.

Step 1: Check your current Ruby version

Before upgrading your Ruby version, it’s a good idea to check the version currently installed on your system. To do this, open your terminal or command prompt and type the following command:

ruby -v

This command will display your current Ruby version. For example:

ruby 2.7.1p83 (2020-03-31 revision a0c7c23c9c) [x86_64-darwin19]

Step 2: Install a Ruby version manager

A Ruby version manager makes it easy to install, manage, and switch between multiple Ruby versions on your system. We recommend using RVM (Ruby Version Manager) or rbenv.

Installing RVM

Open your terminal or command prompt and run the following command to install RVM:

curl -sSL https://get.rvm.io | bash -s stable

After installation, load RVM by running:

source ~/.rvm/scripts/rvm

Verify the installation by running:

rvm -v

Installing rbenv

If you prefer to use rbenv, install it using Homebrew on macOS:

brew install rbenv

For other platforms, follow the instructions in the rbenv GitHub repository. Once installed, add this line to your shell configuration file (e.g., ~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc):

eval "$(rbenv init -)"

Restart your terminal or run the following command to apply the changes:

source ~/.bashrc

Verify the installation by running:

rbenv -v

Step 3: Install the latest Ruby version

Now that you have a version manager installed, it’s time to upgrade Ruby. First, check the official Ruby website for the latest stable version.

Installing a new Ruby version with RVM

Use the following command to install the latest Ruby version (replace NEW_VERSION with the actual version number):

rvm install NEW_VERSION

Set the new version as the default:

rvm use NEW_VERSION --default

Installing a new Ruby version with rbenv

Use the following command to install the latest Ruby version (replace NEW_VERSION with the actual version number):

rbenv install NEW_VERSION

Set the new version as the global default:

rbenv global NEW_VERSION

Step 4: Verify the upgrade

Finally, check that the Ruby upgrade was successful by running:

ruby -v

You should now see the new Ruby version displayed in the terminal.

Conclusion

Upgrading Ruby is essential for maintaining up-to-date applications and taking advantage of the latest features, bug fixes, and security patches. With a Ruby version manager like RVM or rbenv, upgrading Ruby is a simple and hassle-free process. Happy coding!