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Ruby

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JohnOberhauser edited this page Jan 27, 2024 · 2 revisions

Some tools we're using—for example Fastlane—depend on Ruby. They are primarily meant to run on CI, but you can run them locally if you want or need to. We're using rbenv to setup Ruby environment.

FAQs

Can I use ruby that comes with my system?

Maybe? Multiple guides, including the Fastlane guide I started from say this is a bad idea (on macOS anyway). Here's a post listing some reasons: Why You Shouldn't Use the System Ruby to Install Gems on a Mac. (Warning: the author also sells a script for installing and configuring Ruby automatically for $50!)

So I haven't even tried it really, so maaaaybe. But probably not? If you think this guide is an overkill and want to just try using system Ruby I guess go for it. But if something's weird or not working, remember people tried to warn you.

Can I use sudo when following instructions to install Ruby?

NO. If at some point you hit some errors and the solution that you think of or find online is to re-run the last command with sudo then don't. Go back to the last guide you were following, go back to this guide and make sure you didn't miss a step (like I did). Trust me, you don't need sudo to configure Ruby environment.

Ruby installation TL;DR

Here's what worked for me. Hope it works for you too:

  • Homebrew (if you know you already have Homebrew on your machine, skip to the next section)
    • Check if you have Homebrew installed: 
      brew --version
      For me it prints Homebrew 4.1.9. If it shows something similar for you, you have Homebrew installed nad can skip to the next section.
    • Follow instructions on https://brew.sh/ to install Homebrew.
  • rbenv:
    • Install rbenv from Homebrew: 
      brew install rbenv
    • Run rbenv init and follow printed instructions.
    • Close your Terminal window and open a new one so your changes take effect.
  • Ruby:
    • rbenv doesn't just install Ruby. It builds it. So you need a build environment. Sounds scary I know. rbenv wiki lists a bunch of things you need, but from my experience all you need is: 
      brew install gmp
      • Other packages it tells you to install already come as dependencies when you brew install rbenv. And the environment variable doesn't seem to be required (at least as long as you're not installing and old version of Ruby).
      • brew install rust is optional, we don't really need it. Some machines (like GitHub Actions runners) already come with it preinstalled so rbenv is going to use existing Rust if it's there.
    • Install the version of Ruby we defined in .ruby-version by running: 
      rbenv install "$(cat .ruby-version)"
    • Install Bundler 
      gem install bundler
    • Install needed gems 
      bundle install

References

In case the TL;DR doesn't work for you for some reason here are the guides I followed:

rbenv is not the only Ruby manager. I just ran with it because that's what Fastlane docs recommended. Later @bassrock recommended it too, which is all I needed to know and I didn't ask any questions. But just in case here are some resources on all available Ruby managers (which I didn't read):

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