Get started developing with Ruby on Red Hat Enterprise Linux in under 10 minutes.
In this tutorial, you will see how to get started with Ruby development on Red Hat Enterprise Linux by creating a simple Hello World application. The tutorial should take five to ten minutes to complete.
You will need a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 system with a current Red Hat subscription that allows you to download software and updates from Red Hat. If you don’t have a Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscription, you can try it for free. Get started with an evaluation at https://access.redhat.com/products/red-hat-enterprise-linux/evaluation. Developers should select the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Developer Workstation option to ensure your evaluation includes Red Hat Software Collections and the Red Hat Developer Toolset.
If you encounter difficulties at any point, see Troubleshooting and FAQ.
In this step, you will download and install the latest updates from Red Hat for your system. In the process, you will verify that your system has a current Red Hat subscription and is able to receive updates.
First, start a Terminal window from the Application menu. Then after using su
to change to the root user ID, use subscription-manager
to verify that you have access to Red Hat Software Repositories.
$ su -
# subscription-manager repos --list-enabled
If you don’t see any enabled repositories, your system might not be registered with Red Hat or might not have a valid subscription. See Troubleshooting and FAQ for more information.
Now download and install any available updates by running yum update
. If updates are available, yum
will list them and ask if it is OK to proceed.
# yum update
In this step you will download and install Ruby with a single command. If you don’t already have a Terminal window open, start one from the Applications menu. You will need to use su
to run with root priviledges.
$ su -
# yum install ruby ruby-irb
To see what other Ruby packages are included with Red Hat Enterprise Linux, run this command:
# yum list available ruby\*
You are now done with the part that requires root privileges. Type exit
to return to your normal user ID.
# exit
$
If you need help, see Troubleshooting and FAQ.
In this step, you will first run Ruby in interactive mode. Then you will create a Ruby application that can be run from the command line. If you don’t have a Terminal window open, start it from the Applications menu. You should run under your normal user ID, If you are still running as root, type exit
.
$ irb
irb(main):001:0> puts "Hello, Red Hat Developers World from Ruby " + RUBY_VERSION
Hello, Red Hat Developers World from Ruby 1.8.7
=> nil
irb(main):002:0> quit
The next step is to create a Ruby application that can be run from the command line. Using your preferred text editor, create a file named hello.rb
:
$ nano hello.rb
Add the following text to the file:
#!/usr/bin/env ruby
#
puts "Hello, Red Hat Developers World from Ruby " + RUBY_VERSION
Save it and exit the editor. Then make the script executable and run it:
$ chmod +x hello.rb
$ ./hello.rb
Hello, Red Hat Developers World from Ruby 1.8.7
Learn Ruby in 20 Minutesl at Ruby-lang.org
https://www.ruby-lang.org/en/documentation/quickstart/
Find additional Ruby packages
$ yum list available ruby\*
Red Hat delivers the resources and ecosystem of experts to help you be more productive and build great solutions. Register for free at developers.redhat.com.
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http://developerblog.redhat.com/
Learn about Red Hat Software Collections
Red Hat Software Collections deliver the latest stable versions of dynamic languages, open source databases, and web development tools that can be deployed alongside those included in Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Red Hat Software Collections is available with select Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscriptions and has a three-year life cycle to allow rapid innovation without sacrificing stability.
Learn about the Red Hat Developer Toolset
Red Hat Developer Toolset provides the latest, stable, open source C and C++ compilers and complementary development tools including Eclipse. DTS enables developers to compile applications once and deploy across multiple versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
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My system is unable to download updates from Red Hat?
I don’t have a current Red Hat subscription, can I get an evaluation?
If you don’t have a Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscription, you can try it for free. Get started with an evaluation at https://access.redhat.com/products/red-hat-enterprise-linux/evaluation. Developers should select the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Developer Workstation option to ensure your evaluation includes additional tools from the Red Hat Developer Toolset and Red Hat Software Collections.
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How can I get a newer version of Ruby on Red Hat Enterprise Linux?
A newer version of Ruby is available through Red Hat Software Collections which delivers the latest stable versions of dynamic languages, open source databases, and web development tools that can be deployed alongside those included in Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Red Hat Software Collections is available with select Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscriptions and has a three-year life cycle to allow rapid innovation without sacrificing stability.
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Some Ruby code/examples I’ve tried don’t work with Ruby 1.8.
There were a number of differences in the Ruby language between version 1.8 and 1.9 that require code changes. Many Ruby gems needed to be updated for 1.9 and later. If you’d prefer to use a later version of Ruby, Red Hat Software Collections provides Ruby 2.2 for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 and 7.