How to tell Terminal which version of Ruby to use?

[SBR210]

Hello,

I have two related questions that I was hoping someone could help out with.

1. I recently installed Ruby 1.9.2 on my Mac (running Snow Leopard 10.6.4) and I haven’t been able to figure out how to get Terminal to use the new Ruby as a default, rather than the factory-installed Ruby 1.8.7. The old Ruby 1.8.7 is located in my ~/usr/bin/ruby directory while the new Ruby 1.9.2 is in ~/usr/local/bin/ruby. Someone said that I need to put the new version of Ruby's directory in the PATH prior to the old version's directory so that the system looks there first - is this correct? If so, can anyone provide step by step instructions on how to do this?

2. I’ve created a new directory but can’t seem to figure out the correct way to add that directory to my PATH using the Terminal bash shell. I tried using the instructions that I found here (

http://www.macgasm.net/2008/04/10/adding-a-new-location-to-your-path-variable-within-terminal/)

twice but they didn't work for me. The directory containing my program ("Ruby_Programs") shows up in the PATH but when I try to run "ruby newprogram.rb" from the command line it results in ":ruby: No such file or directory -- newprogram.rb (LoadError)".

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Here is my current PATH:

$ echo $PATH
/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/Users/*******/src:/usr/X11/bin:/Users/*******/Ruby_Programs/:

 

[feherke]

Hi

Someone said that I need to put the new version of Ruby's directory in the PATH prior to the old version's directory so that the system looks there first - is this correct?

That is what I would also recommend. Some other ways that come in mind
[ul]
[li]create a symlink called ruby, somewhere in a directory already enumerated somewhere in the front of the [tt]PATH[/tt], pointing to the new interpreter [/li]
[li]create a Bash alias called ruby, having the value the full path to the new interpreter ( will no work in a shebang )[/li]
[li]create a Bash function called ruby, executing one of the interpreters specified with full path based on [tt]PWD[/tt], choosing based on some rules you set up for it ( will not work in a shebang )[/li]
[li]uninstall the old interpreter[/li]
[/ul]

If so, can anyone provide step by step instructions on how to do this?

I would suggest to ask that in a Mac OS forum. On thing to note anyway : the article you linked to talks about ~/.bash_login . That is executed only for login shells and shells started with --login option. But opening a terminal window in a graphic environment does not open a login shell, so the mentioned file will not be sourced. I suggest to move/copy the setting of [tt]PATH[/tt] to the ~/.bashrc file.

Feherke.

http://free.rootshell.be/~feherke/

 

[Trevoke]

You can also look up "rvm" and install that...

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