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RVM
rvm.io
RVM: Ruby Version Manager - RVM Ruby Version Manager - Documentation
With RVM, you can run a test suite, rake tasks, benchmarks and gem commands against multiple ruby versions at the same time. This means that you can easily ensure your applications work in Ruby 1.8.X, REE, MRI 1.9.1, jruby, etc... and quickly expose any areas in which they do not. RVM has an extremely flexible gem management system called Named Gem Sets.
software tool to manage Ruby programming language versions
Ruby Version Manager, often abbreviated as RVM, is a software platform for Unix-like operating systems designed to manage multiple installations of Ruby on the same device. The entire Ruby environment including the … Wikipedia
Factsheet
Developers Wayne E. Seguin, Michal Papis
Stable release 1.29.12
/ January 15, 2021; 5 years ago (2021-01-15)
Written in Bash, Ruby
Factsheet
Developers Wayne E. Seguin, Michal Papis
Stable release 1.29.12
/ January 15, 2021; 5 years ago (2021-01-15)
Written in Bash, Ruby
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Medium
medium.com › @lslozano › installing-ruby-version-manager-on-my-macbook-887dcfe45e99
How to install Ruby Version Manager on Macbook | by Luis Lozano | Medium
October 17, 2022 - In this article I talk about all the steps I took to install Ruby Version Manager on my Macbook. From a failed attempt to a successful installation.
Discussions

Which ruby version manager is most used nowadays?
No issues with rbenv for me. asdf does look interesting More on reddit.com
🌐 r/ruby
101
52
October 25, 2024
Two different ruby versions on mac? - Stack Overflow
There are to different versions because Mac OSX already includes one by default for system scripts (2.6). Homebrew install another one that never overrides o reemplace the System Wide version. You are looking for a "Ruby Version Manager", are tools that allow you to install and use different ... More on stackoverflow.com
🌐 stackoverflow.com
macos - Using Homebrew vs a ruby version manager on OS X? - Stack Overflow
IMHO the most important reason to use a version manager is to be able to run multiple different versions of Ruby on the same machine e.g. to test gems with different versions or to run several (legacy and new) applications on the same development computer. More on stackoverflow.com
🌐 stackoverflow.com
How to install Ruby with RVM (Ruby version manager) on Ubuntu Linux!

Just https://github.com/rbenv/rbenv

More on reddit.com
🌐 r/elsif
2
2
January 25, 2022
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Ruby
ruby-lang.org › en › documentation › installation
Installing Ruby | Ruby
It manages installations automatically and includes a gem backend to manage versions of CLIs written in Ruby. It supports UNIX-like and Windows operating systems. rbenv allows you to manage multiple installations of Ruby. While it can’t install Ruby by default, its ruby-build plugin can. Both tools are available for macOS, Linux, or other UNIX-like operating systems.
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SitePoint
sitepoint.com › blog › programming › a comparison of ruby version managers for macos
A Comparison of Ruby Version Managers for macOS — SitePoint
November 6, 2024 - In this article, I’ll compare the most popular version managers for Ruby on a Mac: Chruby, Rbenv, and RVM, as well as Asdf, a version manager for multiple languages, and Frum, a brand new version manager written in Rust.
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JetBrains
jetbrains.com › help › ruby › ruby-version-managers.html
Ruby version managers | RubyMine Documentation
October 20, 2025 - The most popular way to install Ruby on Linux or macOS is using a version manager, for example, RVM or rbenv. Version managers allow you to install several Ruby versions on your machine and quickly switch between them.
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DEV Community
dev.to › yet_anotherdev › state-of-ruby-what-version-manager-to-use-4gbg
State of Ruby : What version manager to use - DEV Community
October 11, 2023 - Rbenv and ASDF both use the same underlying gem, which is ruby-build. ChRuby is not extensible, and you can only manage Ruby with it. But it comes with ruby-mac, an excellent tool for installing ruby quickly on Mac.
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GitHub
github.com › rbenv › rbenv
GitHub - rbenv/rbenv: Manage your app's Ruby environment · GitHub
On macOS or Linux, we recommend installing rbenv with Homebrew. ... [!CAUTION] The version of rbenv that is packaged and maintained in official Debian and Ubuntu repositories is out of date.
Starred by 16.7K users
Forked by 1.4K users
Languages   Shell 97.8% | Ruby 1.6%
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Mac Install Guide
mac.install.guide › ruby
Install the Latest Ruby Version · Ruby 4.0 · Mac Install Guide
Tooling has evolved, and I now can recommend Mise and rv to simplify installation and version management, with Homebrew as an option for more casual use. These tutorials cover every aspect of Ruby installation on Mac, and compare the older version ...
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/ruby › which ruby version manager is most used nowadays?
r/ruby on Reddit: Which ruby version manager is most used nowadays?
October 25, 2024 -

Do you guys know which version manager for Ruby is the go-to nowadays? Is anything known about how it is done at bigger companies like Shopify and 37signals?

I stumbled upon this comparison on github and there seem to be quite a few.

https://github.com/rbenv/rbenv/wiki/Comparison-of-version-managers

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Mac Install Guide
mac.install.guide › mise › mise-ruby-mac
Ruby with Mise Version Manager · Mac Install Guide · 2026
March 9, 2026 - Mise is multi-language version manager for Mac. Manage Ruby versions on Mac with mise instead of rbenv. Install, switch versions, manage gems, and configure Rails projects with Ruby and Node.js.
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GitHub
gist.github.com › denji › 8706676
Homebrew + RVM > Awesome · GitHub
February 17, 2026 - RVM (Ruby Version Manager) takes care of managing my multiple Ruby and Gem versions. Leaving the OS X default installation of ruby alone, RVM installs to a users home directory, changing the required system variables.
Top answer
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19

There are to different versions because Mac OSX already includes one by default for system scripts (2.6). Homebrew install another one that never overrides o reemplace the System Wide version.

You are looking for a "Ruby Version Manager", are tools that allow you to install and use different versions of Ruby, even per project.

The popular ones are RVM and rbenv. Personally, i choose rbenv and I think that is the most widely used of both. Example of use:

# Install ruby 2.7
rbenv install 2.7.1

# Make ruby 2.7 the default version
$ rbenv global 2.7.1

# Or make 2.7 the default versión only on a specific project
$ cd myproject
$ rbenv local 2.7.1
# this create a ".ruby-version" file

This webpage always have the most recent and easy to use tutorial for setup a Ruby environment, depending on the OS and version.

https://gorails.com/setup/osx/10.15-catalina#overview

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You have two different versions of Ruby installed, because MacOS natively comes with a standard installation of Ruby.

You also have rails pointing to the system version of Ruby. That version is usually under /usr/bin/ruby. The Homebrew installed version of Ruby (which is what you want) is located under /usr/local/bin/ruby unless you specified a completely different root path to install your brew packages.

Running brew config will give you a short list of data about your Homebrew configuration. Among them is an environment variable called HOMEBREW_PREFIX, which should look something like this:

$ brew config
....
HOMEBREW_PREFIX: /usr/local
....

I recommend placing /usr/local/bin first on your PATH environment variable so that you can easily use your brew packages via the CLI:

export PATH="/usr/local/bin:$PATH"

You may also want to look into setting the following environment variables for whichever shell you are using (examples given):

  • RUBY_ENGINE=ruby
  • RUBY_VERSION=2.7.1
  • GEM_ROOT=/usr/local/etc/ruby-2.7.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.7.1 (alias for GEM_HOME)

gem env gives a lot of great information on how Gems is configured.

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Medium
owanateamachree.medium.com › how-to-install-ruby-using-ruby-version-manager-rvm-on-macos-mojave-ab53f6d8d4ec
How To Install Ruby using Ruby Version Manager (RVM) on MacOS Mojave | by Owanate Amachree | Medium
June 8, 2020 - Ruby comes prepackaged with the MacOS, to see the system’s prepackaged ruby enter the following command into the terminal: ... The best way to install Ruby is using the Ruby Version Manager. RVM lets you switch between multiple versions of Ruby, ...
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RVM
rvm.io › rvm › install
RVM: Ruby Version Manager - Installing RVM
If you need a different (newer) version of RVM, after installing base version of RVM check the Upgrading section. ... To install without rubygems-bundler and rvm gems (and also remove those gems from both global.gems and default.gems):
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Mac Install Guide
mac.install.guide › faq › change-ruby-version
Change the Ruby Version in a Project · Mac Install Guide · 2026
March 18, 2026 - This is a project-level upgrade ... on your Mac, see Check Ruby Version and Update Ruby instead. To switch among Ruby versions as you transition and test your codebase, you'll want to Install the Latest Ruby Version and switch Rubies using a version manager....
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Mac Install Guide
mac.install.guide › ruby › 14
Install Ruby with Frum · Mac Install Guide
May 25, 2021 - Though it is new, I recommend it because it's all-in-one and fast. Here are instructions for installing Frum and Ruby. You'll need a terminal application to install Ruby. Apple includes the Mac terminal but I prefer Warp Terminal.
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Mac Install Guide
mac.install.guide › ruby › chruby
Install Ruby with Chruby · Mac Install Guide · 2026
May 12, 2021 - Chruby is a solid, low-maintenance choice for Ruby version switching on macOS, staying small, simple, and predictable. Use chruby when you want a focused Ruby manager instead of a general-purpose environment manager.
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Snyk
snyk.io › blog › how-to-install-ruby-in-mac-os
How to install Ruby in a macOS for local development | Snyk
September 27, 2022 - These tools avoid conflicting with the native Ruby Mac version by fetching the Ruby source code from the internet, compiling it locally, and making it available under a path. They then instruct you to add this new directory path onto your shell of choice, so the new Ruby version is available to use when you open new terminal interfaces. They are essentially Ruby version manager that allows you to quickly switch between different Ruby runtime versions as needed, depending on the Ruby install directory that was set.
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Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Ruby_Version_Manager
Ruby Version Manager - Wikipedia
December 3, 2024 - A developer can then switch between the different versions to work on several projects with different version requirements. In addition to MRI, the standard Ruby interpreter, RVM functions as an installer for various other implementations of Ruby. These include JRuby, mruby, MacRuby, IronRuby, ...