How to Install Ruby on Rails on CentOS 8

Ruby on Rails is a free and open-source web application framework that helps you to create a website with Ruby. Rails is a model–view–controller framework that combines the Ruby programming language with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS to write web applications runs on the webserver and simplifies common repetitive tasks. Rails comes with a set of conventions that helps developers to speed up development without spending a lot of time for file configuration.

In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Ruby on Rails framework on a CentOS 8 server.

Requirements

• A server running CentOS 8.
• A root password is configured on the server.

Install Ruby

The simple and easiest way to install Ruby using the RVM. RVM also known as “Ruby Version Manager” is a command-line tool that can be used to install and manage different Ruby versions from interpreters.

First, install curl and gnupg2 package with the following command:

dnf install curl gnupg2 -y

Next, you will need to import the RVM public key on your system:

gpg2 --keyserver hkp://pool.sks-keyservers.net --recv-keys 409B6B1796C275462A1703113804BB82D39DC0E3 7D2BAF1CF37B13E2069D6956105BD0E739499BDB

You should see the following output:

gpg: key 105BD0E739499BDB: 8 signatures not checked due to missing keys
gpg: key 105BD0E739499BDB: public key "Piotr Kuczynski <[email protected]>" imported
gpg: key 3804BB82D39DC0E3: 108 signatures not checked due to missing keys
gpg: key 3804BB82D39DC0E3: "Michal Papis (RVM signing) <[email protected]>" not changed
gpg: no ultimately trusted keys found
gpg: Total number processed: 2
gpg:               imported: 1
gpg:              unchanged: 1

Next, download and install the latest stable version of RVM using the following command:

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

Once the RVM is installed, you should get the following output:

Downloading https://github.com/rvm/rvm/archive/1.29.9.tar.gz
Downloading https://github.com/rvm/rvm/releases/download/1.29.9/1.29.9.tar.gz.asc
gpg: Signature made Wednesday 10 July 2019 04:31:02 AM EDT
gpg:                using RSA key 7D2BAF1CF37B13E2069D6956105BD0E739499BDB
gpg: Good signature from "Piotr Kuczynski <[email protected]>" [unknown]
gpg: WARNING: This key is not certified with a trusted signature!
gpg:          There is no indication that the signature belongs to the owner.
Primary key fingerprint: 7D2B AF1C F37B 13E2 069D  6956 105B D0E7 3949 9BDB
GPG verified '/usr/local/rvm/archives/rvm-1.29.9.tgz'
Creating group 'rvm'
Installing RVM to /usr/local/rvm/
Installation of RVM in /usr/local/rvm/ is almost complete:

Next, activate the RVM environment variable with the following command:

source /etc/profile.d/rvm.sh

Next, install all the Ruby dependencies by running the following command:

rvm requirements

Once all the dependencies are installed, you should see the following output:

Checking requirements for centos.
Installing requirements for centos.
Installing required packages: patch, autoconf, automake, bison, gcc-c  , libffi-devel, libtool, make, patch, readline-devel, ruby, sqlite-devel, zlib-devel, glibc-headers, glibc-devel, openssl-devel.........................................
Requirements installation successful.

You can now list all available Ruby versions with the following command:

rvm list known

You should see the following output:

# MRI Rubies
[ruby-]1.8.6[-p420]
[ruby-]1.8.7[-head] # security released on head
[ruby-]1.9.1[-p431]
[ruby-]1.9.2[-p330]
[ruby-]1.9.3[-p551]
[ruby-]2.0.0[-p648]
[ruby-]2.1[.10]
[ruby-]2.2[.10]
[ruby-]2.3[.8]
[ruby-]2.4[.6]
[ruby-]2.5[.5]
[ruby-]2.6[.3]
[ruby-]2.7[.0-preview1]
ruby-head

Now, you can install the Ruby version 2.6.3 using the following command:

rvm install 2.6.3

Next, run the following command to set the version 2.6.3 as the default version:

rvm use 2.6.3 --default

Output:

Using /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.6.3

You can also verify the installed version of Ruby using the following command:

ruby --version

Output:

ruby 2.6.3p62 (2019-04-16 revision 67580) [x86_64-linux]

Install Rails

You can install the latest version of Rails using the gem command as shown below:

gem install rails

After installing Rails, you can check the Rails version with the following command:

rails -v

You should see the following output:

Rails 6.0.2.1

Conclusion

In the above tutorial, you learned how to install Ruby on Rails on a CentOS 8 server. You can now easily install, manage and work with different Ruby versions using RVM. For more information, you can visit the Ruby official documentation at Ruby Doc.