Let’s say you have multiple ruby project on your laptop:
- project A with Ruby 2.6
- project B with Ruby 3.1 and dependencies in 5.x version
- project C with Ruby 3.1 too but dependencies in 8.x version
What a mess ! RVM to the rescue !
RVM is a tool who will let you manage your ruby environments
Install RVM
$ curl -sSL https://get.rvm.io | bash
Open a new terminal to be able to use it.
Get available ruby versions
$ rvm list known
Install multiple versions
Each ruby version you will install will be located on your home folder.
For the 3 version:
rvm install 3.1
For the 2.6 version
rvm install 2.6
Use a given version
rvm use 2.6
Create isolated environments
Project A
Let’s say you want to work on your project A with ruby 2.6.
Switch to ruby 2.6
rvm use 2.6
Create an isolated 2.6 environment for your project. It is called a gemset:
rvm gemset create project-a
Use it:
rvm gemset use project-a
Then install your gems:
bundle install
Project B
Let’s switch to your B project who is using Ruby 3.1
rvm use 3.1
And create an isolated 3 environment for your project.
rvm gemset create project-b
Use it:
rvm gemset use project-b
Then install your gems:
bundle install
RVM configuration files
You can make rvm automatically switch to your ruby environment and version automagically depending the project you are located in by creating a rvmrc file.
Create a .rvmrc file:
rvm rvmrc create
Trust your file:
rvm rvmrc trust
Convert configuration file to ruby version:
rvm rvmrc to ruby-version
Conclusion
You can now easily switch between your ruby environments.
First switch to a ruby version, then you can list available gemsets for a given ruby version with this command:
rvm gemset list
If you want to go back to ruby provided by your operating system:
rvm use system