Install Ruby on Rocky Linux

Enable EPEL

Rocky Linux keeps the base system lean and ships many developer tools through EPEL, the Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux collection.

Enable EPEL once with dnf before you install Ruby. After that step the package manager can find Ruby and its dependencies without extra setup.

Install Ruby with dnf

With the repositories ready, one dnf command installs Ruby for the whole system:

Install Ruby

sudo dnf install ruby

Confirm the install when dnf shows the package summary. It adds the ruby and gem commands so every new terminal can use them right away.

ruby -v

Check what was installed with one short command:

Show the installed Ruby version

ruby -v

ruby 3.0.4 (2022-04-12 revision 6787cd5c8f) [x86_64-linux]

You will see the word ruby followed by the version number and build details. If the terminal reports that the command was not found, repeat the dnf step above.

Notes on newer versions

Enterprise distributions favor stability over freshness, so the packaged Ruby may lag behind the newest release. That is expected and it is fine for this course.

When a project later requires a newer Ruby, use a version manager such as rbenv or a container image. Those options live beside the system Ruby and leave the base system untouched.

Next: Install Ruby on macOS

Article author: Arthur Isaev