如何使用rvm在Ubuntu 12.04上安装ruby 1.8.7？

Question

I'm working with a legacy rails system. I need a copy of ruby 1.8.7 I've just been given a new computer at work (finally) and it has ubuntu 12.04

Unfortunately I've just discovered that the rvm-rubies available for my system do not contain 1.8.7 (see list below)

How can I install ruby 1.8.7? Is there another source that I can point to that will work?

Please note: I did not use apt-get to install rvm, that is not the problem

This is the list of available rubies:

# Rubies available for 'ubuntu/12.04/x86_64':

   ruby-1.9.3-p194
   ruby-1.9.3-p286
   ruby-1.9.3-p327
   ruby-1.9.3-p362
   ruby-1.9.3-p374
   ruby-1.9.3-p392
   ruby-1.9.3-p429
   ruby-1.9.3-p448
   ruby-2.0.0-p0
   ruby-2.0.0-p195
   ruby-2.0.0-p247

Edit:

Just so you know, here's the output of some of the simpler rvm commands:

triton:[~]% rvm list  

rvm rubies

# No rvm rubies installed yet. Try 'rvm help install'.

And rvm install gives this message (which make sit clear there is no version of 1.8.7 in the standard repository).

triton:[~]% rvm install 1.8.7
Searching for binary rubies, this might take some time.
No binary rubies available for: ubuntu/12.04/x86_64/ruby-1.8.7-p374.
Continuing with compilation. Please read 'rvm help mount' to get more information on binary rubies.
You requested building with 'gcc-4.4' but it is not in your path.

Answer 1

From the documentation:

To install a specific tagged version of ruby from the repository we specify -t(tag name).

It then goes on to talk about branches...

Repository Branches (MRI)

To install a specific branch version of ruby from the repository we specify --branch (branch name). Named rubies can help avoid clashes.

$ rvm install ruby-head -n zombie --branch ruby_1_8 && rvm ruby-head-zombie
$ ruby -v
ruby 1.8.8dev (2012-05-21) [i386-darwin10.8.0]
$ rvm install ruby-head -n newborn && rvm ruby-head-newborn
$ ruby -v
ruby 2.0.0dev (2012-06-03 trunk 35876) [x86_64-darwin10.8.0]

You'll find a list of all valid branches in the ruby repository: http://svn.ruby-lang.org/repos/ruby/branches/

You have access to much more than what is shown.

ruby_1_3/
ruby_1_4/
ruby_1_6/
ruby_1_8/
ruby_1_8_5/
ruby_1_8_6/
ruby_1_8_7/
ruby_1_9_1/
ruby_1_9_2/
ruby_1_9_3/
ruby_2_0_0/

More hints on the RVM official website

Also, for additional help, the IRC Chat room on freenode.net is awesome!

Answer 2

what you have presented is output from rvm list remote - which list binary (already compiled) rubies for your system, to see more possible choices of version run rvm list which will include 1.8.7 :

# MRI Rubies
[ruby-]1.8.6[-p420]
[ruby-]1.8.7[-p374]
[ruby-]1.9.1[-p431]
[ruby-]1.9.2[-p320]
[ruby-]1.9.3[-p448]
[ruby-]2.0.0-p195
[ruby-]2.0.0[-p247]
[ruby-]2.0.0-head
ruby-head

and it continues with number of other ruby distributions.

If not sure you can always just run:

rvm install 1.8.7

RVM does all kind of detections and will most likely know what to do with specified version.

Answer 3

For future reference: I figured it out.

The important clue was in the last line of the result for rvm install:

You requested building with 'gcc-4.4' but it is not in your path.

I had gcc version 4.6 but my .zshrc (copied from my previous computer) was pointing at this older version.

Because of this, rvm thought I didn't have a c-compiler. Which means that rvm wasn't able to install any rubies from source - only pre-compiled rubies - which means it was restricted to only those already pre-compiled for my platform (ie 64-bit ubuntu 12.04)

When I fixed the gcc line in my .zshrc - rvm was able to figure out how to install+compile source-code rubies - including v1.8.7