How do I install rvm without root access?

Question

I would like to install the travis gem on a machine without ruby gems, and on which I don't have root. (I want to encrypt something for use with travis.) I decided to try to install rvm, because https://rvm.io/rvm/install suggests that it is an easy way to install ruby without root. However, I ran into problems right away:

jgross@cagnode17:~$ \curl -L https://get.rvm.io | bash -s stable --ruby
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100 13961  100 13961    0     0  15390      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--  170k
Please read and follow further instructions.
Press ENTER to continue.
Downloading RVM from wayneeseguin branch stable
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100 1083k  100 1083k    0     0   200k      0  0:00:05  0:00:05 --:--:--  199k

Installing RVM to /afs/csail.mit.edu/u/j/jgross/.rvm/
    RVM PATH line found in /afs/csail.mit.edu/u/j/jgross/.bashrc /afs/csail.mit.edu/u/j/jgross/.zshrc.
    RVM sourcing line found in /afs/csail.mit.edu/u/j/jgross/.bash_profile /afs/csail.mit.edu/u/j/jgross/.zprofile.
Installation of RVM in /afs/csail.mit.edu/u/j/jgross/.rvm/ is almost complete:

  * To start using RVM you need to run `source /afs/csail.mit.edu/u/j/jgross/.rvm/scripts/rvm`
    in all your open shell windows, in rare cases you need to reopen all shell windows.

# Jason Gross,
#
#   Thank you for using RVM!
#   I sincerely hope that RVM helps to make your life easier and more enjoyable!!!
#
# ~Wayne

# In case of problems:
#      run and read: rvm notes
#         read docs: http://rvm.io/
#        talk to us: http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=rvm (http://freenode.net/faq.shtml#plusr)
#   read cheatsheet: http://cheat.errtheblog.com/s/rvm
#  watch screencast: http://screencasts.org/episodes/how-to-use-rvm
# open a bug report: https://github.com/wayneeseguin/rvm/issues

rvm 1.22.2 (stable) by Wayne E. Seguin <[email protected]>, Michal Papis <[email protected]> [https://rvm.io/]

Searching for binary rubies, this might take some time.
Checking requirements for debian.
Installing requirements for debian.
jgross password required for 'apt-get --quiet --yes update': 
Sorry, try again.
jgross password required for 'apt-get --quiet --yes update': 
Sorry, try again.
jgross password required for 'apt-get --quiet --yes update': 
Sorry, try again.
sudo: 3 incorrect password attempts
Requirements installation failed with status: 1.

So I tried again:

jgross@cagnode17:~$ \curl -L https://get.rvm.io | bash -s stable --ruby
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100 13961  100 13961    0     0  27936      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 27936
Please read and follow further instructions.
Press ENTER to continue.
Downloading RVM from wayneeseguin branch stable
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100 1083k  100 1083k    0     0   158k      0  0:00:06  0:00:06 --:--:--  186k

Upgrading the RVM installation in /afs/csail.mit.edu/u/j/jgross/.rvm/
    RVM PATH line found in /afs/csail.mit.edu/u/j/jgross/.bashrc /afs/csail.mit.edu/u/j/jgross/.zshrc.
    RVM sourcing line found in /afs/csail.mit.edu/u/j/jgross/.bash_profile /afs/csail.mit.edu/u/j/jgross/.zprofile.
Upgrade of RVM in /afs/csail.mit.edu/u/j/jgross/.rvm/ is complete.

# Jason Gross,
#
#   Thank you for using RVM!
#   I sincerely hope that RVM helps to make your life easier and more enjoyable!!!
#
# ~Wayne

# In case of problems:
#      run and read: rvm notes
#         read docs: http://rvm.io/
#        talk to us: http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=rvm (http://freenode.net/faq.shtml#plusr)
#   read cheatsheet: http://cheat.errtheblog.com/s/rvm
#  watch screencast: http://screencasts.org/episodes/how-to-use-rvm
# open a bug report: https://github.com/wayneeseguin/rvm/issues

Upgrade Notes:

  * No new notes to display.


rvm 1.22.2 (stable) by Wayne E. Seguin <[email protected]>, Michal Papis <[email protected]> [https://rvm.io/]

Searching for binary rubies, this might take some time.
Checking requirements for debian.
Installing requirements for debian.
jgross password required for 'apt-get --quiet --yes update': 
Sorry, try again.
jgross password required for 'apt-get --quiet --yes update': 
sudo: 1 incorrect password attempt
Requirements installation failed with status: 1.
ruby-2.0.0-p247 is not installed.
Creating alias default for ruby-2.0.0-p247.
Recording alias default for ruby-2.0.0-p247.
Creating default links/files
ruby-2.0.0-p247 is not installed.
Could not load ruby ruby-2.0.0-p247.
/afs/csail.mit.edu/u/j/jgross/.rvm/scripts/alias: line 108: /afs/csail.mit.edu/u/j/jgross/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.0.0-p247/bin/ruby: No such file or directory

  * To start using RVM you need to run `source /afs/csail.mit.edu/u/j/jgross/.rvm/scripts/rvm`
    in all your open shell windows, in rare cases you need to reopen all shell windows.

Trying rvm install 1.8 gives me the same error message about debian requirements. Do I have any option other than giving up rvm and building ruby from source?

Answer 1

TL;DR

You're missing package dependencies needed to build Ruby.

Packages and Autolibs

The issue your facing is that recent(ish) versions of RVM use a feature called autolibs that attempt to install package dependencies. Of course, you need sudo access to install system packages. You could try installing a Ruby interpreter with:

• --autolibs=read-only - to avoid the sudo error, but this is unlikely to result in a working binary.
• --autolibs=rvm_pkg - will use the old rvm pkg install ... to install missing dependencies if they can be provided by RVM, this will take long time and is not guaranteed to work.
• --autolibs=read-fail - to avoid the sudo error, it will produce list of dependencies to install for the next section.

Ask Root to Install Package Dependencies

In general, the easiest solution is to ask root to install the packages that RVM expects. This should really be your first stop before doing anything else. There may be legitimate reasons to use static binaries or hand-build all your dependencies, but why not do things the easy way if you can?

Try Pre-Built, Static Binaries

If you can't get the necessary packages installed, you can try the rvm list remote command to see if there are any pre-built binaries for your system that can be installed by RVM. If you're missing packages, then you might want to look for a static binary that you can use with the rvm mount command. You might even build the interpreter on another system, and mount it using the appropriate remote URL; see rvm help mount for details.