bash: /usr/bin/ruby: No such file or directory

Question

I am trying to run a ruby program and I get bash: /usr/bin/ruby: No such file or directory When I navigate to /usr/bin/ruby and ls | grep ruby I get an output with ruby in it. When I try to ./ruby I STILL get bash: ./ruby: No such file or directory. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling ruby to no avail.

Does anyone have any idea what could be going on? I am really stumped.

Answer 1

Just adding a different possible cause and fix for the same /usr/bin/ruby: No such file or directory error after installing Ruby.

If, unlike the original poster here, you get this same message but on investigating find that there really is nothing at /usr/bin/ruby, try /usr/local/bin/ruby --version: it seems that some installations put the binary in /usr/local/bin/ruby but look for it at /usr/bin/ruby.

This happened to me with ruby version 1.9.3p547 on Centos. If this is what's happened, the easy fix is to create a symlink at /usr/bin/ruby that points to /usr/local/bin/ruby.

Answer 2

Per the comments on the question, your /usr/bin/ruby binary is a symlink to /etc/alternatives/ruby.

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 22 Aug 12 20:11 /usr/bin/ruby -> /etc/alternatives/ruby

You should confirm that path exists (run ls -la /etc/alternatives/ruby to check if that path exists) and if it does not, you'll need to reinstall Ruby using your system package manager (e.g., apt-get), download and install Ruby from https://www.ruby-lang.org, or use a tool like RVM.