Ruby version not in ruby-build list for rbenv

Question

I'm using Rails 4.2 and wanted to update my Ruby version as well with rbenv.

I used Homebrew to install ruby-build and no matter how many times I try to update via brew, Ruby version 2.1.3 won't show when I run rbenv install --list.

Answer 1

Usually, follow these steps to install a new Ruby version with rbenv:

$ brew update               
$ brew upgrade ruby-build
$ brew upgrade rbenv

Check which versions are available after updating:

$ ruby-build --definitions

Install a specific version (for example 2.1.3) with:

$ rbenv install 2.1.3

Or if you are interested into improved support for UTF8 characters in the irb console:

$ RUBY_CONFIGURE_OPTS=--with-readline-dir=`brew --prefix readline` rbenv install 2.1.3

After these steps I usually set the newest version as my global default:

$ rbenv global 2.1.3

Answer 2

If you installed rbenv and ruby-build with homebrew and when you do echo $(rbenv root), you get /usr/local/var/rbenv instead of /Users/<username>/.rbenv, here is how to fix the issue.

---

When you install rbenv with homebrew, homebrew says:

To use Homebrew's directories rather than ~/.rbenv add to your profile:
export RBENV_ROOT=/usr/local/var/rbenv

Don't do that. Remove that line from your profile. Make sure you refresh your terminal after.

Then remove any signs of rbenv in the /usr/local/var directory:

sudo rm -r /usr/local/var/rbenv

Now when I do echo $(rbenv root) I get /Users/<username>/.rbenv instead of /usr/local/var/rbenv.

That fixed it for me.