RVM installed by Ruby not working?

Question

I installed RVM using the single instruction mentioned at the RVM website (using git).

Then I installed Ruby version 1.9.2 and 1.8.7 using:

rvm install 1.9.2
rvm install 1.8.7

However, I cannot find the Ruby binary. When I try to execute the command, I get the following error:

[root@server1 support]# rvm use 1.9.2
Using /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p136

[root@server1 support]# ruby
-bash: ruby: command not found

Here is the output of rvm info:

[root@server1 support]# rvm info

system:

  system:
    uname:       "Linux server1.myserver.com 2.6.18-194.26.1.el5.028stab070.14 #1 SMP Thu Nov 18 16:34:01 MSK 2010 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux"
    bash:        "/bin/bash => GNU bash, version 3.2.25(1)-release (x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu)"
    zsh:         " => not installed"

  rvm:
    version:      "rvm 1.2.6 by Wayne E. Seguin ([email protected]) [http://rvm.beginrescueend.com/]"

  homes:
    gem:          "not set"
    ruby:         "not set"

  binaries:
    ruby:         ""
    irb:          ""
    gem:          ""
    rake:         ""

  environment:
    PATH:         "/usr/kerberos/sbin:/usr/kerberos/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/root/bin:/usr/local/rvm/bin"
    GEM_HOME:     ""
    GEM_PATH:     ""
    MY_RUBY_HOME: ""
    IRBRC:        ""
    RUBYOPT:      ""
    gemset:       ""


[root@server1 support]#

Answer 1

RVM requires a minor addition to your ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_profile to initialize it when you log-in. It is specified in the installation docs in the Post Install section. Did you do that?

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Per your rvm info output, it looks like you haven't completed your installation. All the entries in the output should have corresponding values. So, I suspect you haven't added:

[[ -s "$HOME/.rvm/scripts/rvm" ]] && . "$HOME/.rvm/scripts/rvm"  # This loads RVM into a shell session.

to your ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_profile and then started a new session.

If you are doing a "Multi-User" installation then you'll need to do a lot more. Have you modified /etc/profile, or, if you are using Bash as your shell, have you modified /etc/bash.bashrc to include:

# Load RVM if it is installed,
#  first try to load  user install
#  then try to load root install, if user install is not there.
if [ -s "$HOME/.rvm/scripts/rvm" ] ; then
  . "$HOME/.rvm/scripts/rvm"
elif [ -s "/usr/local/rvm/scripts/rvm" ] ; then
  . "/usr/local/rvm/scripts/rvm"
fi

and started a new shell?

Personally I don't like the multi-user install as much as the single-user install, and don't recommend it but your mileage might vary.

---

As a FYI: In a discussion with the RVM maintainers on IRC last year, they told me they do not recommend the system-wide installation, and instead recommend the local "single-user" installation, even for servers.