Configure a Ruby interpreter

Last modified: 18 May 2021

Configure: Settings/Preferences | Languages & Frameworks | Ruby SDK and Gems

To work with a Ruby project in RubyMine, you need to configure the required Ruby interpreter. You can set the interpreter for the currently opened project or when creating a new project.

Configuring the Ruby interpreter depends on the way you installed it:

  • If you installed Ruby using a package manager (apt for Ubuntu, Homebrew for macOS, and so on) or Ruby installer (for example, RubyInstaller for Windows), you need to add it manually.

  • If you installed Ruby using a version manager, RubyMine should detect interpreters automatically. In this case, you can select the desired version.

  • If you are using Ruby installed in an isolated environment (Docker, Vagrant, WSL, and so on), RubyMine allows you to configure it as a remote interpreter.

tip

To learn about supported Ruby versions, see Supported Ruby/Rails versions.

Add a local interpreter

Add an interpreter

To add a local interpreter manually, perform the following steps:

  1. Open the Settings/Preferences dialog Ctrl+Alt+S.

  2. In the Ruby SDK and Gems page, click the add button and select New local:

    New local interpreter

  3. Provide a path to the Ruby executable, for example:

    • /usr/local/bin/ruby for Ruby installed on macOS using Homebrew.

    • /usr/bin/ruby for Ruby installed on Linux using apt.

    • C:\Ruby26-x64\bin\ruby.exe for Ruby installed on Windows using RubyInstaller.

    RubyMine will display the added interpreter along with automatically detected interpreters.

    Ruby SDK and Gems page

  4. To remove the interpreter from the list, select it, and click the remove button.

Add an interpreter with custom environment

RubyMine allows you to use your custom environment for running any Ruby command from within RubyMine. To do this, you need to provide environment variable values or a path to a configuration script when adding a local interpreter.

  1. Open the Settings/Preferences dialog Ctrl+Alt+S.

  2. In the Ruby SDK and Gems page, click the add button and select New local with custom configurator:

  3. In the invoked dialog, provide a path to the Ruby executable as described in Add an interpreter. Then, configure the Custom configurator in one of the following ways:

    • Specify the environment variable values directly.

      Example: env API_KEY=123

    • If you use a shell script to load environment variables, you need to provide an absolute path to this script.

      Example: /bin/bash /Users/jetbrains/sample_app/env.sh

      tip

      Note that the *.sh file should have "$@" at the end to allow RubyMine to pass some commands required for adding an interpreter.

    • If you use direnv to load and unload environment variables, pass a path to the directory with the .envrc file to the direnv exec command.

      Example: direnv exec /Users/jetbrains/sample_app

    • If you use Shadowenv to customize your project environment, pass a path to the project directory to the shadow exec command.

      Example: shadowenv exec --dir /Users/jetbrains/sample_app --

    Click OK to add an interpreter.

  4. Select the added interpreter and click OK in the Settings/Preferences dialog.

Select an auto-detected interpreter

Select an interpreter on the Ruby SDK and Gems page

To select the auto-detected Ruby interpreter maintained by the version manager, follow the steps below:

  1. Invoke the Settings/Preferences dialog Ctrl+Alt+S and go to the Ruby SDK and Gems page.

  2. Choose the required Ruby interpreter. You can also choose the gemset for the RVM and rbenv version managers.

    Ruby SDK and Gems page

  3. For the selected Ruby interpreter/gemset, you can see the installed gems on the right. Learn more about Ruby gems support at Bundler.

tip

If you have issues with detecting local Ruby interpreters maintained by your version manager, follow the steps from How to: Debug detecting of Ruby interpreters.

Switch an interpreter using Run Anything

If you use RVM or rbenv to manage local Ruby SDKs, you can quickly set the required interpreter using Run Anything:

  1. Press Ctrl twice.

  2. In the invoked popup, start typing rvm use or rbenv shell, select the required interpreter and press Enter.

  3. (Optional) If necessary, click the Rollback button in the popup that informs about the changed SDK.

tip

Note that RubyMine supports auto-switching an interpreter/gemset if your project has the .ruby-version/ .ruby-gemset or .versions.conf files.

Add a remote interpreter

Various remote development tools, such as Docker, Vagrant, or Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), allow you to use an isolated environment for developing your applications. This can be useful in multiple cases, for example, if you want to:

  • Develop in an isolated environment to avoid impacting your local machine configuration.

  • Run, debug, and test your application on the same operating system you deploy.

  • Develop Linux-deployed applications using the Windows Subsystem for Linux.

You can prepare the desired Ruby/Rails setup in a remote environment using Docker Compose, Vagrant box, or WSL. Then, you can add the remote Ruby interpreter in RubyMine and run, debug, and test your application in an isolated environment right from the IDE.

To configure a remote Ruby interpreter, follow these steps:

tip

By default, RubyMine installed on Linux or macOS downloads remote gems using the rsync utility. This speeds up the downloading process. You can change the default behavior and disable the use of rsync by utilizing the RubyMine registry. To invoke the Registry dialog, press Ctrl+Shift+A, type Registry…, select it and press Enter. Then, use the following options to enable or disable rsync:

  • Linux and macOS: ide.remote.interpreters.use.rsync

  • Windows: ide.remote.interpreters.rsync.enabled.on.windows