Debian Multiuser Setup – Making Ruby Available to All Users

debianmultiuserrubysoftware installation

I intend to use Ruby when programming my Raspberry Pi which is running the Debian based Occidentals. Via SSH, I executed:

curl -L https://get.rvm.io | bash -s stable --ruby

which downloaded the ruby source and compiled it. It tool about 2 hours to complete. I would like to use ruby via AdaFruit's WebIDE – http://learn.adafruit.com/webide/. However, the ruby installation I performed via SSH created a folder called .rvm in the pi user's directory, whereas the WebIDE uses the webide user account.

What is the best way to allow the webide user account access to ruby? I tried moving the .rvm folder from /home/pi to /etc/share, but this didn't work – when trying to use ruby at a terminal I got the error "ERROR: Missing RVM environment file: '/home/pi/.rvm/environments/ruby-2.0.0-p353'" so I must've broken some link.

I'm holding back running another 2hr install for the webide user as I'm sure there's a better way!

Best Answer

Don't dismiss RVM's value

You can use the repository version of Ruby but I would recommend going another way and using RVM to manage Ruby. I realize it might seem like it's slowing you down, but the version of Ruby that's deployed via the repositories though usable will often lead to problems down the road. It's generally best to create dedicated versions of interpreters and any required libraries (Gems) that can be dedicated to a particular application and/or use case.

RVM provides the ability to install for single user (which is what you did) as well as do a multi-user installation.

$ curl -L https://get.rvm.io | sudo bash -s stable

Running the installation this way will automatically trigger RVM to do a multi-user installation which will install the software under /usr/local/rvm. From here the software can be accessed by anyone that's in the Unix group rvm.

$ sudo usermod -a -G rvm <user>

Where <user> would be the user webide.

Installing a Ruby

Now add the following to each user's $HOME/.bashrc. I generally put this at the end of the file:

[[ -s /usr/local/rvm/scripts/rvm ]] && source /usr/local/rvm/scripts/rvm

With that, you'll want to logout and log back in.

NOTE1: It isn't enough to start another tab in gnome-terminal, it needs to be a newly logged in session. This is so that the group you just added this user to, get's picked up.

NOTE2: You'll probably not have to add the above to your $HOME/.bashrc if you find you have the following file installed here already, this does the above plus more for all users that are in the group rvm on the system.

$ ls -l /etc/profile.d/rvm.sh 
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1698 Nov 27 21:14 /etc/profile.d/rvm.sh

Once logged in you'll need to install a Ruby. You can do this using the following steps, as user webide.

What versions available to install?

$ rvm list known | less
...
# MRI Rubies
[ruby-]1.8.6[-p420]
[ruby-]1.8.7[-p374]
[ruby-]1.9.1[-p431]
[ruby-]1.9.2[-p320]
[ruby-]1.9.3[-p484]
[ruby-]2.0.0-p195
[ruby-]2.0.0[-p353]
[ruby-]2.1.0-preview2
[ruby-]2.1.0-head
ruby-head
...

NOTE: The 1st time you install a Ruby you should do this with a user that has sudo rights so that dependencies can be installed. For example on Ubuntu, you'll see this type of activity. After these are installed other users, such as webide, should be able to install additional Rubies too, into the directory /usr/local/rvm.

Installing requirements for ubuntu.
Updating system..............................................................................................................
Installing required packages: libreadline6-dev, zlib1g-dev, libssl-dev, libyaml-dev, libsqlite3-dev, sqlite3, autoconf, libgdbm-dev, libncurses5-dev, automake, libtool, bison, libffi-dev...............................................................................................
Requirements installation successful.

Viewing installed versions

$ rvm list

rvm rubies

 * ruby-1.9.3-p484 [ x86_64 ]

# => - current
# =* - current && default
#  * - default

Installing a 2nd Ruby

$ whoami
webide

$ rvm install 2.0.0-p195
...
ruby-2.0.0-p195 - #validate binary
ruby-2.0.0-p195 - #setup
Saving wrappers to '/usr/local/rvm/wrappers/ruby-2.0.0-p195'........
ruby-2.0.0-p195 - #importing default gemsets, this may take time..................

Now when we list what's installed:

$ rvm list

rvm rubies

 * ruby-1.9.3-p484 [ x86_64 ]
   ruby-2.0.0-p195 [ x86_64 ]

# => - current
# =* - current && default
#  * - default

From the above we can see that user webide was able to install a Ruby.

Setting a default for all rvm users

$ rvm use ruby-2.0.0-p195 --default
Using /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p195

$ rvm list

rvm rubies

   ruby-1.9.3-p484 [ x86_64 ]
=* ruby-2.0.0-p195 [ x86_64 ]

# => - current
# =* - current && default
#  * - default

Logging in as another user that's in the group rvm we can see the effects of making ruby-2.0.0-p195 the default.

$ rvm list

rvm rubies

=> ruby-1.9.3-p484 [ x86_64 ]
 * ruby-2.0.0-p195 [ x86_64 ]

# => - current
# =* - current && default
#  * - default

So this user is using, ruby-1.9.3-p484, and he's now configured to use ruby-2.0.0-p195 as the default too.

Slow downloads/installs

If you're experiencing a slow download you might want to make use of the offline installation method instead. This will allow you to do a re-install later on. Or perhaps the download via this system is problematic, and you could download the RVM installer on one system, and then use scp to copy the installer to this system afterwards.

$ curl -L https://github.com/wayneeseguin/rvm/tarball/stable -o rvm-stable.tar.gz

See here, RVM in offline mode for full details.

References

Related Solutions

How to specify a higher ruby version for installing a gem

You may wish to consider using a ruby package manager like rvm or rbenv

You can install different rubies and switch between them easily.

You might also want to consider trying 2.0+

Sample output from rvm:

21:59:48 durrantm Castle2012 /home/durrantm 
$ rvm list

rvm rubies

   ruby-1.8.7-p374 [ x86_64 ]
   ruby-1.9.3-p125 [ x86_64 ]
   ruby-1.9.3-p194 [ x86_64 ]
   ruby-1.9.3-p448 [ x86_64 ]
   ruby-2.0.0-p195 [ x86_64 ]
=* ruby-2.0.0-p247 [ x86_64 ]
   ruby-2.0.0-p481 [ x86_64 ]
   ruby-2.1.1 [ x86_64 ]
   ruby-2.1.2 [ x86_64 ]

# => - current
# =* - current && default
#  * - default

21:59:50 durrantm Castle2012 /home/durrantm 
$ rvm use 2.0.0
Using /home/durrantm/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p481

$ rvm use 2.1.1
Using /home/durrantm/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.1

$ rvm use 1.9.3
ruby-1.9.3-p547 is not installed.

$ rvm use 1.9.3-p448
Using /home/durrantm/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p448

Get rvm at http://rvm.io/

Install with its famous 1 liner:

$ \curl -sSL https://get.rvm.io | bash -s stable

Debian – Creating new users via terminal does not assign correct permissions

As muru says, you should just use adduser:

adduser myuser

will prompt for myuser's GECOS information and password, and create myuser's home directory with the appropriate permissions. The default shell should be /bin/bash. adduser will also populate the new home directory with the contents of /etc/skel (default shell initialisation scripts etc.).

All that's needed then is to add myuser to the sudo group, as you're doing already, so the whole sequence becomes

adduser myuser
adduser myuser sudo