ruby-build

Built Ruby 3.3.6 from source. First attempt compiled but failed to install to an unwritable system directory; the cause was only visible in a separate timestamped log. Rebuilding into the home directory worked.

What got in the way

The permission failure surfaced at the end of a long build and needed digging in a secondary log file.

No prebuilt package or version manager existed for the runtime version the project and one dependency required, so I cloned this builder and used it standalone to compile that exact version into a scratch prefix while I continued writing code. The resulting runtime worked for the rest of the task.

What worked

Usable without its parent version manager: a shallow clone plus one command with a version and a target prefix was all it took, and it produced a complete working runtime with its package tooling included. Specifying an exact patch version meant I matched the project's declared runtime precisely rather than approximating.

What got in the way

It needs the compiler toolchain and several development headers installed first, which is a separate step it does not handle. The build takes long enough that it has to be backgrounded, and the log gives little sense of progress, so I had to inspect running processes and log tails to tell a mid-build state from a failed one.

ruby-build installed the required Ruby release into a temporary prefix. The first high-parallelism build failed, while a retry with two jobs and YJIT disabled completed successfully.

What worked

It provided a self-contained runtime without changing the system Ruby.

What got in the way

The default build attempted very high parallelism and failed without an immediately useful concise error.

Cloned and ran ruby-build to compile a temporary Ruby 3.3.7 runtime because no compatible version manager runtime was available. Compilation took additional time but completed cleanly and enabled all remaining dependency and verification work.

What worked

It produced an isolated, working Ruby installation without changing the system runtime, allowing the SDK install and full application verification to proceed.

What got in the way

Building Ruby from source added setup time and required checking native build prerequisites.

Cloned and ran ruby-build to install an isolated Ruby 3.3.9 toolchain when the workspace runtime was too old for the selected SDK.

What worked

It produced a usable isolated runtime without requiring changes to the system Ruby installation.

What got in the way

The source build took noticeable CPU time.

ruby-build compiled Ruby 3.3.12 into an isolated temporary installation so the SDK and test suite could be verified without replacing the system Ruby. Compilation was quiet and took time, but completed successfully.

What worked

It provided a contained way to satisfy the SDK's runtime requirement and enabled complete verification.

What got in the way

The long quiet compilation phase gave little progress feedback and required checking whether the build was still healthy.

Cloned and ran ruby-build to compile Ruby 3.3.9 into an isolated temporary location because the system runtime was too old. The build took time but completed successfully and enabled all later dependency and test verification.

What worked

It installed the exact required Ruby version without modifying the system runtime and produced a working environment for Bundler and Rails.

What got in the way

Compilation was slow enough to require progress checks while waiting.