Installing Ruby on Rails on Ubuntu 22.04

Gaining an understanding of how to install Ruby on Rails on Ubuntu 22.04 is a crucial step for developers looking to build robust web applications quickly. Ruby on Rails, often referred to as just Rails, is a popular web application framework that is written in the Ruby programming language. It follows the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architectural pattern, providing a structured and efficient way to develop full-stack web applications.

Step 1: Update Ubuntu

Before proceeding with the installation, it's important to update Ubuntu's package lists and upgrade the existing packages using the following commands:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade -y

Step 2: Install Ruby

To install Ruby, we can use the package manager 'rbenv' which allows us to manage multiple versions of Ruby. Execute the following commands:

sudo apt install -y curl gpg
curl -sSL https://github.com/rbenv/rbenv-installer/raw/master/bin/rbenv-installer | bash -
echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.rbenv/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
echo 'eval "$(rbenv init -)"' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc
rbenv install 3.0.3
rbenv global 3.0.3
ruby -v

Step 3: Install Rails

After installing Ruby, we can proceed with installing Rails. Execute the following command to install Rails and its dependencies:

gem install rails

After the installation, verify the Rails version to ensure it was installed correctly:

rails -v

Step 4: Install SQLite (optional)

If you plan to use SQLite as your database for development purposes, install it by running:

sudo apt install -y sqlite3 libsqlite3-dev

Step 5: Verify the Installation

Once the installation process is complete, you can verify the Ruby and Rails versions by running the following commands:

ruby -v
rails -v

If Ruby and Rails version details are displayed, the installation was successful.