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How do I install the Ruby support into the Java/C++/PHP/... NetBeans IDE?

Table of Contents


Note: This document explains how to get and install both the stable releases and the development (unstable) versions of Ruby support for the IDE. If you are simply interested in learning how to install and configure the most recent official release, see Installing and Configuring Ruby Support . That document also shows how to configure the IDE to use native Ruby and how to set up your Rails projects to work with your database server.

Download Locations

Extras

See this page for additional plugins you may want to get for NetBeans when doing Ruby development.

Staying Up To Date

Once you have installed the Ruby support, you can use the Tools > Plugins to stay up to date.

  • For stable builds use Auto Update, now also known as the "Plugin Manager" (choose Tools > Plugins from the main menu). See Installing and Configuring Ruby Support for instructions.
  • For development builds download a complete nightly development kit to stay up to date.
  • If you see a particular fix you really want to get, the fastest option is to grab the Continuous Builds. See below for how to get it.

Installing Native Ruby

NetBeans ships with JRuby and Rails pre-installed, but you can use native Ruby as well. See Configuring the IDE to Use Your Own Ruby Installation.

Note however that if you want to use the Gem Manager, you must have gem installed, and the IDE must have write permission to your Ruby installation directory. On my Ubuntu Linux box, neither is the case - gem is not there, and touching the Ruby installation requires root privileges. My solution was to install my own copy of ruby 1.8.5 in my home directory, with write permissions, as well as rubygems. Installation instructions are provided in RubyGems. Starting with Version 6.1, you can set the paths to the Gem Tool, Gem Home, and Gem Path in the Ruby Platform Manager.

How do I get the Continuous Builds?

If you see a particular fix you really want to get, the fastest option is to grab the Continuous Builds:

  • Go to latest build artifacts
  • Get netbeans-hudson-trunk-buildnumber-ruby.zip. It's Ruby IDE only.
  • unzip it
  • run it

Installing a Cluster Zip File

Note: This information is obsolete and needs to be updated.

(Warning - this is not recommended since it's easy to mess up your installation. Keep the installation bits of the IDE around such that you can recover.)

There is a continuous build of the Ruby cluster at http://deadlock.netbeans.org/hudson/job/ruby/. Download the Ruby cluster kit netbeans-ruby-hudson-buildnumber.zip, not netbeans-rubyide-hudson-buildnumber.zip). There are two ways to install this cluster.

The first option is to unzip it right into your IDE installation directory. You should end up with a directory named ruby1 (ruby2 for 6.1) in the same folder as the bin directory, the etc directory, and so forth.

The second option is to unzip its -contents- (everything -below- ruby1/ (ruby2 for 6.1)) into your user directory. Also note that you may have to add execute permissions to the installed Ruby binaries. 

% chmod ugo+x /Users/tor/dev/netbeans-ruby-hudson-NNN/extra/jruby-1.0.1/bin/*

Finally, if you have already installed NetBeans from the Daily Update center, you may want to wipe those older bits out from your user directory. I'm not sure whether these bits will interfere with the newer cluster, since I believe the user directory is given preference over separate clusters. (If anyone knows the right answer here, feel free to confirm or delete this.)

Configuring Databases

See Installing and Configuring Ruby Support, the Rails Database Access FAQ, and RubyDatabaseConfig for details.

Apple OSX Configuration

Some more OSX-specific installation information is found in RubyNetBeansOSX.

Ruby Gems Configuration

On some systems, Ruby is included but RubyGems support is not built in. The RubyGems document provides more help for this situation.