Synopsis

rbenv <command> [<args>…​]

Description

rbenv respects the .ruby-version file in a project directory by making sure that any ruby, gem, bundle, or other Ruby command invocation automatically invokes the Ruby version configured for that project.

It does so by generating shims for all Ruby executables. As long as rbenv shims directory is prepended to PATH, rbenv automatically ensures transparent switching between Ruby versions.

rbenv looks for available Ruby versions in the $RBENV_ROOT/versions directory.

Commands

rbenv global [<version>]

View or change the global Ruby version

rbenv local [<version>]

View or change the local Ruby version

rbenv shell [<version>]

View or change the Ruby version for the current shell session

rbenv version

View the currently active Ruby version and where it is set from

rbenv versions

List all locally installed Ruby versions known to rbenv

rbenv install [<version>]

(Provided by the ruby-build plugin) Download and install a new Ruby version

rbenv rehash

Regenerate shims for all known Ruby executables

rbenv which [<command>]

View the executable path that a command resolves to

rbenv init

Help bootstrap rbenv into the current shell environment

rbenv help [<command>]

View help text for any rbenv command

Environment Variables

RBENV_VERSION (default: read from .ruby-version file)

The Ruby version name to be used

RBENV_ROOT (default: ~/.rbenv)

The location where rbenv discovers Ruby versions, plugins, and other configuration

RBENV_DEBUG

Activates printing debug information about rbenv internals to standard error

RBENV_HOOK_PATH

Colon-separated list of paths searched for rbenv plugin scripts

RBENV_DIR (default: $PWD)

Directory to traverse bottom-up to locate the .ruby-version file

Plugins

As its core functionality, rbenv only switches between Ruby versions and does nothing else, but offers a plugin mechanism to hook into and override almost any aspect of its default behavior.

The most common plugin for rbenv is ruby-build which facilitates installing new Ruby versions into the $RBENV_ROOT/versions directory.

Read more at https://github.com/rbenv/rbenv/wiki/Plugins

Notes