Setting up a RVM, Ruby, Rails, Bundle, Git on a Macbook

Not tested yet - may be incomplete

I’ve got another new laptop. This time it’s a Macbook Pro, so I thought I’d document what I do to set up my Mac development environment, to make it easier for me next time, and to help you out…

I created these notes while doing the setup, but I have not yet had a chance to review or test them (I’ll do that the next time I set up a Mac development computer). In the mean time, please excuse any errors or omissions (or better yet, let me know in the comments)

1. Installing the basics

The OS was already installed, along with the usual Mac goodies. You may need to install git (see below).

3. SSH Keys are required to connect to github

This is to-do.

5. Install RVM (and Rails etc)

If, like me, you have multiple projects with different gems, using different version of Rails, you’ll need RVM. I installed Rails via RVM (after installing RVM) and installed MySQL separately. This is how:

Note: Follow the latests instructions on railsapps.github.io for Mac OS X version 10.10 or moncefbelyamani.com for Mac OS X version 10.9 (and older) and/or rvm.io/rvm/install

If you have Ruby already installed, you do not need to remove it, RVM will leave it untouched.

1. Install Xcode Command Line Tools

First check that it is not already installed. xcode-select -p should return /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools and gcc --version should not return an error message.

If not installed, install using:

xcode-select --install

2. Setup git

Git is automatically installed as part of the Xcode Command Line Tools (see above).

Check if git has already been set up using git config -l --global.

if nessesary, add your username and email for git:

git config --global user.name "Peter Pan"
git config --global user.email "peter@neverland.com"

4. Clone a repo into a new folder

git clone git@github.com:pirate_bay/pirate_ship.github.io.git pirate_ship
git clone https://avjaarsveld@bitbucket.org/neverland_resort/atm_system.git atm_system

1. Install Homebrew

ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

Check that Homebrew is installed/setup correctly using brew doctor which should return Your system is ready to brew.

5. Intall RVM

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

Run source /Users/me/.rvm/scripts/rvm in all your open shell windows as instructed

Test RVM with type rvm | head -1 which should return rvm is a function

Optionally Install a version of Ruby

rvm install 1.9.3

The above installs a specific version. rvm install 1.8.7-p374 installs a specific version and patchlevel. rvm install ruby --latest installs the latest version.

Create a Gemset for installed Ruby version

List gemsets with rvm gemset list

This is also to-do.

Install Bundler

Bundler is installed with Ruby or RVM

Used bundler to install Rails and other gems using bundle install

Install gems listed in Gemfile:

bundle install

This failed as capybara-webkit failed to install. I fixed this by instaling Qt first brew install qt.

bundle install failed again as pg failed to install with “Can’t find the libpq-fe.h header”. This was because PostgreSQL was not installed on the machine yet, which I fixed with brew install postgresql

Failed again as the rmagick gem failed to install. This was because ImageMagic was not installed on the system and was fixed with brew install imagemagick

Check bundler is working:

bundle -v or bundle exec rails s or bundle exec jekyll serve

Setting up Postgres

PostgreSQL was set up (see above) with brew install postgresql. This is what I did to get it set up.

To have launchd start postgresql at login:

ln -sfv /usr/local/opt/postgresql/*.plist ~Library/LaunchAgents

Then to load postgresql now:

launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/homebrew.mxcl.postgresql.plist

Install Instrumentation:

psql postgres -c 'CREATE EXTENSION "adminpack";'

Create user:

psql postgres -c "CREATE USER username WITH PASSWORD 'password';"

Create Database:

psql postgres -c "CREATE DATABASE db_name WITH OWNER username;"

Grant privileges:

psql postgres -c "GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE db_name TO username;"

Redis

When trying to launch the rails console/server I got a Sidkiq/Redis error as the machine did not have Redis installed. This was fixed with:

brew install redis
redis-server &

Tests

Setup Test Database

bundle exec rake db:migrate
bundle exec rake db:test:prepare
bundle exec rspec