I found a few posts on how to do this, and all of them over-complicate things. Here’s a simple, step-by-step method to install ruby 1.9.1 from source.
First, ensure that the latest stable version is still 1.9.1-p129. If it isn’t, make sure to change the appropriate file names.
Step 1: Download the source.
wget ftp://ftp.ruby-lang.org/pub/ruby/1.9/ruby-1.9.1-p129.tar.gz
Step 2: Un-Tar
tar -zvxf ruby-1.9.1-p129.tar.gz
Step 3: Configure (aka, Make the makefile)
cd ruby-1.9.1-p129/
./configure
Step 4: Make
make
Step 5: Run the tests. This is optional if you hate tests.
make test
Step 6: Install Ruby
sudo make install
And that’s it! You’re done!
