BLUF: Install RVM from master!

Update from Jan 1, 2026: My changes got merged on RVM master. Meaning, you can just go ahead and follow the install procedure as explained on rvm.io.

$ \curl -sSL https://get.rvm.io | bash

Attention: The changes are not yet available when using stable! doas support is planned to be released with rvm-1.29.13.

BLUF: Install RVM from my fork on GitHub!

$ doas pkg_add bash curl
$ curl -ssL https://github.com/karheinz/rvm/raw/refs/heads/fix-openbsd-support/binscripts/rvm-installer |
       bash -s -- --source github.com/karheinz/rvm --branch fix-openbsd-support --auto-dotfiles
$ bash -l
$ rvm install ruby-3.4.8

See https://github.com/karheinz/rvm/tree/fix-openbsd-support on GitHub.

Manual Install Procedure

In the following, I’ll show you how to install the Ruby interpreter of your choice on OpenBSD 7.8 using RVM. First we need to install some dependencies and download the installer:

$ doas pkg_add bash curl
$ curl -sSL -o rvm_install.sh https://get.rvm.io

RVM doesn’t know about doas yet, so we need to patch the install script:

$ patch -p0 <<EOF
--- rvm_install.sh      Tue Dec 30 13:56:53 2025
+++ rvm_install.sh      Tue Dec 30 13:59:56 2025
@@ -48,7 +48,12 @@
       (OpenBSD)
         log "Trying to install GNU version of tar, might require sudo password"
         if (( UID ))
-        then sudo pkg_add -z gtar-1
+        then
+          if __rvm_which doas &>/dev/null; then
+            doas pkg_add -z gtar-1
+          else
+            sudo pkg_add -z gtar-1
+          fi
         else pkg_add -z gtar-1
         fi
         rvm_tar_command=gtar
EOF

Now we can install RVM:

$ chmod u+x rvm_install.sh
$ ./rvm_install.sh

RVM is a Bash script, so please make sure the RVM environment is set up on every Bash startup! You can do this by adding these lines to your .bashrc:

# Add RVM to PATH for scripting. Make sure this is the last PATH variable change.
export PATH="$PATH:$HOME/.rvm/bin"

# Load RVM into a shell session *as a function*
[[ -s "$HOME/.rvm/scripts/rvm" ]] && source "$HOME/.rvm/scripts/rvm"

To ensure that .bashrc gets loaded under all circumstances, add this line to your .profile:

[[ -n "$BASH" && -s "$HOME/.bashrc" ]] && . "$HOME/.bashrc"

OK, lets check our setup:

$ bash -l
$ which rvm
/home/user/.rvm/bin/rvm

Seems to work, nice! But before we can install our first Ruby version, we also need to tell RVM about doas and we need to adjust how autogen.sh is called:

$ patch -p0 <<EOF
--- .rvm/scripts/functions/support     Tue Dec 30 19:25:59 2025
+++ .rvm/scripts/functions/support     Tue Dec 30 19:42:48 2025
@@ -347,6 +347,26 @@
   fi
 }

+__rvm_setup_sudo_function_OpenBSD()
+{
+  if
+    __rvm_which doas &>/dev/null
+  then
+    __rvm_sudo()
+    {
+      if [[ \$1 == "-p" ]]; then
+        shift 2
+      fi
+      \\command \\doas "\$@"
+    }
+  else
+    __rvm_sudo()
+    {
+      \\command \\sudo "\$@"
+    }
+  fi
+}
+
 __rvm_setup_sudo_function_Other()
 {
   if
EOF
$ patch -p0 <<EOF
--- .rvm/scripts/functions/manage/base_install        Tue Dec 30 20:03:13 2025
+++ .rvm/scripts/functions/manage/base_install        Tue Dec 30 22:08:40 2025
@@ -49,12 +49,22 @@
   if
     [[ -s "\${rvm_src_path}/\$rvm_ruby_string/autogen.sh" ]]
   then
-    __rvm_log_command "autogen.sh" "\$rvm_ruby_string - #autogen.sh" "\${rvm_src_path}/\$rvm_ruby_string/autogen.sh" ||
-    {
+    if [[ "\${_system_name}" == "OpenBSD" ]]; then
+      if [[ -z "\$AUTOCONF_VERSION" ]]; then
+        AUTOCONF_VERSION=\$(ls /usr/local/bin/autoreconf-* | cut -f2 -d"-")
+      fi
+      __rvm_log_command "autogen.sh" "\$rvm_ruby_string - #AUTOCONF_VERSION=\$AUTOCONF_VERSION sh autogen.sh -i" \\
+        "AUTOCONF_VERSION=\$AUTOCONF_VERSION" "sh" "autogen.sh" "-i"
       result=\$?
+    else
+      __rvm_log_command "autogen.sh" "\$rvm_ruby_string - #autogen.sh" "\${rvm_src_path}/\$rvm_ruby_string/autogen.sh"
+      result=\$?
+    fi
+
+    if (( \$result != 0 )); then
       rvm_error "There has been an error while running autogen.sh. Halting the installation."
       return \$result
-    }
+    fi
   fi
EOF

Now we can finally install Ruby. I’ll install version 3.3.10 as this seems to work well with the dusty Jekyll 3.10 version I’m using to build this website.

$ rvm install 3.3.10

After successful installation rvm list should reference ruby-3.3.10:

$ rvm list
=* ruby-3.3.10 [ x86_64 ]

# => - current
# =* - current && default
#  * - default

A quick test:

$ which ruby
/home/user/.rvm/rubies/ruby-3.3.10/bin/ruby 
$ ruby --version
ruby 3.3.10 (2025-10-23 revision 343ea05002) [x86_64-openbsd7.8]

…and we’re done. Happy hacking!

Randnotizen

RVM on OpenBSD 7.8

BLUF: Install RVM from master!

BLUF: Install RVM from my fork on GitHub!

Manual Install Procedure