The one thing that has always annoyed me with installing ruby on Windows is that at some point in time I always need to setup the DevKit because I want to install gems that require native extensions. Also, I want the ability to switch between different versions of ruby.

Introducing Yari

yari is a tool (implemented in Powershell) I’ve made to simplify both of these operations. Right now it’s hard coded to only install the 2 ruby versions I care about right now.

• 1.8.7 so I can play with Puppet
• 1.9.2 to be bleeding edge

Installation is described in the readme on the github page. Once installed you can simply run yari from anywhere in the command prompt. Also, you can pass a -InstallMachine argument to yari and it will permanently configure your PATH for the ruby version selected.

So far this tool has made my ruby management in Windows a lot simpler and hopefully it can help you out too. If you find it useful but can use a few changes please submit issues to the projects github page. Or better yet, fork it and submit a pull request.

After installing, here’s what you’ll be able to do (and installing things that require native extensions will work):