Cannot install RVM . Permission denied in /usr/local/rvm

Question

Based on my previous thread : RVM installed by Ruby not working? where i had installed RVM using the root user, I then had to entirely remove the RVM install and now i am in

Answer 1

I had the same issue. When I tried to create a gemset I would get a permission denied error. I just forgot to run the "rvm use 1.8.7" command first. After that I was able to create and use the gemset without any problems.

Answer 2

Scott Bartell's solution worked for me. i am on a Digital Ocean premade image, where they had already setup rvm as root. 1. deleted /etc/rvmrc . 2. added export rvm_path=~/.rvm to ~/.bash_profile 3. logged out of ssh session to virtual machine 4. logged back in and presto!

would have commented but rep is 3 points too low :)

Answer 3

If you installing RVM as a user then the RVM folder should be generated in your home directory:

~/.rvm 

Where there should be no permissions problems at all.

I would suggest it is picking up some old config that is left over from your system installation.

Ensure there is no /etc/rvmrc or $HOME/.rvmrc file left over because it might be using previously initialised variables from these files to construct an incorrect installation path.

if we look at this section of the bash script:

if [[ ${rvm_ignore_rvmrc:-0} -eq 0 ]]; then
  for file in /etc/rvmrc "$HOME/.rvmrc  " ; do
    if [[ -s "$file" ]] ; then
      source $file
    fi
  done
fi

It is trying to find one of these files, if it finds one if will run it possibly initialising rvm_path which will subsequently not be set as $HOME/.rvm by this command

rvm_path="${rvm_path:-"$HOME/.rvm"}"

Answer 4

If you first installed RVM as root and then uninstalled it. And now you are trying to install it as a non sudo user and you're getting the following error:

mkdir: cannot create directory `/usr/local/rvm': Permission denied

Make sure that you have logged out of the root session before trying to install under the user.

Answer 5

In lasts versions of rvm you need remove /etc/profile.d/ also.

This happen often if you try to install as root and then try again as a regular user.

Hope this help.

Answer 6

If you installed rvm as root and you are getting permission denied issues (maybe you are deploying with capistrano as a non root user) then you could try rvm fix-permissions after doing things like rvm install 2.2.2 as root and creating a gemset as root.