How to upgrade RubyMine

This card explains how to upgrade an existing RubyMine installation to a newer version. If you're installing RubyMine for the first time, see install RubyMine under Ubuntu. You might also consider installing RubyMine with snap, so it can receive automatic updates (also described in the install card).

This procedure ensures that an update does not totally break your IDE, as it allows you to keep both the previous and the new version of RubyMine:

1. Download the newest version Show archive.org snapshot

2. [Optional] Copy your license key from Help → Register; you may need it to reactivate the new version

3. Shut down RubyMine

4. Extract the downloaded file into your ~/bin/. [1]

   Copycd ~/bin && tar xzvf ~/Downloads/RubyMine-X.Y.Z.tar.gz
   

5. Update your directory symlink [2] to point to the new version:

   Copy ln -nfs ~/bin/RubyMine-X.Y.Z ~/bin/rubymine
   

6. Launch RubyMine as usual. The newly extracted version should start up.

7. If asked, import your settings and registration information from your previous version. Use your previous installation's directory (e.g. ~/bin/RubyMine-X.Y.Z).

8. Get back to work.

Extras

• If your license key could not be imported automatically (as described above), you need to launch your old RubyMine version and copy the key from Help → Register.
• If you are using the mine command to launch RubyMine from a terminal, you may need to update it, too. Go to Tools → Create Command-line Launcher… and confirm twice.

[1] We recommend using ~/bin to store binaries for your user. Some of us like to place their RubyMine folders there, too. Alternatively, put them all into a directory like ~/bin/rubymines or ~/Applications.

[2] Ideally, you should symlink your current RubyMine installation to a directory like ~/bin/rubymine, and update that link whenever you update RubyMine. This has many benefits:

• A launcher pointing to ~/bin/rubymine/bin/rubymine.sh runs the recent version. No need to touch it.
• Using binaries, icons, etc from the link directory avoids updating every spot in your system that might reference to the old version -- and you will forget to update some occasionally.
• If you encounter problems after updating, simply have the link point back to the old release.