Can't get chruby to play nice with vim :(.

[myronmarston]

I just got a new MacBook Pro (first time in ~ 3 years) and decided to give chruby a go this time round instead of RVM.

I've sourced chruby in my ~/.zshrc:

source /usr/local/opt/chruby/share/chruby/chruby.sh
source /usr/local/share/chruby/auto.sh

In my vim config, I have:

set shell=$SHELL\ -l

.ruby-version in my project root is:

1.9.3-p448

...yet, when I run :!ruby --version it shows me that it's running Apple's default system ruby:

ruby 1.8.7 (2012-02-08 patchlevel 358) [universal-darwin12.0]

Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

[alindeman]

The output of :!echo $PATH might be useful. I wonder where chruby's paths are?

Another thing to try (on OS X) is sudo mv /etc/{zshenv,zshrc} which fixes a weird OS X bug that tends to mangle $PATH when you spawn new login shells (lifted from thoughtbot/laptop)

[pda]

Are you running zsh via homebrew?

Note this part of the Caveats for brew info zsh:

If you have administrator privileges, you must fix an Apple miss
configuration in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion by renaming /etc/zshenv to
/etc/zprofile, or Zsh will have the wrong PATH when executed
non-interactively by scripts.

I'm pretty sure when I had the same problem as you, doing sudo mv /etc/zshenv /etc/zprofile and restarting vim/tmux/zsh/iTerm2 fixed it.

[myronmarston]

The output of :!echo $PATH might be useful. I wonder where chruby's paths are?

/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/git/bin:/Users/myron/.gem/ruby/1.9.3/bin:/Users/myron/.rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p448/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/bin:/Users/myron/.rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p448/bin:/Users/myron/code/clusterpluck/support/ec2-api-tools-1.3-57419/bin

Trying the other suggestions now...

[mislav]

You probably run zsh. You can set the shell to be set shell=bash in Vim if you don't absolutely require zsh in Vim.

The zsh problem is likely due to Mac OS X shipping with /etc/zshenv which should be /etc/zprofile. Fix that with:

sudo mv /etc/zshenv /etc/zprofile

This fixes more issues down the road than just Vim.

[mislav]

Whoops, the guys above already said the same thing. Sorry for the noise!

[postmodern]

@myronmarston chruby is definitely modifying PATH, but it appears that your shell configuration is blindly prepending /usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/git/bin before the ruby's bin/. Double check your shell configuration, also I have seen issues before where OSX's path_helper messes with PATH when spawning sub-shells.

[pda]

For some background into the problem:

/etc/zshenv calls eval $(/usr/libexec/path_helper -s) which rebuilds (and re-orders) the path.

From the path_helper man page:

The path_helper utility reads the contents of the files in the directories
/etc/paths.d and /etc/manpaths.d and appends their contents to the PATH and
MANPATH environment variables respectively.

Prior to reading these directories, default PATH and MANPATH values are
obtained from the files /etc/paths and /etc/manpaths respectively.
/etc/manpaths respectively.

And from the Zsh man pages:

Commands are first read from /etc/zshenv; this cannot be overridden.
…
As /etc/zshenv is run for all instances of zsh, it is important that it be kept as small as possible.
…
If the shell is a login shell, commands are read from /etc/zprofile and then
$ZDOTDIR/.zprofile.  Then, if the shell is interactive, commands are read from
/etc/zshrc and then $ZDOTDIR/.zshrc.  Finally, if the shell is a login shell,
/etc/zlogin and $ZDOTDIR/.zlogin are read.

… So Mac OS's path mangling should really only be done for login shells, otherwise the PATH environment doesn't survive sub-shells. That means /etc/zprofile should be ideal. But if for some reason you only want it on interactive login shells, /etc/zshrc would also work. But never /etc/zshenv.

[postmodern]

See also: UNIX Shell Initialization.

[pda]

See also: UNIX Shell Initialization.

Nice.

[myronmarston]

Thanks for all the help, everyone...it's nice to get some prompt help :).

This is definitely an area where my understanding is lacking; I need to get better. I tried the mvs suggested above and it's not helping, unfortunately. However, if I remove the set shell=$SHELL\ -l from my vim config (as recommended by the wiki), it works fine. Go figure.

Still don't quite understand it, but at least I've got it working now.

[postmodern]

@pda suggestion for improving the wiki for Vim integration? I use set shell=$SHELL\ -l with bash and /etc/profile.d/chruby.sh.

[alindeman]

prompt help

pun?

[myronmarston]

pun?

Not intentional, actually :).

[pda]

@pda suggestion for improving the wiki for Vim integration?

I've done a few fresh Mac OS setups lately. Personally I just do this:

• Install chruby and ruby-install via homebrew.
• Install latest ruby stable version via ruby-build.
• Create a ~/.ruby-version file.
• My portable Zsh config loads chruby: https://github.com/pda/dotzsh/blob/master/ruby.zsh#L12-L17
• sudo mv /etc/{zshenv,zprofile} (I lost hours tracking that down the first time).

My .vimrc has never had/needed any special shell support.
(I run vim ← zsh ← tmux ← zsh ← iTerm2, which may differ from other setups e.g. MacVim).

[mislav]

@myronmarston The mv alone didn't have effect since you had $SHELL -l in your vimrc. The -l flag means you opted in to boot the shell in login mode, which means that the new /etc/zprofile (after having done mv) would get sourced.

Generally, you probably never want -l when starting a shell until you have a strong reason why you want the shell to start in login mode.

[myronmarston]

Generally, you probably never want -l when starting a shell until you have a strong reason why you want the shell to start in login mode.

Good to know. I was just following the Vim instructions in the wiki. Sounds like that should be changed...

[tubbo]

@postmodern i've been wrestling with $SHELL\ -l, and it doesn't really make much sense when you think about it (login shells are only supposed to be invoked once, when you "log in"). using set shell=$SHELL works fine for me, after renaming /etc/zshenv to /etc/zprofile.

[postmodern]

@tubbo I forced the -l option so the login configuration would be loaded (I have chruby configured in /etc/profile.d/chruby.sh). I suppose vim was default to using dash or bash, when you wanted zsh?

[tubbo]

yeah, it defaults to bash or sh right?

[postmodern]

On Fedora's vim 7.4, shell defaults to /bin/bash.