error installing ruby 1.9.3 on linux server

Hey I’m just to update ruby on a linux server I ssh into. I know there a lot of threads on this but most are for installing on mac osx (which i dont have an issue with). This is the error log thats outputted:

$ rvm install 1.9.3
ruby-1.9.3-p551 - #removing src/ruby-1.9.3-p551..
Searching for binary rubies, this might take some time.
No binary rubies available for: unknown/libc-2.12/x86_64/ruby-1.9.3-p551.
Continuing with compilation. Please read 'rvm help mount' to get more 
information on binary rubies.
Checking requirements for unknown.
Install:
press any key to continue
Install: build-essential libreadline zlib1g libyaml libc6 libgdbm ncurses
press any key to continue
Requirements installation successful.
Installing Ruby from source to: /home/swampu6/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p551, this may take a while depending on your cpu(s)...
ruby-1.9.3-p551 - #downloading ruby-1.9.3-p551, this may take a while depending on your connection...
ruby-1.9.3-p551 - #extracting ruby-1.9.3-p551 to /home/swampu6/.rvm/src/ruby-1.9.3-p551....
ruby-1.9.3-p551 - #applying patch /home/swampu6/.rvm/patches/ruby/GH-488.patch.
ruby-1.9.3-p551 - #applying patch /home/swampu6/.rvm/patches/ruby/1.9.3/CVE-2015-1855-p484.patch.
ruby-1.9.3-p551 - #configuring.............................................
ruby-1.9.3-p551 - #post-configuration..
ruby-1.9.3-p551 - #compiling...
Error running '__rvm_make -j48',
showing last 15 lines of /home/swampu6/.rvm/log/1437856022_ruby-1.9.3-p551/make.log
    XCFLAGS = -include ruby/config.h -include ruby/missing.h -fvisibility=hidden -DRUBY_EXPORT
    CPPFLAGS =   -I. -I.ext/include/x86_64-linux -I./include -I.
    DLDFLAGS = -Wl,-soname,libruby.so.1.9
    SOLIBS = -lpthread -lrt -ldl -lcrypt -lm
compiling main.c
compiling dmydln.c
compiling dmyencoding.c
compiling version.c
compiling miniprelude.c
compiling array.c
compiling bignum.c
make: vfork: Resource temporarily unavailable
make: vfork: Resource temporarily unavailable
compiling dmyversion.c
++ return 2
There has been an error while running make. Halting the installation.

this is the content of the make.log per a commenter’s request:

[2015-07-25 16:27:22] __rvm_make
__rvm_make ()
{
    make "$@" || return $?
}
current path: /home/swampu6/.rvm/src/ruby-1.9.3-p551
PATH=/usr/kerberos/bin:/home/swampu6/perl5/bin:/usr/lib/courier-imap/bin:/usr/local/bin:/bin:/usr/bin:/opt/dell/srvadmin/bin:/home/swampu6/.rvm/bin:/home/swampu6/bin:/home/swampu6/.rvm/bin
command(2): __rvm_make -j48
++ make -j48
    CC = gcc
    LD = ld
    LDSHARED = gcc -shared
    CFLAGS = -O3 -ggdb -Wall -Wextra -Wno-unused-parameter -Wno-parentheses -Wno-long-long -Wno-missing-field-initializers -Wpointer-arith -Wwrite-strings -Wdeclaration-after-statement -Wimplicit-function-declaration  -fPIC
    XCFLAGS = -include ruby/config.h -include ruby/missing.h -fvisibility=hidden -DRUBY_EXPORT
    CPPFLAGS =   -I. -I.ext/include/x86_64-linux -I./include -I.
    DLDFLAGS = -Wl,-soname,libruby.so.1.9
    SOLIBS = -lpthread -lrt -ldl -lcrypt -lm
compiling main.c
compiling dmydln.c
compiling dmyencoding.c
compiling version.c
compiling miniprelude.c
compiling array.c
compiling bignum.c
make: vfork: Resource temporarily unavailable
make: vfork: Resource temporarily unavailable
compiling dmyversion.c
++ return 2

Answer

I think your issue is that, since RVM is trying to compile ruby with the command __rvm_make -j48 (which tells the compiler to try to parallelize the compilation across 48 different jobs), your host system is running out of space to do so. Before I get to a possible solution, here are some high-level thoughts:

1. Production systems generally shouldn’t be compiling their own Ruby versions. Instead, ship the compiled binaries to the node (e.g., as a Debian package) and don’t even install RVM.

2. rvm does a lot of magic to try and hide the details of what its doing from the end-user, but in my experience that’s more trouble than it’s worth. Use chruby or rbenv and build Ruby only when you need to.

Anyway, for your current issue, I think your best bet is to try to override the -j flag to a smaller value. There are a few methods, but first try this:

rvm install 1.9.3 -j 1                # from http://cheat.errtheblog.com/s/rvm

If that doesn’t help, double-check that the -j argument in __rvm_make -j 48 actually changed to 1 in the log. If it did, try a smaller number. If it didn’t, then try this:

MAKEFLAGS=-j1 rvm install ruby-1.9.3  # from https://twitter.com/avdi/status/130720270733410305

Hopefully one of those works!