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Installing and Updating Sass

4:13 with Guil Hernandez

The quickest way to start using Sass is with the command line. In this video, we'll cover a few commands for installing—and updating—Sass on your computer.

Teacher's Notes
Video Transcript
Downloads

Quick Reference

Install Sass on Windows

From the sass-lang.com instructions:

Before you start using Sass you will need to install Ruby. The fastest way to get Ruby on your Windows computer is to use Ruby Installer. It's a single-click installer that will get everything set up for you super fast.

The installer will also install a Ruby command line powershell application that will let you use the Ruby libraries.

Installing the Sass pre-release

Use the command:

gem install sass --pre

To rollback:

gem uninstall sass

Then:

gem install sass

You can also specify the version. Ex:

gem install sass -v 3.4.13

Updating Sass

gem update sass

Installing and using Sass

Before we install Sass, 0:00

let's go over a few misconceptions we might have about using Sass. 0:01

So, the first one might be, there's no point in attempting Sass 0:05

unless you've had experience with the console, Git and Ruby. 0:09

Or we may think that to use Sass, 0:13

we'll need to know a ton of commands to make everything work. 0:15

And Sass steers too far from CSS, we have to learn a new language. 0:18

Well first, if you think you'll need to know Ruby to install and use Sass, 0:23

don't worry because you don't. 0:26

Hey, I'm not even close to being a Rubyist. 0:28

And we'll just need to know a few friendly commands to get up and running. 0:30

It won't be scary, I promise, and 0:34

finally, since Sass is a subset of CSS, it's not a new language. 0:36

We don't even need to use Sass syntax if we don't want to. 0:40

Writing plain CSS is actually writing valid Sass. 0:43

Yes, it is an extra layer of obstruction we're adding to our workflow, but 0:47

it's a powerful layer that, like I said, makes writing CSS more efficient, cleaner, 0:50

maintainable, and most of all, fun. 0:55

Sass lives and works locally on our machine, so 0:58

we really can't do anything just yet until we have Sass installed on our computers. 1:02

Since Sass is a Ruby gem, 1:06

we'll need to have Ruby installed on our machine in order to install Sass. 1:08

But, as I mentioned earlier, 1:13

don't worry because we don't need to know any Ruby to install and use Sass. 1:14

And if you're working on a Mac, chances are, you already have Ruby installed. 1:19

Now, it may sound a little nerve-racking, but 1:23

honestly, the quickest way to start using Sass is with the command line. 1:26

So, first things first, since I'm on a Mac, I'll need to bring up Terminal, and 1:30

that's where we'll write our commands. 1:34

So on the Mac, the Terminal app comes installed by default, and 1:36

it's located in our Utilities folder. 1:39

And don't worry if you're running Windows machine. 1:43

I've posted the windows installation instructions in the teacher's notes. 1:45

They're very similar. 1:48

Next, inside Terminal, or in your Command Prompt, we'll install Sass by 1:50

writing the command gem install sass, then hit Enter. 1:55

Now this command goes out and fetches the latest version of Sass and 2:02

installs it on our computer. 2:06

Now, if we get an error message after running this command, 2:09

it will likely be a permissions error. 2:12

For example, here we're getting an error that says, 2:14

you don't have write permissions for the Ruby/Gems directory. 2:17

Now if we see this error, 2:21

we'll need to use the command sudo gem install sass instead. 2:23

[SOUND] Sudo allows us to run the installation without the permission 2:29

problems. 2:33

It sort of puts us in a super user mode to get around permission issues. 2:34

Now it does ask us to enter our password to confirm the installation. 2:38

And this will usually be your user account login password. 2:43

And once we do that, it grants us the permissions to install and run Sass. 2:47

[SOUND] 2:51

[BLANK_AUDIO] 2:53

All right, so now let's make sure that we have Sass installed on our computer. 2:55

And we can do that by typing the command sass -v. 3:00

[SOUND] And once we hit Enter, if all goes well, 3:05

this returns the version of Sass we've installed. 3:08

In this case, it's Sass 3.4.13, Selective Steve. 3:11

Now your version might be different, 3:18

most likely a higher version compared to the version at the time of this recording. 3:20

And that's okay. 3:24

That just means you have the very latest version of Sass installed. 3:25

All right, so it looks like we're all set with our installation. 3:29

But what if we only need to update to the latest version of Sass? 3:33

Let's say you've already installed Sass in the past, and 3:37

now you just need to update it. 3:40

Well, to do that, we'll need to type the command, gem update sass. 3:42

[SOUND] And again, if you get any permissions errors doing this, 3:48

you'll need to run it under sudo. 3:53

So, with update command, we'll be all up to date. 3:55

Now, we just did a fresh install, so there's nothing to update at the moment. 3:58

Finally, if you wanna be on the bleeding edge and 4:03

start using the Sass features of tomorrow, today, take a look at how you can install 4:06

the pre-released version of Sass in the teacher's notes. 4:10

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