diff --git a/bin/ruby-build b/bin/ruby-build
index 7463591e..23758417 100755
--- a/bin/ruby-build
+++ b/bin/ruby-build
@@ -300,26 +300,25 @@ verify_checksum() {
 
 http() {
   local method="$1"
-  local url="$2"
-  local file="$3"
-  [ -n "$url" ] || return 1
+  [ -n "$2" ] || return 1
+  shift 1
 
-  local http_client
-  if [ -n "${RUBY_BUILD_HTTP_CLIENT}" ]; then
-    http_client="http_${method}_${RUBY_BUILD_HTTP_CLIENT}"
-  else
-    if type aria2c &>/dev/null; then
-      http_client="http_${method}_aria2c"
-    elif type curl &>/dev/null; then
-      http_client="http_${method}_curl"
-    elif type wget &>/dev/null; then
-      http_client="http_${method}_wget"
-    else
-      echo "error: please install \`aria2c\`, \`curl\` or \`wget\` and try again" >&2
-      exit 1
+  RUBY_BUILD_HTTP_CLIENT="${RUBY_BUILD_HTTP_CLIENT:-$(detect_http_client)}"
+  [ -n "$RUBY_BUILD_HTTP_CLIENT" ] || return 1
+
+  "http_${method}_${RUBY_BUILD_HTTP_CLIENT}" "$@"
+}
+
+detect_http_client() {
+  local client
+  for client in aria2c curl wget; do
+    if type "$client" &>/dev/null; then
+      echo "$client"
+      return
     fi
-  fi
-  "${http_client}" "$url" "$file"
+  done
+  echo "error: please install \`aria2c\`, \`curl\`, or \`wget\` and try again" >&2
+  return 1
 }
 
 http_head_aria2c() {