# Re: Installation question

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-installation-question/95351>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [May 29, 2006, 11:51pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-installation-question/95351 "2006-05-29T23:51:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2006, 11:51pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-installation-question/95351/1 "2006-05-29T23:51:27Z")

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> I seem to have the main Ruby folder in /usr/lib/ruby. Is that the  
> correct place?

You’ve followed a standard installation procedure. Just leave  
everything in the /usr directory and subdirectories  
where it is, and make a directory

/home//ruby

(for instance by calling a shell and typing in

su   
\<Your superuser/computer administrator password\>   
cd /   
mkdir /home//ruby   
or by some graphical way Mac OSX provides)

You can then call your favourite editor, type some Ruby script,  
save it in /home//ruby, and run it from there.

Best regards,  
Axel

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**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2006, 12:46am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-installation-question/95351/2 "2006-05-30T00:46:36Z")

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On May 29, 2006, at 22:46, removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid wrote:

> (for instance by calling a shell and typing in
> 
> su   
> \<Your superuser/computer administrator password\>   
> cd /   
> mkdir /home//ruby   
> or by some graphical way Mac OSX provides)

While these are perfect instructions for any of the fairly standard  
unixes, they’re a little off when it comes to OSX:

- home directories exist under the /Users directory, not /home
- the ‘su’ command isn’t usable in the default configuration

Also, why would someone need to be the superuser to make a directory  
under their home directory? Surely ‘mkdir ~/ruby’ would be a lot  
quicker? Or even ‘cd’ ‘mkdir ruby’?

I realise that people are trying to help, but I’d also like to  
suggest that unless people are familiar with a platform, they hold  
back on giving advice about it.

My reasoning for this request is this: not-quite-right advice is  
actually a fair bit more dangerous than flat-out wrong advice for  
novice users (who are the kind of users who need and ask for advice).

Wrong advice is obviously wrong, it gets tried and discarded right away.

Not-quite-wrong advice costs people a lot of time and effort before  
they realise that they’ve been led down the garden path, or can lead  
people into some bad practices and habits.

matthew smillie.