Should RVM create bin directory in my home directory

Ruby
1

Hi,

I just installed RVM and Ruby 1.9.2 on my Mac. It created a ‘bin’
directory in my home directory.
Is this expected? I don’t see anything about it in the documentation.

Richard

2

Over time, as more and more executables were added to Unix,
it became quite unmanageable to keep all the executables
in one place and the bin directory split into multiple
parts(/bin/sbin, /usr/bin)

Please do not try to confuse users like this.

bin/ is for binaries
sbin/ usually for essential system binaries like “mount”

The main distinction for them lies in /usr vs. /usr/local
(or even in / … quite a crappy design if you ask me.)

The FHS details this:

Filesystem Hierarchy Standard - Wikipedia

Also, you insinuate that the current *nix model is manageable.

It is not at all, whether you split it into bin/ or sbin/ makes
no difference.

It remains damn ugly and is one reason why 10000 Package managers
were created (and 100000 different distributions because quite
everyone thinks it is better to solve it their own way. Typical
*nix way to try solve things in the wrong places, rather than
abolish the FHS and LSB entirely and make a clean slate design.)

AppDirs are a much better way to arrange everything neatly
into one directory.

*nix should have followed this from the very beginning but
the old *nix hackers were lazy guys. This is why /usr is
so short - it is easier to type.

Now to the question:

It created a ‘bin’ directory in my home directory.
Is this expected? I don’t see anything about it in
the documentation.

I agree that the documentation should mention this. If it
does not, I am sure someone will update the documentation
to clarify.

But it has to put the ruby files somewhere. :slight_smile:

3

The bin Directory

When the programs has been compiled,it is translated into what’s called
a Binary format.The bin directory is where all the executables binaries
were kept in early Unix. Over time, as more and more executables were
added to Unix, it became quite unmanageable to keep all the executables
in one place and the bin directory split into multiple parts(/bin/sbin,
/usr/bin)

I just installed rvm too, and there is a bin directory in my home
directory, and looking inside it, I see binaries from rvm
related programs, as well as links to things in the .rvm directory.

osx 10.6.7

4

Thanks for the reply Marc.

I realise RVM needs to put the Ruby files somewhere. However, I the
documentation gives the impression these go under ‘~/.rvm’. The ‘bin’
directory it created just contains symlinks to wrapper shell scripts in
the ‘.rvm’ directory, and this just seemed a bit odd to me.

Richard

5

Don’t know how I missed that. Thanks Brian.

6

Richard M. wrote in post #1009413:

I just installed RVM and Ruby 1.9.2 on my Mac. It created a ‘bin’
directory in my home directory.
Is this expected? I don’t see anything about it in the documentation.

Google “rvm bin directory”

Second hit is
https://rvm.beginrescueend.com/rvm/install/

“If you doesn’t [sic] like the ~/bin and ~/share dirs created on the
root of your home directory you can overwrite the ‘rvm_bin_path’ and
‘rvm_man_path’ variables by doing the command below …”

I think the reason is because many people already have
/home/username/bin in their PATH.