We need a way to enable user installs by default so that tools like bundler don't attempt to install to system directories. The configuration Gem.default_user_install was meant to enable user installs, but it only affects `gem install`, not bundler. Distributions were already able to change the defaults of `gem install`, so it didn't change anything, and that's why nobody is using it. Instead we need a method that allows something that is not currently possible: override Gem.dir. Gem.default_install is that method, which allows changing user installs to both gem and bundler. It defaults to Gem.default_dir, so there's no change in functionality: def default_install default_dir end Distributions can then override this to enable user installs by default: def default_install user_dir end This allows for more flexibility than Gem.default_user_install. For example distributions can choose to install to different directories based on the user id: def default_install Process.uid == 0 ? local_dir : user_dir end The current Gem.default_user_install solution is simply not enough. --- lib/rubygems/defaults.rb | 7 +++++++ lib/rubygems/path_support.rb | 2 +- 2 files changed, 8 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/lib/rubygems/defaults.rb b/lib/rubygems/defaults.rb index db07681a17..20f4fcd2f3 100644 --- a/lib/rubygems/defaults.rb +++ b/lib/rubygems/defaults.rb @@ -9,6 +9,13 @@ module Gem @pre_uninstall_hooks ||= [] @pre_install_hooks ||= [] + ## + # Determines the default install directory + + def self.default_install + default_dir + end + ## # An Array of the default sources that come with RubyGems diff --git a/lib/rubygems/path_support.rb b/lib/rubygems/path_support.rb index 13091e29ba..455f413f3d 100644 --- a/lib/rubygems/path_support.rb +++ b/lib/rubygems/path_support.rb @@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ class Gem::PathSupport # hashtable, or defaults to ENV, the system environment. # def initialize(env) - @home = normalize_home_dir(env["GEM_HOME"] || Gem.default_dir) + @home = normalize_home_dir(env["GEM_HOME"] || Gem.default_install) @path = split_gem_path env["GEM_PATH"], @home @spec_cache_dir = env["GEM_SPEC_CACHE"] || Gem.default_spec_cache_dir -- 0.1