What is "USER INSTALLATION DIRECTORY" in rubyGems env

Question

Here's my RubyGems Environment:

• RUBYGEMS VERSION: 2.5.2
• RUBY VERSION: 2.2.2 (2015-04-13 patchlevel 95) [x86_64-darwin14]
• INSTALLATION DIRECTORY: /Users/wh026399/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.2.2
• USER INSTALLATION DIRECTORY: /Users/wh026399/.gem/ruby/2.2.0
• RUBY EXECUTABLE: /Users/wh026399/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.2.2/bin/ruby
• EXECUTABLE DIRECTORY: /Users/wh026399/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.2.2/bin
• SPEC CACHE DIRECTORY: /Users/wh026399/.gem/specs
• SYSTEM CONFIGURATION DIRECTORY: /etc
• RUBYGEMS PLATFORMS:
  • ruby
  • x86_64-darwin-14
• GEM PATHS:
  • /Users/wh026399/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.2.2
  • /Users/wh026399/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.2.2@global

I was wondering what "USER INSTALLATION DIRECTORY" is. why it not point to gems under folder .rvm but .gem instead? Also, why is it using 2.2.0 which is a ruby version I didn't install?

Answer 1

The User Installation Directory variable for RubyGems is the directory where gems will be installed when using the --user-install flag, which is a directory immediately within your home directory.

The User Installation Directory has always existed, but it was recently made more visible via pull 1343.