In the Chromebrew project, we're making heavy use of FileUtils.install as a replacement for system 'install...' , but whereas the standalone install binary will automatically create necessary directories for an install, FileUtils.install will not.
Ideally FileUtils.install would internally also run FileUtils.mkdir_p before it installs a file into a destination, so we don't have to manually do such a step before running the FileUtils.install step.