Im a new user - I just installed rails, following directions here: http://rubyonrails.org/download however, when it came time to make a rails new path/etc/etc I get this message: Can't initialize a new Rails application within the directory of another, please change to a non-Rails directory first. The only complication during the download was that I had to upgrade from version 1.8.6 to 1.9.3, which I did after installing rails. Otherwise Ive done nothing but follow the very simple directions. I found this very helpful thread Please help Rails project can not be created - Rails - Ruby-Forum but when the output of ls -l shows just my usual directories. Any help is greatly appreciated.
So, what happens if you make a new directory, cd to it, and run your `rails new blah` command?
exact same thing
exact same thing
In an empty directory? Then I'd say you have serious problems.
The only complication during the download was that I had to upgrade from version 1.8.6 to 1.9.3, which I did after installing rails.
Wait, *after* installing Rails? That, in retrospect, sounds bad. What OS/platform are you on?
And what do you get from the following commands: ruby -v rails -v gem -v
ruby -v gives ruby 1.9.3p429 (2013-05-15 revision 40747) [x86_64-linux] rails -v gives Rails 3.2.13 gem -v gives 1.8.25
Im running ubuntu. I had ruby 1.8.6. I installed gem but it gave an error when I was trying to get rails through gem, bc i had the old version of ruby. I got rvm, updated to 1.9.3 and then reinstalled rails.
It does indeed give the same " Can't initialize a new Rails application within the directory of another, please change to a non-Rails directory first" when Im in an empty directory I made from home.
Thank you for your help by the way.
What is the command you are using to create a new rails app? Just to be sure, type the command into a terminal window and copy / paste the command you typed and the output from rails.
Those seem reasonable, though the result doesn't :-/
Given that you're just starting, I'd be inclined to totally remove rvm (rvm implode), make sure that your old system ruby has no trace of rails or related gems, and then reinstall rvm, 1.9.3, and rails.
Slash and burn, but ... with a quick look at the source, I don't see how you're getting that message...
There are (at least) two executable ruby scripts named “rails”. The first is found in your typical search path and should be the one that gets called when you type “rails new my_app”. The second is found, after creating your new application “my_app”, in the directory “my_app/script” (rails version 3) or “my_app/bin” (rails version 4).
These ruby scripts named “rails” are not the same and, if you call the second with the “new my_app” arguments, “rails” will assume you are running inside an existing application and hurl error chunks at you.
Do this
- type the command “which rails” and you will see the full path to what your current shell assumes to be the true rails command.
i.e. on my system 555 > which rails /opt/local/bin/rails 556 >
- type the command “wc -l
which rails” – if you can’t figure out the quoting just use the result of step 1. i.e. on my system “which /opt/local/bin/rails”
you should see a result that is somewhere around 23 (lines) but i’m thinking you’ll see 6. the first number is the correct system wide rails script that will let you create a new app, the second number is the rails script that is placed into “my_app/script” (or “my_app/bin”) and will be used when you “rails generate …” or other such inside your new application directory structure.
just to beat this horse to death, here’s what i get when, in my home directory, i call an application (6 line) rails with new…
561 > binky/script/rails new boffo Can’t initialize a new Rails application within the directory of another, please change to a non-Rails directory first. Type ‘rails’ for help. 562 >
look familiar?
for what it’s worth, the error message is generated in the file: gems/railties-3.2.13/lib/rails/commands.rb
Hassan Schroeder wrote in post #1110852:
Hi Rick, thanks! I tried carrying out those instructions: heres what i got - mwr@mwr-Ubuntu:/home$ which rails /home/mwr/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p429/bin/rails
mwr@mwr-Ubuntu:/home$ which /home/mwr/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p429/bin/rails /home/mwr/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p429/bin/rails
I suppose im having trouble with step 2 of your directions. However its nice to have a kind of explanation of whats going on. Again, excuse my illiteracy on this, but it look like maybe i do have rails installed in my home directory?
**just discovered by accident I can do this: mwr@mwr-Ubuntu:/home$ which /home/mwr/.rvm.gems/ruby-1.9.3-p429/bin/rails mwr@mwr-Ubuntu:/home$ wc -l 'which rails' wc: which rails: No such file or directory mwr@mwr-Ubuntu:/home$ cd .. mwr@mwr-Ubuntu:/$ which rails /home/mwr/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p429/bin/rails mwr@mwr-Ubuntu:/$ which /home/mwr/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p429/bin/rails /home/mwr/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p429/bin/rails mwr@mwr-Ubuntu:/$ rails new path/here create /home/mwr/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p429/lib/ruby/1.9.1/fileutils.rb:247:in `mkdir': Permission denied - /path (Errno::EACCES) from /home/mwr/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p429/lib/ruby/1.9.1/fileutils.rb:247:in `fu_mkdir' from /home/mwr/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p429/lib/ruby/1.9.1/fileutils.rb:221:in `block (2 levels) in mkdir_p' from /home/mwr/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p429/lib/ruby/1.9.1/fileutils.rb:219:in `reverse_each' from /home/mwr/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p429/lib/ruby/1.9.1/fileutils.rb:219:in `block in mkdir_p' from /home/mwr/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p429/lib/ruby/1.9.1/fileutils.rb:205:in `each' from /home/mwr/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p429/lib/ruby/1.9.1/fileutils.rb:205:in `mkdir_p' from /home/mwr/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p429/gems/thor-0.18.1/lib/thor/actions/empty_directory.rb:51:in `block in invoke!' from /home/mwr/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p429/gems/thor-0.18.1/lib/thor/actions/empty_directory.rb:117:in `call' from /home/mwr/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p429/gems/thor-0.18.1/lib/thor/actions/empty_directory.rb:117:in `invoke_with_conflict_check' from /home/mwr/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p429/gems/thor-0.18.1/lib/thor/actions/empty_directory.rb:50:in `invoke!' from /home/mwr/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p429/gems/thor-0.18.1/lib/thor/actions.rb:95:in `action' from /home/mwr/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p429/gems/thor-0.18.1/lib/thor/actions/empty_directory.rb:15:in `empty_directory' from /home/mwr/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p429/gems/railties-3.2.13/lib/rails/generators/app_base.rb:103:in `create_root' from (eval):1:in `create_root' from /home/mwr/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p429/gems/thor-0.18.1/lib/thor/command.rb:27:in `run' from /home/mwr/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p429/gems/thor-0.18.1/lib/thor/invocation.rb:120:in `invoke_command' from /home/mwr/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p429/gems/thor-0.18.1/lib/thor/invocation.rb:127:in `block in invoke_all' from /home/mwr/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p429/gems/thor-0.18.1/lib/thor/invocation.rb:127:in `each' from /home/mwr/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p429/gems/thor-0.18.1/lib/thor/invocation.rb:127:in `map' from /home/mwr/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p429/gems/thor-0.18.1/lib/thor/invocation.rb:127:in `invoke_all' from /home/mwr/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p429/gems/thor-0.18.1/lib/thor/group.rb:233:in `dispatch' from /home/mwr/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p429/gems/thor-0.18.1/lib/thor/base.rb:439:in `start' from /home/mwr/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p429/gems/railties-3.2.13/lib/rails/commands/application.rb:38:in `<top (required)>' from /home/mwr/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p429/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.9.1/rubygems/custom_require.rb:36:in `require' from /home/mwr/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p429/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.9.1/rubygems/custom_require.rb:36:in `require' from /home/mwr/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p429/gems/railties-3.2.13/lib/rails/cli.rb:15:in `<top (required)>' from /home/mwr/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p429/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.9.1/rubygems/custom_require.rb:36:in `require' from /home/mwr/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p429/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.9.1/rubygems/custom_require.rb:36:in `require' from /home/mwr/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p429/gems/railties-3.2.13/bin/rails:7:in `<top (required)>' from /home/mwr/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p429/bin/rails:19:in `load' from /home/mwr/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p429/bin/rails:19:in `<main>' from /home/mwr/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p429/bin/ruby_noexec_wrapper:14:in `eval' from /home/mwr/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p429/bin/ruby_noexec_wrapper:14:in `<main>' mwr@mwr-Ubuntu:/$ ls bin dev initrd.img lib64 mnt root selinux tmp vmlinuz boot etc initrd.img.old lost+found opt run srv usr vmlinuz.old cdrom home lib media proc sbin sys var
Im a new user - I just installed rails, following directions here: http://rubyonrails.org/download however, when it came time to make a rails new path/etc/etc I get this message: Can't initialize a new Rails application within the directory of another, please change to a non-Rails directory first.
Rather than specifying a complex path to the new application (my guess is that you have already created a rails app in path/etc/etc, so it will not let you create a new one there) just cd to, for example your home directory using cd ~ then create an app called, for example, myapp rails new myapp
Colin
i now see i misstyped the instructions to step 2. here it is, corrected
2) type the command “wc -l which rails” – if you can’t figure out the
quoting just use the result of step 1. i.e. on my system “wc -l /opt/local/bin/rails”
the idea is to use the wc command to get the number of lined in the rails script you are calling by default. the quoting used in wc -l which rails an open single quote - on a mac keyboard it’s found on the key to the left of number one. it’s a bit of unix shell magic that causes the quoted text to be evalulated as a command and the results to be handed off the the wc -l command as argument(s). thus, on my system, it becomes wc -l /opt/local/bin/rails.
in your case wc -l which rails would be equivalent to wc -l /home/mwr/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p429/bin/rails and i’ll be surprised if the result is much greater than 6. i don’t use rvm so cannot help you troubleshoot rvm specific errors. i can say that you don’t want to be creating your new app anywhere inside the …/.rvm/… directory tree. think of this as a managed software repository - anything that gets changed there is done through rvm. make yourself a working directory, cd there and run the rails new command. something like:
mkdir /home/mwr/RailsApps
cd /home/mwr/RailsApps
rails new my_new_app
Alright, now its working kind of! After restarting the computer and using which rails i get the much more sensible looking path * /usr/local/bin/rails * running wc -l `which path` I get * 19 /usr/local/bin/rails *
so now navigating above my home directory I am able to use rails new like so: * mwr@mwr-Ubuntu:/$ sudo rails new blah/here * and it seems to work.
now - i cant access my localhost, but thats a separate issue i think i can work out.
Thanks everyone for your help!
Alright, now its working kind of! After restarting the computer and using which rails i get the much more sensible looking path * /usr/local/bin/rails * running wc -l `which path` I get * 19 /usr/local/bin/rails *
so now navigating above my home directory I am able to use rails new like so: * mwr@mwr-Ubuntu:/$ sudo rails new blah/here * and it seems to work.
Don't use sudo, you will get the wrong ownership on the files
Also I recommend using rvm to install ruby and rails.
now - i cant access my localhost, but thats a separate issue i think i can work out.
Possibly due to using sudo when creating the app.
Colin
just an update/follow up. I can successfully run rails and get a rails server going on my localhost. However, my paths remain totally messed up and I dont know why. I get the error I originally posted about anywhere I go (and I am completely certain I am not inside a path that already has a rails app in it) except, if I go above my home file into my what i call my root file, it looks like this. mwr@mwr-Ubuntu:/home$ cd .. mwr@mwr-Ubuntu:/$ cd .. mwr@mwr-Ubuntu:/$ ls app cdrom initrd.img lost+found proc selinux usr bin dev initrd.img.old media root srv var blah etc lib mnt run sys vmlinuz boot home lib64 opt sbin tmp vmlinuz.old mwr@mwr-Ubuntu:/$
my understanding is this cant really be right. To get a rails project working I have to type sudo for every single command i give, from mkdir to rails new app etc. But there is nowhere else in my system where i can run rails new and this was true from the very first time I tried to run it. I attempted to uninstall rails, but even though it seemed I did, running 'which rails' would always yield a result. I wound up reinstalling anyways.
maybe this is just how it works? or have I made some sort of correctable mistake?
That is not how it should work. I suggest starting again using rvm to install rails. You don't actually need to get rid of anything you have already installed but it will do no harm to do so. The rvm install should take precedence over the existing messed up installation.
Colin
well, i tried rvm implode and a fresh install using these directions: http://ryanbigg.com/2010/12/ubuntu-ruby-rvm-rails-and-you/
still same problem: mwr@mwr-Ubuntu:~$ ls app db Documents log Projects script tmp build Desktop Downloads Music Public Templates vendor config doc lib Pictures public test Videos mwr@mwr-Ubuntu:~$ rails new blargh/here Can't initialize a new Rails application within the directory of another, please change to a non-Rails directory first. Type 'rails' for help. mwr@mwr-Ubuntu:~$ which rails /home/mwr/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p429/bin/rails mwr@mwr-Ubuntu:~$ rails new blog Can't initialize a new Rails application within the directory of another, please change to a non-Rails directory first. Type 'rails' for help. mwr@mwr-Ubuntu:~$
Im at a loss, going to try to post to ubuntu specific forums. Thanks everyone for your help and if I fix it I will post here in case it helps someone else.
?? Your `ls` shows the directories of a standard Rails app, so the message is perfectly understandable.
If you don't want them there, why don't you *remove* them?
Hassan Schroeder wrote in post #1111345: