Why are anchor characters not allowed in routing requirements ?

[deepak3 (deepak)]

hi,

I have a route which says:

UUID_REGEX = /^([0-9a-f]{8})-([0-9a-f]{4})-([0-9a-f]{4})-([0-9a-f]{2})([0-9a-f]{2})-([0-9a-f]{12})$/

resources :checkout, :only => [:show, :create], :constraints => { :id => UUID_REGEX }

I get an error saying:

Regexp anchor characters are not allowed in routing requirements

full stacktrace is at config_routes.rb · GitHub

Why are anchor characters not allowed in routing requirements ?

I am using Rails 3.2.11

[Dheeraj_Kumar]

from http://www.stephensykes.com/blog_perm.html?133 This is because these regexes are now automatically anchored at the start and end of the path component. Just removing the anchors from your regex fixes it.

[deepak3 (deepak)]

ah. thanks Dheeraj

that was one old article but still useful

[deepak3 (deepak)]

rails guides also mentions it on

Rails Routing from the Outside In — Ruby on Rails Guides