I have been working on some Spree based ecommerce stores lately, and I ran into this issue while creating a new Spree project. I had bumped into this a while back but did not write about it then. But, now I have decided to pen it down.

The steps to creating a new Spree project is very simple. Assuming that you have Ruby and Rails both installed, you can simply do:

$ gem install spree

$ spree mystore

$ cd mystore

$ rake db:bootstrap

$ script/server

And, voila you should have a shiny Spree store.

But, I have bumped into an issue at the step $ rake db:bootstrap as shown below:

$ rake db:bootstrap
(in c:/RoRProjs/wixspree)
rake aborted!
stack level too deep
c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2390:in `raw_load_rakefile'
(See full trace by running task with --trace)

After a little digging, I found out that Spree has a dependency on the ‘jeweler’ gem which in turn has some kind of dependency on Git.

So, although it seems like a weird solution but just by initializing a git repository on your Spree project folder i.e. mystore in my example, you will be happy to see that the problem is resolved.

So, to recap, in the above steps to create your new Spree project, add a new step before the rake step:

$ git init

$ rake db:bootstrap

You should be golden by now. Hope it helps.

Note: I am running Spree 0.9.4 on Windows Vista and Rails 2.3.5 and Ruby 1.8.6 (ruby 1.8.6 (2007-09-24 patchlevel 111) [i386-mswin32])

Note: If you do not have Git installed, you might want to do that. Here are some excellent articles which show how to do it:

http://github.com/guides/using-git-and-github-for-the-windows-for-newbies

http://kylecordes.com/2008/git-windows-go

http://www.gitcasts.com/posts/git-on-windows

I was recently working on some code for building an extension for Spree, when I ran into an issue while generating a extension controller. The error only happens on Windows.

The error in the console looks like this:

$ ruby script/generate extension_controller PromotionManager admin/promotions
c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-2.3.5/lib/rails/gem_dependency.rb:119:Warning: Gem::Dependency#
version_requirements is deprecated and will be removed on or after August 2010. Use #requirement
Loading haml-edge gem.
c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/pathname.rb:709:in `relative_path_from': different prefix: "c:/" and "C:/RoRPro
js/spreestore" (ArgumentError)
from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-2.3.5/lib/rails_generator/lookup.rb:110:in `use_co
mponent_sources!'
from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-2.3.5/lib/rails_generator/lookup.rb:109:in `each'
from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-2.3.5/lib/rails_generator/lookup.rb:109:in `use_co
mponent_sources!'
from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-2.3.5/lib/rails_generator/lookup.rb:55:in `include
d'
from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-2.3.5/lib/rails_generator.rb:38:in `include'
from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-2.3.5/lib/rails_generator.rb:38:in `send'
from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-2.3.5/lib/rails_generator.rb:38
from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:31:in `gem_original_require'
from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:31:in `require'
from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.5/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:1
56:in `require'
from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.5/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:5
21:in `new_constants_in'
from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.5/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:1
56:in `require'
from script/generate:4

The error is specifically in this line:

c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/pathname.rb:709:in `relative_path_from': different prefix: "c:/" and "C:/RoRPro
js/spreestore" (ArgumentError)

After a little digging, it was evident that the ‘relative_path_from’ method in ‘/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/pathname.rb’ file had the problem. The problem was also described as a ticket at http://redmine.ruby-lang.org/issues/show/1366 and the excerpt of the issue is shown below:

On Windows, the case of the drive letter can be either upper case or lower case (eg, "C:" or "c:") on the same machine at the same time in different Command Prompt Windows (see below for details). Dir.pwd will return either lower-case or upper-case for the drive letter (“C:/” or “c:/”) depending on the Command Prompt it is run from. However, FILE always uses lower-case drive letter. This can cause an ArgumentError when comparing Dir.pwd and FILE using Pathname#relative_path_from. This happens with version 1.9.1p0 as well. Pathname#relative_path_from should deal with the case where the case of the argument is different.

Note, that I have both my ruby install folder and my project folder on c: drive. And, I am running Ruby 1.8.6  - ruby 1.8.6 (2007-09-24 patchlevel 111) [i386-mswin32]

Solution

I monkey-patched the following lines in pathname.rb file as shown below.

def relative_path_from(base_directory)
dest_directory = self.cleanpath.to_s.capitalize!
base_directory = base_directory.cleanpath.to_s.capitalize!

I added the capitalize! keyword at the end of the two lines so that both the paths are in uppercase, so that later in the code (line 708-710) shown below does not barf and give us the error we got shown in the first para. of the article.

if dest_prefix != base_prefix
raise ArgumentError, "different prefix: #{dest_prefix.inspect} and #{base_directory.inspect}"
end

The temporary solution works after the patch. Hope it helps.

Dubbed as “Future of Rails”, Rails Magazine released Issue #4 in print. You can download the print edition from here. This issue brings 32-pages, filled with exclusive RubyKaigi 2009 conference coverage, in-depth articles, interviews with David Heinemeier Hansson, Matz, Yehuda Katz, Tom Enebo and Koichi Sasada.

The RubyKaigi 2009 coverage provides a nice roundup about the conference with articles, photos and session information. The interviews are great giving insights into Rails 3, Ruby 1.9 and JRuby. And, last but not the least, this issue also brings a wealth of knowledge via the fine articles on various topics.

I thoroughly enjoyed interviewing Yehuda Katz and Tom Enebo and I thank them both for their participation.

If you have any feedback, please do write to us or participate in the survey to tells us what you want to read.

Please be on the lookout for the free downloadable digital version which will be released soon!

Table of Contents:

A Word From the Editor by Olimpiu Metiu

Background Processing with Delayed_Job by James Harrison

Generating PDF with ODF templates by Rodrigo Rosenfeld Rosas

Interview with Yehuda Katz by Yehuda Katz and Rupak Ganguly

Interview with David Heinemeier Hansson by Mark Coates

Feel the Radiance with Radiant CMS by Saurabh Bhatia

Interview with Thomas Enebo by Thomas Enebo and Rupak Ganguly

Oracle Tips and Tricks by Greg Donald

Ruby Kaigi Rails Magazine Exclusive Coverage by Khaled al Habache

RubyKaigi 2009 Roundup by Ehab El-Badry

Interview with Matz by Yukihiro Matsumoto and Muhammad Ali

Interview with Koichi Sasada by Koichi Sasada and Muhammad Ali