Rails cucumber undefined method `config' for nil:NilClass (NoMethodError)

Question

I have just upgraded to ruby 1.9.3-p125 (from 1.9.3-p0). All tests were working before the upgrade. Now I get the following error when running rake features

Using the default profile...
undefined method `config' for nil:NilClass (NoMethodError)
/home/map7/.rvm/gems/[email protected]/gems/cucumber-rails-1.3.0/lib/cucumber/rails.rb:17:in `<top (required)>'
/home/map7/.rvm/gems/[email protected]/gems/bundler-1.1.3/lib/bundler/runtime.rb:74:in `require'
/home/map7/.rvm/gems/[email protected]/gems/bundler-1.1.3/lib/bundler/runtime.rb:74:in `rescue in block in require'
/home/map7/.rvm/gems/[email protected]/gems/bundler-1.1.3/lib/bundler/runtime.rb:62:in `block in require'
/home/map7/.rvm/gems/[email protected]/gems/bundler-1.1.3/lib/bundler/runtime.rb:55:in `each'
/home/map7/.rvm/gems/[email protected]/gems/bundler-1.1.3/lib/bundler/runtime.rb:55:in `require'
/home/map7/.rvm/gems/[email protected]/gems/bundler-1.1.3/lib/bundler.rb:119:in `require'
/home/map7/pais/config/application.rb:7:in `<top (required)>'
/home/map7/pais/config/environment.rb:2:in `require'
/home/map7/pais/config/environment.rb:2:in `<top (required)>'
/home/map7/pais/features/support/env.rb:8:in `require'
/home/map7/pais/features/support/env.rb:8:in `<top (required)>'
/home/map7/.rvm/gems/[email protected]/gems/cucumber-1.1.9/lib/cucumber/rb_support/rb_language.rb:129:in `load'
/home/map7/.rvm/gems/[email protected]/gems/cucumber-1.1.9/lib/cucumber/rb_support/rb_language.rb:129:in `load_code_file'
/home/map7/.rvm/gems/[email protected]/gems/cucumber-1.1.9/lib/cucumber/runtime/support_code.rb:171:in `load_file'
/home/map7/.rvm/gems/[email protected]/gems/cucumber-1.1.9/lib/cucumber/runtime/support_code.rb:83:in `block in load_files!'
/home/map7/.rvm/gems/[email protected]/gems/cucumber-1.1.9/lib/cucumber/runtime/support_code.rb:82:in `each'
/home/map7/.rvm/gems/[email protected]/gems/cucumber-1.1.9/lib/cucumber/runtime/support_code.rb:82:in `load_files!'
/home/map7/.rvm/gems/[email protected]/gems/cucumber-1.1.9/lib/cucumber/runtime.rb:175:in `load_step_definitions'
/home/map7/.rvm/gems/[email protected]/gems/cucumber-1.1.9/lib/cucumber/runtime.rb:40:in `run!'
/home/map7/.rvm/gems/[email protected]/gems/cucumber-1.1.9/lib/cucumber/cli/main.rb:43:in `execute!'
/home/map7/.rvm/gems/[email protected]/gems/cucumber-1.1.9/lib/cucumber/cli/main.rb:20:in `execute'
/home/map7/.rvm/gems/[email protected]/gems/cucumber-1.1.9/bin/cucumber:14:in `<top (required)>'
/home/map7/.rvm/gems/[email protected]/bin/cucumber:19:in `load'
/home/map7/.rvm/gems/[email protected]/bin/cucumber:19:in `<main>'
rake aborted!
Command failed with status (1): [/home/map7/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p194/bin...]

Tasks: TOP => features => cucumber => cucumber:ok
(See full trace by running task with --trace)

I traced this back to the rails.rb file line 17 as mentioned in the error:

  if !Rails.application.config.cache_classes
    warn "WARNING: You have set Rails' config.cache_classes to false (most likely in config/environments/cucumber.rb).  This setting is known to cause problems with database transactions. Set config.cache_classes to true if you want to use transactions.  For more information see https://rspec.lighthouseapp.com/projects/16211/tickets/165."
  end

So it looks like it cannot find Rails.application when within cucumber.

If I go into the console 'rails c' and type Rails.application.config it does return the Configuration object.

I've tried upgrading my cucumber-rails gem to 1.3.0 and cucumber 1.1.9.

Answer 1

This is likely a load order issue with the cucumber-rails gem. If you update your Gemfile not to load it immediately it'll be required later on in the process:

gem "cucumber-rails", "1.3.0", :require => false