undefined method `write_inheritable_attribute' for Rails::Generator::Base:Class (NoMethodError)

Question

I am working on rails, suddenly rails server stops working. It's working fine and I have used following command [platform windows 7]

gem install -v=2.3.5 rails

And when I use rails s, it's giving the following error:

c:/Ruby193/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/rails-2.3.5/lib/rails_generator/options.rb:32:in `default_options': undefined method `write_inheritable_attribute' for Rails::Generator::Base:Class (NoMethodError)
    from c:/Ruby193/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/rails-2.3.5/lib/rails_generator/base.rb:90:in `<class:Base>'
    from c:/Ruby193/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/rails-2.3.5/lib/rails_generator/base.rb:85:in `<module:Generator>'
    from c:/Ruby193/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/rails-2.3.5/lib/rails_generator/base.rb:48:in `<module:Rails>'
    from c:/Ruby193/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/rails-2.3.5/lib/rails_generator/base.rb:6:in `<top (required)>'
    from c:/Ruby193/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.9.1/rubygems/custom_require.rb:55:in `require'
    from c:/Ruby193/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.9.1/rubygems/custom_require.rb:55:in `require'
    from c:/Ruby193/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/rails-2.3.5/lib/rails_generator.rb:34:in `<top (required)>'
    from c:/Ruby193/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.9.1/rubygems/custom_require.rb:55:in `require'
    from c:/Ruby193/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.9.1/rubygems/custom_require.rb:55:in `require'
    from c:/Ruby193/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/rails-2.3.5/bin/rails:14:in `<top (required)>'
    from c:/Ruby193/bin/rails:23:in `load'
    from c:/Ruby193/bin/rails:23:in `<main>'

$ rails -v
Rails 2.3.5
$ ruby -v
ruby 1.9.3p194 (2012-04-20) [i386-mingw32]

Answer 1

I had the same problem, but it was the result of having the gem rmagick.

I ran the following:

gem uninstall rmagick 
gem cleanup 

And then re-ran bundle in my stack and it worked for me again.

Answer 2

I have solved this issue. Use following command and problem gone

 gem install rails

This will install updated rails and all thing working find again.

Answer 3

if you are using latest version of rails 3 or rails 4 then use class_attributes instead of write_inheritable_attribute, i.e.

class_attribute :variable_name
self.variable_name = value

instead of

write_inheritable_attribute(:variable_name, value)

Answer 4

Running bundle exec rails s worked for me.

My project was using Rails 3.x but when I ran rails -v I got 2.3.17 which is the version used by a project I worked on just before. Somehow installing this version must have be set as "default".

Could someone explain this ?