undefined method `write_inheritable_attribute' for Rails::Generator::Base:Class (NoMethodError) - ruby-on-rails-3

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

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 ?

Answer 4

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 5

I had this issue, and it happens that I was in using the wrong ruby and gemset in rvm.

Answer 6

(#jeremy-f and #alex-villa are on the right track to identifying the problem itself.)
The problem here is that the rails ... command in Rails version 2 is a generator, equivalent to rails new ... in Rails 3+. So rails s is a Rails 2 command to generate a new Rails 2 app called "s" (whereas most of us when we write rails s intend the Rails 3 usage, i.e. start a server!)
If you install a gem, it will usually install its binary in the path, so you should be able to cause this error by doing gem install rails -v 2.3.15 then rails s as the OP says.
Three ways to fix it:
gem install rails to install a newer version of Rails (you may have to specify a version >= 3.0)
Run the app with bundle exec rails s (only if you have Rails 3 in your Gemfile)
The usual way to run a Rails 2 project is simply script/server