# Encoding::UTF\_8 missing? **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [November 13, 2009, 11:10pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/encoding-utf-8-missing/178949 "2009-11-13T23:10:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![tensaiji](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/6de8d8/32.png) [@tensaiji](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tensaiji)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 11:10pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/encoding-utf-8-missing/178949/1 "2009-11-13T23:10:58Z")
I’ve just done a fresh reinstall of OS X Snow Leopard on my mac, and I’m having all kinds of problems with Rails, but the latest problem has me stumped. Whenever I run rake db:seed to populate my database I hit the following error: \*\* Invoke db:seed (first\_time) \*\* Invoke environment (first\_time) \*\* Execute environment \*\* Execute db:seed rake aborted! uninitialized constant ActiveSupport::Multibyte::Chars::Encoding /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.4/lib/active\_support/dependencies.rb:105:in `const_missing' /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.4/lib/active_support/multibyte/chars.rb:86:in`initialize’ /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.4/lib/active\_support/core\_ext/string/multibyte.rb:44:in `new' /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.4/lib/active_support/core_ext/string/multibyte.rb:44:in`mb\_chars’ /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.4/lib/active\_record/validations.rb:798:in `validates_uniqueness_of' /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.4/lib/active_record/validations.rb:468:in`validates\_each’ /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.4/lib/active\_record/validations.rb:465:in `each' /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.4/lib/active_record/validations.rb:465:in`validates\_each’ /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.4/lib/active\_support/callbacks.rb:182:in `call' /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.4/lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:182:in`evaluate\_method’ /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.4/lib/active\_support/callbacks.rb:166:in `call' /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.4/lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:90:in`run’ /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.4/lib/active\_support/callbacks.rb:90:in `each' /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.4/lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:90:in`send’ /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.4/lib/active\_support/callbacks.rb:90:in `run' /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.4/lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:276:in`run\_callbacks’ /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.4/lib/active\_record/validations.rb:1098:in `valid_without_callbacks?' /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.4/lib/active_record/callbacks.rb:315:in`valid\_without\_lifecycles?’ /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/hobo-0.8.10/lib/hobo/lifecycles.rb:67:in `valid?' /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.4/lib/active_record/validations.rb:1077:in`save\_without\_dirty’ /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.4/lib/active\_record/dirty.rb:79:in `save_without_transactions' /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.4/lib/active_record/transactions.rb:229:in`send’ /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.4/lib/active\_record/transactions.rb:229:in `with_transaction_returning_status' /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.4/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/database_statements.rb:136:in`transaction’ /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.4/lib/active\_record/transactions.rb:182:in `transaction' /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.4/lib/active_record/transactions.rb:228:in`with\_transaction\_returning\_status’ /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.4/lib/active\_record/transactions.rb:196:in `save' /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.4/lib/active_record/transactions.rb:208:in`rollback\_active\_record\_state!’ /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.4/lib/active\_record/transactions.rb:196:in `save' /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.4/lib/active_record/base.rb:723:in`create’ /Users/iainbeeston/Documents/Programs/Ruby/inspect/db/seeds.rb:9 /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.4/lib/active\_support/dependencies.rb:145:in `load_without_new_constant_marking' /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.4/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:145:in`load’ /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.4/lib/active\_support/dependencies.rb:521:in `new_constants_in' /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.4/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:145:in`load’ /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/rails-2.3.4/lib/tasks/databases.rake:215 /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:636:in `call' /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:636:in`execute’ /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:631:in `each' /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:631:in`execute’ /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:597:in `invoke_with_call_chain' /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/monitor.rb:242:in`synchronize’ /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:590:in `invoke_with_call_chain' /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:583:in`invoke’ /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2051:in `invoke_task' /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2029:in`top\_level’ /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2029:in `each' /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2029:in`top\_level’ /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2068:in `standard_exception_handling' /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2023:in`top\_level’ /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2001:in `run' /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2068:in`standard\_exception\_handling’ /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:1998:in `run' /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/bin/rake:31 /usr/bin/rake:19:in`load’ /usr/bin/rake:19 It turns out that it’s failing when it tries to do validate\_unique on a text field. When I look into the rails code that’s throwing the error it’s coming up because it can’t find Encoding::UTF\_8. What’s more, if I skip db:seed and just start up the webserver I get a different error but it comes down to the exact same cause (can’t find Encoding::UTF\_8). The problem is that I can’t even figure out where this module is supposed to be! Is it rails or is it ruby? Or is it expecting a gem that I don’t have? I really have no idea (and google isn’t helping much). My setup is: Ruby 1.8.7 Rails 2.3.4 Database Mysql 5.1 64bit (MySQL gem 2.8.1 also in 64bit) OS Mac OSX SNow Leopard 64bit Has anyone seen this before? Can anyone suggest a fix? Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![tensaiji](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/6de8d8/32.png) [@tensaiji](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tensaiji)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2009, 5:14am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/encoding-utf-8-missing/178949/2 "2009-11-14T05:14:37Z")
It’s hobo that’s whacking you. On Nov 13, 5:10 pm, Iain B. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) ---
**Author:** ![tensaiji](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/6de8d8/32.png) [@tensaiji](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tensaiji)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2009, 5:35am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/encoding-utf-8-missing/178949/3 "2009-11-14T05:35:42Z")
Encoding shows up in Ruby 1.9 as part of the multibyte change made to String. That said, Rails 2.3.4 does make reference to Encoding::UTF\_8 but those references are conditional. If you look at “activesupport-2.3.4/lib/active\_support/core\_ext/string/multibyte.rb” you’ll see the gory details. I can run db:seed with Ruby1.8.7/Rails2.3.4 with no problem. ruby --version =\> ruby 1.8.7 (2009-06-08 patchlevel 173) [powerpc-darwin9.7.0] rails --version =\> Rails 2.3.4 gem list mysql =\> mysql (2.8.1) mysql --version =\> mysql Ver 14.14 Distrib 5.1.39, for apple-darwin9.5.0 (powerpc) using readline 5.1 database.yml: development: adapter: mysql encoding: utf8 reconnect: false socket: /tmp/mysql.sock database: auth-1.8\_dev pool: 5 username: \*\*\*\* password: \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* seeds.rb Page.create(:title =\> “It’s all about the pie…”, :body =\> “Welcome to Journeys”) On Nov 13, 5:10 pm, Iain B. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) ---
**Author:** ![tensaiji](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/6de8d8/32.png) [@tensaiji](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tensaiji)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2009, 7:22am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/encoding-utf-8-missing/178949/4 "2009-11-14T07:22:15Z")
You got me thinking about dependent gems that I’m using (rather than rails) and it turns out that the problem is caused by a gem called google-spreadsheet-ruby (it allows you to access and parse google spreadsheets from ruby). This gem defines String.force\_encoding for Ruby 1.8, however, rails is using this method to test whether it’s running on top of Ruby 1.8 or Ruby 1.9 - so it think’s it’s using Ruby 1.9 when actually it’s using Ruby 1.8, and then quickly hits problems and crashes. I’ve notified the author of the gem and suggested a solution, and I’ve patched my own app for now as well (to undefine this method entirely as the gem is an unused dependency in my project) and everything’s working again. 🙂