# NameError (uninitialized constant UnknownAction)

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nameerror-uninitialized-constant-unknownaction/64769>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [February 8, 2006, 10:36pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nameerror-uninitialized-constant-unknownaction/64769 "2006-02-08T22:36:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![gr0k](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/e19adc/32.png) [@gr0k](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gr0k)\
**Post date:** [February 8, 2006, 10:36pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nameerror-uninitialized-constant-unknownaction/64769/1 "2006-02-08T22:36:14Z")

</div>

Hi, I’m having a strange problem that only seems to be happening on our  
production server. I never get this error locally but get it quite  
often on the server. The other odd thing is it doesn’t seem to be  
resulting in any error pages on the site. Everything looks fine…

I wanted to add a rescue\_action\_in\_public to email me when there are  
errors. So I followed the example from the agile book (p. 464). Pretty  
much word for word. Here’s the error I’m occasionally seeing in the  
production.log. Any ideas as to why it thinks  
ActionController::UnknownAction is uninitialized?

NameError (uninitialized constant UnknownAction):  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-1.2.5/lib/active\_support/dependencies.rb:195:in  
`const_missing' /app/controllers/application.rb:13:in`rescue\_action\_in\_public’  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.11.2/lib/action\_controller/rescue.rb:33:in  
`rescue_action' /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.11.2/lib/action_controller/rescue.rb:108:in`perform\_action’  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.11.2/lib/action\_controller/base.rb:369:in  
`process_without_session_management_support' /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.11.2/lib/action_controller/session_management.rb:116:in`process’  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-1.0.0/lib/dispatcher.rb:38:in  
`dispatch' /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-1.0.0/lib/fcgi_handler.rb:141:in`process\_request’  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-1.0.0/lib/fcgi\_handler.rb:53:in  
`process!' /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/fcgi.rb:600:in`each\_cgi’  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/site\_ruby/1.8/fcgi.rb:597:in `each_cgi' /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-1.0.0/lib/fcgi_handler.rb:52:in`process!’  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-1.0.0/lib/fcgi\_handler.rb:22:in  
`process!’  
/home/www/www.evoketv.com/htdocs/public/dispatch.fcgi:24

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gr0k](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/e19adc/32.png) [@gr0k](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gr0k)\
**Post date:** [February 8, 2006, 11:08pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nameerror-uninitialized-constant-unknownaction/64769/2 "2006-02-08T23:08:47Z")

</div>

If you use UnknownAction in your rescue\_action\_in\_public method, try  
to use the full reference like so ::ActionController::UnknownAction

Kent.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gr0k](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/e19adc/32.png) [@gr0k](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gr0k)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2006, 11:58pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nameerror-uninitialized-constant-unknownaction/64769/3 "2006-02-10T23:58:14Z")

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Kent S. wrote:

> If you use UnknownAction in your rescue\_action\_in\_public method, try  
> to use the full reference like so ::ActionController::UnknownAction

That was the problem. Thanks!