# Rake Migrate failing - but can't find syntax errors **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [June 7, 2007, 9:22pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rake-migrate-failing-but-cant-find-syntax-errors/106252 "2007-06-07T21:22:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![patwa](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@patwa](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/patwa)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2007, 9:22pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rake-migrate-failing-but-cant-find-syntax-errors/106252/1 "2007-06-07T21:22:05Z")
Hello, I’m following a guide on creating a migration, but the migrate is failing due to the following errors: Line 7: Unexpected ‘\n’ expecting tCOLON2 or ‘{’ or ‘.’ Line 14: $END expecting KEND But I can’t find any mistakes. Any help appreciated. I use sometimes notepad and sometimes crimson editor for my programming development. If there’s a better editor that would not cause these problems (as they don’t seem to be typing erors) I’d appreciate the help. I pasted this straight from Crimson Editor: class CreatePosts \< ActiveRecord::Migration def self.up create\_table :posts do |t| t.column :title, :string t.column :body, :text t.column :created\_at, :string t.lock\_version, :integer end end def self.down drop\_table :posts end end H. ---
**Author:** ![patwa](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@patwa](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/patwa)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2007, 9:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rake-migrate-failing-but-cant-find-syntax-errors/106252/2 "2007-06-07T21:34:26Z")
This looks strange =\> t.lock\_version, :integer Is the comma needed? I’m learning too and have never used t.lock\_version. -Mel ---
**Author:** ![patwa](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@patwa](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/patwa)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 12:48am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rake-migrate-failing-but-cant-find-syntax-errors/106252/3 "2007-06-08T00:48:35Z")
Ok, good news but at the same time bad news. Good news is that it’s working. I removed the lock\_version statement after loading the file into a windows version of emacs, and also just removed anything after the last end statement (even though I couldn’t find anything) and now it migrates fine. Bad news, I don’t know why the lock\_version was having that effect, I found the statement through google that was supposed to be, well a locking mechanism to ensure the same database item couldnt be edited at the same time by two users. I can only suppose it didn’t work. Why I don’t know. I hate these types of errors, particularly the $END and KEND as I don’t know what they mean. I don’t have any other editors than notepad, Editpad Pro and Crimson Editor, and iit seems that even these put hidden characters in that mess things up. Any recommendations for a no nonsense editor would be welcome. I do need something that is accessible though as I’m partially sighted, so something easy to use. H. ---
**Author:** ![patwa](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@patwa](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/patwa)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 2:13am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rake-migrate-failing-but-cant-find-syntax-errors/106252/4 "2007-06-08T02:13:59Z")
On Jun 7, 2007, at 6:48 PM, Hussein P. wrote: > I hate these types of errors, particularly the $END and KEND as I > don’t > know what they mean. I don’t have any other editors than notepad, > Editpad Pro and Crimson Editor, and iit seems that even these put > hidden > characters in that mess things up. Any recommendations for a no > nonsense editor would be welcome. I do need something that is > accessible though as I’m partially sighted, so something easy to use. > > H. These are tokens from the parser: kSOMETHING usually means that a token that looks like something is involved, in this case kEND is the “end” of some block/loop/if construct. The $ (or $END) often means the end of the file. They’re not literally “$END” or “kEND” in the source so your editor will do just fine. -Rob Rob B. [http://agileconsultingllc.com](http://agileconsultingllc.com) removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid ---
**Author:** ![patwa](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@patwa](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/patwa)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 4:42pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rake-migrate-failing-but-cant-find-syntax-errors/106252/5 "2007-06-08T16:42:37Z")
Thanks Chris for clearing that up - at least for me. –Mel ---
**Author:** ![patwa](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@patwa](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/patwa)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 4:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rake-migrate-failing-but-cant-find-syntax-errors/106252/6 "2007-06-08T16:34:39Z")
> t.lock\_version, :integer This is definitely the problem. I believe you meant: t.column lock\_version, :integer However, please don’t add this without actually understanding optimistic locking. It won’t automatically take care of everything involved with making sure two people aren’t editing a record at the same time - it just causes an ActiveRecord::StaleObjectError when trying to save the record if it has changed since the user loaded it. Your application still has to handle that error. For more information: [http://api.rubyonrails.com/classes/ActiveRecord/Locking/Optimistic.html](http://api.rubyonrails.com/classes/ActiveRecord/Locking/Optimistic.html) [http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/MagicFieldNames](http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/MagicFieldNames) [http://www.ruby-forum.com/topic/61754](http://www.ruby-forum.com/topic/61754)