# Rake Migrate Syntax Error **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [March 31, 2008, 12:16am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rake-migrate-syntax-error/133370 "2008-03-31T00:16:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![pikminknight](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/90ced4/32.png) [@pikminknight](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pikminknight)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2008, 12:16am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rake-migrate-syntax-error/133370/1 "2008-03-31T00:16:02Z")
When in Terminal on Mac OS X, I get this syntax error when I run the “rake migrate” command: rake migrate --trace (in /Users/dillon/Documents/rails/expenses/expenses) \*\* Invoke migrate (first\_time) \*\* Invoke db:migrate (first\_time) \*\* Invoke environment (first\_time) \*\* Execute environment \*\* Execute db:migrate rake aborted! ./db/migrate//001\_accounts.rb:1: syntax error, unexpected ‘:’, expecting ‘\n’ or ‘;’ endndrop\_table :accountset, :floatle|ion ^ /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsMar2007.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-1.4.2/lib/active\_support/dependencies.rb:488:in `load' /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsMar2007.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-1.4.2/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:488:in `load’ /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsMar2007.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-1.4.2/lib/active\_support/dependencies.rb:342:in `new_constants_in' /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsMar2007.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-1.4.2/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:488:in `load’ /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsMar2007.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-1.15.3/lib/active\_record/migration.rb:343:in `migration_classes' /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsMar2007.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-1.15.3/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/mysql_adapter.rb:248:in `inject’ /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsMar2007.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-1.15.3/lib/active\_record/migration.rb:342:in `each' /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsMar2007.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-1.15.3/lib/active_record/migration.rb:342:in `inject’ /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsMar2007.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-1.15.3/lib/active\_record/migration.rb:342:in `migration_classes' /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsMar2007.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-1.15.3/lib/active_record/migration.rb:330:in `migrate’ /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsMar2007.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-1.15.3/lib/active\_record/migration.rb:297:in `up' /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsMar2007.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-1.15.3/lib/active_record/migration.rb:288:in `migrate’ /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsMar2007.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-1.2.3/lib/tasks/databases.rake:4 /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsMar2007.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.7.2/lib/rake.rb:399:in `call' /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsMar2007.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.7.2/lib/rake.rb:399:in `execute’ /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsMar2007.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.7.2/lib/rake.rb:399:in `each' /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsMar2007.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.7.2/lib/rake.rb:399:in `execute’ /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsMar2007.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.7.2/lib/rake.rb:369:in `invoke' /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsMar2007.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.7.2/lib/rake.rb:362:in `synchronize’ /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsMar2007.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.7.2/lib/rake.rb:362:in `invoke' /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsMar2007.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.7.2/lib/rake.rb:376:in `invoke\_prerequisites’ /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsMar2007.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.7.2/lib/rake.rb:1021:in `each' /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsMar2007.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.7.2/lib/rake.rb:1021:in `send’ /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsMar2007.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.7.2/lib/rake.rb:1021:in `each' /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsMar2007.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.7.2/lib/rake.rb:375:in `invoke\_prerequisites’ /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsMar2007.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.7.2/lib/rake.rb:368:in `invoke' /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsMar2007.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.7.2/lib/rake.rb:362:in `synchronize’ /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsMar2007.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.7.2/lib/rake.rb:362:in `invoke' /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsMar2007.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.7.2/lib/rake.rb:1935:in `run’ /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsMar2007.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.7.2/lib/rake.rb:1935:in `each' /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsMar2007.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.7.2/lib/rake.rb:1935:in `run’ /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsMar2007.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.7.2/bin/rake:7 /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsMar2007.locobundle/i386/bin/rake:16:in `load’ /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsMar2007.locobundle/i386/bin/rake:16 * * * I’m following this tutorial: [http://developer.apple.com/tools/rubyonrails.html](http://developer.apple.com/tools/rubyonrails.html) Apparently I’m running Ruby 1.8.6 and the tutorial was made for Ruby 1.8.4. Can anyone help me figure out how to fix it? The problem comes in the expenses/db/migrate/001\_accounts.rb I can’t get it to post the tables to the development database I have on mySQL. ---
**Author:** ![pikminknight](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/90ced4/32.png) [@pikminknight](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pikminknight)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2008, 12:52am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rake-migrate-syntax-error/133370/2 "2008-03-31T00:52:03Z")
Dillon Decicio wrote: > ./db/migrate//001\_accounts.rb:1: syntax error, unexpected ‘:’, expecting > ‘\n’ or ‘;’ > endndrop\_table :accountset, :floatle|ion > ^ There appears to be an error in your migration file. It seems like you have an extra colon, perhaps at the end of a line, but without seeing the migration contents it’s difficult to say for sure… ---
**Author:** ![pikminknight](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/90ced4/32.png) [@pikminknight](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pikminknight)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2008, 1:13am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rake-migrate-syntax-error/133370/3 "2008-03-31T01:13:09Z")
Mark B. wrote: > Dillon Decicio wrote: > > > ./db/migrate//001\_accounts.rb:1: syntax error, unexpected ‘:’, expecting > > ‘\n’ or ‘;’ > > endndrop\_table :accountset, :floatle|ion > > ^ > > There appears to be an error in your migration file. It seems like you > have an extra colon, perhaps at the end of a line, but without seeing > the migration contents it’s difficult to say for sure… Here’s the file: * * * class Accounts \< ActiveRecord::Migration def self.up create\_table :accounts do |table| table.column :name, :string table.column :budget, :float end end def self.down drop\_table :accounts end end * * * Sorry, I’m new to Ruby on Rails. I just wanted to follow the tutorial to see what I could learn. I figured it was a syntax error like this, but since I don’t know the syntax… I’m not sure. Maybe you could supply an explanation too? If not, at least show what I did wrong. Thanks for your prompt response. ---
**Author:** ![pikminknight](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/90ced4/32.png) [@pikminknight](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pikminknight)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2008, 2:24am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rake-migrate-syntax-error/133370/4 "2008-03-31T02:24:46Z")
How would you fix that lf/cr issue? Since, I’m not sure what it is based off of just following a tutorial and not experience. ---
**Author:** ![pikminknight](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/90ced4/32.png) [@pikminknight](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pikminknight)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2008, 2:18am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rake-migrate-syntax-error/133370/5 "2008-03-31T02:18:21Z")
Hey, that could be because of lf/cr issues. Julian ---
**Author:** ![pikminknight](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/90ced4/32.png) [@pikminknight](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pikminknight)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2008, 2:58am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rake-migrate-syntax-error/133370/6 "2008-03-31T02:58:47Z")
Well I can’t see anything wrong with the syntax of your migration, so I’m kind of clutching at straws. You’re using OS/X, so if you’re also using TextMate, you shouldn’t have any issues. I’d say the other part of your code would be causing issues too if it really were an lf/cr issue. It’s an odd issue! Julian. ---
**Author:** ![pikminknight](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/90ced4/32.png) [@pikminknight](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pikminknight)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2008, 3:47am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rake-migrate-syntax-error/133370/7 "2008-03-31T03:47:30Z")
The issue turned out to be in the config file database.yml. I fixed that, and now it’s telling my database on MySQL isn’t set up. I have a database for this application… But for some reason it still says the command won’t work. Do you know any reason that might occur? ---
**Author:** ![pikminknight](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/90ced4/32.png) [@pikminknight](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pikminknight)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2008, 4:28am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rake-migrate-syntax-error/133370/8 "2008-03-31T04:28:48Z")
Alright… Now I’ve tried re-installing Locomotive, and creating an entirely new rails application. This was the output when I followed the instructions over: * * * DDComp:~/new dillon$ script/generate migration accounts /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsMar2007.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-1.15.3/lib/active\_record/connection\_adapters/abstract/connection\_specification.rb:204:in `establish_connection': development database is not configured (ActiveRecord::AdapterNotSpecified) from /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsMar2007.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-1.15.3/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_specification.rb:195:in`establish\_connection’ from /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsMar2007.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-1.2.3/lib/initializer.rb:229:in `initialize_database' from /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsMar2007.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-1.2.3/lib/initializer.rb:88:in`process’ from /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsMar2007.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-1.2.3/lib/initializer.rb:43:in `send' from /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsMar2007.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-1.2.3/lib/initializer.rb:43:in`run’ from ./script/…/config/…/config/environment.rb:13 from /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsMar2007.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/site\_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom\_require.rb:27:in `gem_original_require' from /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsMar2007.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:27:in`require’ from /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsMar2007.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-1.2.3/lib/commands/generate.rb:1 from /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsMar2007.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/site\_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom\_require.rb:27:in `gem_original_require' from /Applications/Locomotive2/Bundles/standardRailsMar2007.locobundle/i386/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:27:in`require’ from script/generate:3 * * * This was for trying to generate the migration file. The other thing worth noting, was that I could not use port 3000 anymore for development.