# Status: 500 Internal Server Error - A session\_key is require

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/status-500-internal-server-error-a-session-key-is-require/91026>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [April 3, 2007, 10:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/status-500-internal-server-error-a-session-key-is-require/91026 "2007-04-03T22:01:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![greg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/71c47a/32.png) [@greg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/greg)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2007, 10:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/status-500-internal-server-error-a-session-key-is-require/91026/1 "2007-04-03T22:01:08Z")

</div>

Hi,

Anyone seen this error / have any suggestions here?

I basically did a “cap deploy” to dreamhost but I’m now getting this in  
the  
“production.log” when trying to run up the application. The key things  
I  
changed in the deployment is that I:

a) When to rails v1.2.3 (well to revision 6419 really for completeness -  
which I looked up to be v1.2.3)  
b) I implemented the deployment technique from Mike C. at the bottom  
section (“The Cadillac Approach”) of  
[http://clarkware.com/cgi/blosxom/2007/01/18#ManagingVersionsWithCap](http://clarkware.com/cgi/blosxom/2007/01/18#ManagingVersionsWithCap),  
i.e.

- checks out rails (rev 6419) to a shared area
- then symlinks the app /vendor/rails directory to this area
- basically allows capistrano to be run to update your application but  
without having to put rails into the project to minimise checkout time

Any ideas?

(actually I’m not exactly sure with this approach what setting I should  
use  
in environment.rb for RAILS\_GEM\_VERSION - I’ve tried both commenting it  
out  
and setting it to ‘1.2.2’ but I get the below error in both cases)

DISPATCHER FAILSAFE RESPONSE (has cgi) Tue Apr 03 12:33:37 -0700 2007  
Status: 500 Internal Server Error  
A session\_key is required to write a cookie containing the session  
data.  
Use config.action\_controller.session = { :session\_key =\>  
“\_myapp\_session”,  
:secret =\> “some secret phrase” } in config/environment.rb

…/config/…/vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action\_controller/session/cookie\_store.rb:49:in  
`initialize' /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/cgi/session.rb:273:in `new’  
/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/cgi/session.rb:273:in  
`initialize\_without\_cgi\_reader’

…/config/…/vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action\_controller/cgi\_ext/session\_performance\_fix.rb:33:in  
`initialize’

…/config/…/vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action\_controller/cgi\_process.rb:124:in  
`new’

…/config/…/vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action\_controller/cgi\_process.rb:124:in  
`session’

…/config/…/vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action\_controller/cgi\_process.rb:156:in  
`stale\_session\_check!’

…/config/…/vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action\_controller/cgi\_process.rb:111:in  
`session’

…/config/…/vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action\_controller/base.rb:1097:in  
`assign\_shortcuts\_without\_flash’

…/config/…/vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action\_controller/flash.rb:174:in  
`assign\_shortcuts’

…/config/…/vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action\_controller/base.rb:467:in  
`process\_without\_filters’

…/config/…/vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action\_controller/filters.rb:652:in  
`process\_without\_session\_management\_support’

…/config/…/vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action\_controller/session\_management.rb:122:in  
`process’

…/config/…/vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action\_controller/base.rb:326:in  
`process' ../config/../vendor/rails/railties/lib/dispatcher.rb:39:in `dispatch’  
…/config/…/vendor/rails/railties/lib/fcgi\_handler.rb:168:in  
`process_request' ../config/../vendor/rails/railties/lib/fcgi_handler.rb:143:in `process\_each\_request!’  
…/config/…/vendor/rails/railties/lib/fcgi\_handler.rb:109:in  
`with_signal_handler' ../config/../vendor/rails/railties/lib/fcgi_handler.rb:142:in `process\_each\_request!’  
/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/fcgi.rb:600:in `each_cgi' /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/fcgi.rb:597:in `each’  
/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/fcgi.rb:597:in `each_cgi' ../config/../vendor/rails/railties/lib/fcgi_handler.rb:141:in `process\_each\_request!’  
…/config/…/vendor/rails/railties/lib/fcgi\_handler.rb:55:in  
`process!' ../config/../vendor/rails/railties/lib/fcgi_handler.rb:25:in `process!’  
dispatch.fcgi:24

Tks  
Greg

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![greg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/71c47a/32.png) [@greg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/greg)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2007, 11:04pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/status-500-internal-server-error-a-session-key-is-require/91026/2 "2007-04-03T23:04:18Z")

</div>

Greg H. wrote:  
[SNIP rails problem]

> **[Ruby on Rails](https://rubyonrails.org)**
>
> A web-app framework that includes everything needed to create database-backed web applications according to the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern.

The Rails folk are probably more experienced with all things Rails. 😉

–  
Phillip “CynicalRyan” Gawlowski  
[http://cynicalryan.110mb.com/](http://cynicalryan.110mb.com/)

Rule of Open-Source Programming #5:

A project is never finished.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![greg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/71c47a/32.png) [@greg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/greg)\
**Post date:** [April 4, 2007, 2:56am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/status-500-internal-server-error-a-session-key-is-require/91026/3 "2007-04-04T02:56:31Z")

</div>

oops - choose the wrong group by mistake