# When -exactly- does the Rails3 application get initialized?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/when-exactly-does-the-rails3-application-get-initialized/185053>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [March 12, 2010, 4:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/when-exactly-does-the-rails3-application-get-initialized/185053 "2010-03-12T16:40:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![christ](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@christ](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/christ)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 4:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/when-exactly-does-the-rails3-application-get-initialized/185053/1 "2010-03-12T16:40:50Z")

</div>

I’ve been fighting left and right with rails 3 and bundler. There are  
a few gems out there that don’t work properly if the rails application  
hasn’t been loaded yet. factory\_girl and shoulda are both examples,  
even on the rails3 branch. Taking shoulda as an example, when trying  
to run rake test:units I get the following error:  
DEPRECATION WARNING: RAILS\_ROOT is deprecated! Use Rails.root instead.  
(called from autoload\_macros at c:/code/test\_harness/vendor/  
windows\_gems/gems/shoulda-2.10.3/lib/shoulda/autoload\_macros.rb:40) c:/  
code/test\_harness/vendor/windows\_gems/gems/shoulda-2.10.3/lib/shoulda/  
autoload\_macros.rb:44:in ‘join’: can’t convert #Class:0x232b7c0 into  
String (TypeError) from c:/code/test\_harness/vendor/windows\_gems/gems/  
shoulda-2.10.3/lib/shoulda/autoload\_macros.rb:44:in ‘block in  
autoload\_macros’ from c:/code/test\_harness/vendor/windows\_gems/gems/  
shoulda-2.10.3/lib/shoulda/autoload\_macros.rb:44:in ‘map’ from c:/code/  
test\_harness/vendor/windows\_gems/gems/shoulda-2.10.3/lib/shoulda/  
autoload\_macros.rb:44:in ‘autoload\_macros’ from c:/code/test\_harness/  
vendor/windows\_gems/gems/shoulda-2.10.3/lib/shoulda/rails.rb:17:in  
‘\<top (required)\>’

Digging a bit deeper into lib/shoulda/rails, I see this:  
root = if defined?(Rails.root) && Rails.root  
Rails.root  
else  
RAILS\_ROOT  
end

# load in the 3rd party macros from vendorized plugins and gems

Shoulda.autoload\_macros root, File.join(“vendor”, “{plugins,gems}”,  
“\*”)

So…what’s happening here is while Rails.root is defined, Rails.root  
== nil, so RAILS\_ROOT is used, and RAILS\_ROOT==nil, which is then  
being passed on to Shoulda.autoload\_macros. Obviously the rails app  
has yet to be initialized. With Rails3 using Bundler now, there’s been  
some hubub over on the Bundler side about being able to specify an  
order in which the gems are required, but I’m not sure whether or not  
this would solve the problem at hand.  
Ultimately my questions is this: When exactly does the environment.rb  
file (which actually initializes the application) get pulled in? Is  
there any harm to bumping up when the app is initialized and have it  
happen before the Bundler.require line in config/application.rb? I’ve  
tried to hack bundler to specify the order myself, and have the rails  
gem pulled in first, but it doesn’t appear to me that requiring the  
rails gem actually initializes the application.  
As this line (in config/application.rb) is being called before the app  
is initialized, any gem in the bundler Gemfile that requires rails to  
be initialized is going to tank.

# Auto-require default libraries and those for the current Rails

environment. Bundler.require :default, Rails.env

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![christ](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@christ](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/christ)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 3:38pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/when-exactly-does-the-rails3-application-get-initialized/185053/2 "2010-03-18T15:38:41Z")

</div>

Anyone else with this? I’m running into a similar situation with  
CarrierWave where during initialization (using unicorn for testing) I  
can’t get it to load because Rails.root is nil and they can’t join nil  
with a string.

Any help here would be greatly appreciated. How have others got around  
this?