ExecJS::RuntimeError on Windows trying to follow rubytutorial

Question

UPDATE: Colin's suggestion of removing the line //= require_tree . has fixed the issue.

I have wasted over 2 days trying to follow every suggestion out there and fix my issue. I am trying to follow the http://ruby.railstutorial.org book on windows machine and cannot for the life of me get past the following nasty error.

ExecJS::RuntimeError in Static_pages#home

Showing C:/Users/.../bootcamp-sample-app/app/views/layouts/application.html.erb where line #6 raised:

["ok","(function() {\n\n\n\n}).call(this);\n"]
(in C:/Users/.../bootcamp-sample-app/app/assets/javascripts/sessions.js.coffee)
Extracted source (around line #6):

3: <head>
4:   <title><%= full_title(yield(:title)) %></title>
5:   <%= stylesheet_link_tag    "application", media: "all" %>
6:   <%= javascript_include_tag "application" %>
7:   <%= csrf_meta_tags %>
8:   <%= render 'layouts/shim' %>
9: </head>
Rails.root: C:/Users/.../bootcamp-sample-app

Application Trace | Framework Trace | Full Trace
app/views/layouts/application.html.erb:6:in `_app_views_layouts_application_html_erb___487732698_30422172'
Request

I have tried every suggestion including installing nodejs with the msi, using execjs 1.3.0 and other things which I can't even remember any more. Here is the gem file

source 'https://rubygems.org'

gem 'rails', '3.2.8'
gem 'bootstrap-sass', '2.0.0'
gem 'bcrypt-ruby', '3.0.1'
gem 'faker', '1.0.1'
gem 'will_paginate', '3.0.3'
gem 'bootstrap-will_paginate', '0.0.6'

group :development, :test do
  gem 'sqlite3', '1.3.5'
  gem 'rspec-rails', '2.10.0'
  gem 'guard-rspec', '0.5.5'
  gem 'guard-cucumber'
end

group :development do
  gem 'annotate', '2.5.0'
end


# Gems used only for assets and not required
# in production environments by default.
group :assets do
  gem 'sass-rails'
  gem 'coffee-rails'
  gem 'coffee-script'
  gem 'uglifier'
end

gem 'jquery-rails', '2.0.2'

gem 'execjs'

# Gems on Linus/Mac
#gem 'therubyracer'


group :test do
  gem 'capybara', '1.1.2'
  gem 'guard-spork', '0.3.2'
  gem 'spork', '0.9.0'
  gem 'factory_girl_rails', '1.4.0'
  gem 'cucumber-rails', '1.2.1', require: false
  gem 'database_cleaner', '0.7.0'


# Test gems on Linux
#  gem 'rb-inotify', '0.8.8'
#  gem 'libnotify', '0.5.9'

# Test gems on Macintosh OS X
#  gem 'selenium-webdriver', '~> 2.22.0'
#  gem 'rb-fsevent', '0.9.1', :require => false
#  gem 'growl', '1.0.3'

# Test gems on Windows
# gem 'rb-fchange', '0.0.5'
# gem 'rb-notifu', '0.0.4'
# gem 'win32console', '1.3.0'
end

group :production do
#  gem 'therubyracer'
  gem 'pg', '0.12.2'
end

# To use ActiveModel has_secure_password
# gem 'bcrypt-ruby', '~> 3.0.0'

# To use Jbuilder templates for JSON
# gem 'jbuilder'

# Use unicorn as the app server
# gem 'unicorn'

# Deploy with Capistrano
# gem 'capistrano'

# To use debugger
#gem 'debugger''

and here is the sessions.js.coffee

# Place all the behaviors and hooks related to the matching controller here.
# All this logic will automatically be available in application.js.
# You can use CoffeeScript in this file: http://jashkenas.github.com/coffee-script/

application.js

// This is a manifest file that'll be compiled into application.js, which will include all the files
// listed below.
//
// Any JavaScript/Coffee file within this directory, lib/assets/javascripts, vendor/assets/javascripts,
// or vendor/assets/javascripts of plugins, if any, can be referenced here using a relative path.
//
// It's not advisable to add code directly here, but if you do, it'll appear at the bottom of the
// the compiled file.
//
// WARNING: THE FIRST BLANK LINE MARKS THE END OF WHAT'S TO BE PROCESSED, ANY BLANK LINE SHOULD
// GO AFTER THE REQUIRES BELOW.
//
//= require jquery
//= require jquery_ujs
//= require_tree .
//= require bootstrap

application.html.erb

<!DOCTYPE html>
 <html>
 <head>
   <title><%= full_title(yield(:title)) %></title>
   <%= stylesheet_link_tag    "application", media: "all" %>
   <%= javascript_include_tag "application" %>
   <%= csrf_meta_tags %>
   <%= render 'layouts/shim' %>
 </head>
 <body>
 <%= render 'layouts/header' %>
 <div class="container">
   <%= yield %>
   <%= render 'layouts/footer' %>
 </div>
 </body>
 </html>

Here is console content

Processing by StaticPagesController#home as HTML
  Rendered static_pages/home.html.erb within layouts/application (45.0ms)
Completed 500 Internal Server Error in 1136ms

ActionView::Template::Error (["ok","(function() {\n\n\n\n}).call(this);\n"]
  (in C:/Users/.../bootcamp-sample-app/app/assets/javascripts/sessions.js.coffee)):
    3: <head>
    4:   <title><%= full_title(yield(:title)) %></title>
    5:   <%= stylesheet_link_tag    "application", media: "all" %>
    6:   <%= javascript_include_tag "application" %>
    7:   <%= csrf_meta_tags %>
    8:   <%= render 'layouts/shim' %>
    9: </head>
  app/views/layouts/application.html.erb:6:in `_app_views_layouts_application_html_erb___487732698_30422172'


  Rendered C:/RailsInstaller/Ruby1.9.3/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/actionpack-3.2.8/lib/action_dispatch/middleware/templates/rescues/_trace.erb (2.0ms)
  Rendered C:/RailsInstaller/Ruby1.9.3/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/actionpack-3.2.8/lib/action_dispatch/middleware/templates/rescues/_request_and_response.erb (1.0ms)
  Rendered C:/RailsInstaller/Ruby1.9.3/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/actionpack-3.2.8/lib/action_dispatch/middleware/templates/rescues/template_error.erb within rescues/layout (34.0ms)

I have installed Devkit and have tried various gems but please suggest changes which can help me develop on windows. I used rubyinstaller for everything.

What am I missing?

Could you try removing the line `//= require_tree .` from `application.js` and see if the error persists? — Colin R, Sep 20 '12 at 20:54
WOW.... that did the trick... thanks a lot Colin, removing the line //= require_tree . has fixed the issue. I can't explain what a relief that is but can u plz explain why that line is causing the error? — user1687078, Sep 20 '12 at 21:12
That line is compiling every `.js.coffee` file in `app/assets/javascripts` into JavaScript and then adding it to your layout (but only in development mode; in production mode, the compiled js is added to your `application.js` file). Having `require_tree .` shouldn't be causing errors, so somehow you've got an issue with one of the files that's being included. Can you post a list of all the files in your `app/assets/javascripts` directory? Also, you can try completely deleting the contents of `sessions.js.coffee` and adding back `//= require_tree .` and see if the error still exists. — Colin R, Sep 21 '12 at 13:25
@ColinR, you should add this as an answer to the question. I had the same issue and if I hadn't browsed the comments, I would have kept on searching for another question. — Emmanuel F, Nov 10 '12 at 18:20

score 242 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

242

My friend was attempting a Rails tutorial on Win 8 RTM a few months ago and ran into this error. Not sure if this issue exists in Windows 7 as well, but this may help.

Options:

1) Removing //= require_tree . / Ignoring the issue - As ColinR stated above, this line should not be causing an issue in the first place. There is an actual problem with ExecJS working properly with the JavaScript runtime on your system and removing this line is just ignoring that fact.

2) Installing Node.js / Running away - Many people seem to just end up installing Node.js and using that instead of the JavaScript runtime already on their system. While that is a valid option, it also requires additional software and only avoids the original issue, which is that ExecJS is not working properly with the JavaScript runtime already on your system. If the existing JavaScript runtime on your system is supposed to work, why not make it work instead of installing more software? According to the ExecJS creator, the runtime already built into Windows is in fact supported...

ExecJS lets you run JavaScript code from Ruby. It automatically picks the best runtime available to evaluate your JavaScript program, then returns the result to you as a Ruby object.

ExecJS supports these runtimes:

therubyracer - Google V8 embedded within Ruby

therubyrhino - Mozilla Rhino embedded within JRuby

Node.js

Apple JavaScriptCore - Included with Mac OS X

Microsoft Windows Script Host (JScript)

(from github.com/sstephenson/execjs#execjs )

3) Actually fixing the issue / Learning - Use the knowledge of options 1 and 2 to search for other solutions. I can't tell you how many webpages I closed upon seeing options 1 or 2 was the accepted solution before actually finding information about the root issue we were having. The only reason we kept looking was that we couldn't believe the Rails team would (1) insert a line of code in every scaffold generated project that caused an issue, or (2) require that we install additional software just to run that default line of code. And so we eventually arrived at a fix for our root issue (your miles may vary).

The Fix that worked for us: On the system having issues, find ExecJS's runtimes.rb file. It looks like this. Make a copy of the found file for backup. Open the original runtimes.rb for editing. Find the section that starts with the line JScript = ExternalRuntime.new(. In that section, on the line containing :command => "cscript //E:jscript //Nologo //U", - remove the //U only. Then on the line containing :encoding => 'UTF-16LE' # CScript with //U returns UTF-16LE - change UTF-16LE to UTF-8 . Save the changes to the file. This section of the file should now read:

JScript = ExternalRuntime.new(
    :name        => "JScript",
    :command     => "cscript //E:jscript //Nologo",
    :runner_path => ExecJS.root + "/support/jscript_runner.js",
    :encoding    => 'UTF-8' # CScript with //U returns UTF-16LE
)

Next, stop then restart your Rails server and refresh the page in your browser that produced the original error. Hopefully the page loads without error now. Here's the ExecJS issue thread where we originally posted our results: https://github.com/sstephenson/execjs/issues/81#issuecomment-9892952

If this did not fix the issue, you can always overwrite the modified runtimes.rb with the backup copy you (hopefully) made and everything will be back to square one. In that case, consider option 3 and keep searching. Let us know what eventually works for you.. unless it's removing the require_tree or installing node.js, there's plenty of that going around already. :)

edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

Community

1
1

answered Jan 02 '13 at 08:27

Kevin P

3,384
1
14
5

20

I wish I could give you +50 votes. This has been irking me for too long trying to get therubyracer up for Windows, realizing it's not supported, then trying to get ExecJS to load properly. Thanks for taking the time to help me learn and not obfuscate the issue! For those wondering, you can get the location of the runtimes.rb file by typing "gem which execjs" – Michael Mar 03 '13 at 17:29
4

I had to run bundle install after making this change in order for it to work. So if anyone gives this solution a try, and it doesn't appear to work at first, make sure you try that! I'm on windows 8 64-bit, and it worked for me! Thanks – Peter Kirby Apr 11 '13 at 01:24
2

+1 saved the hustle from installing node. Option 3 works for me on windows 8 64 bit – Sami Apr 27 '13 at 10:41
Finally, "The fix that worked for us" worked for me too, thank you very much! Been struggling with this for 2 days >.> – Rick Calder Aug 06 '13 at 17:13
Certainly appears to be a windows 8 issue, have you recommended this to the owner of execjs gem? – Matt Aug 09 '13 at 22:08
10

Comment on option 3: https://github.com/sstephenson/execjs/issues/111 says that we can solve the problem just by changing `UTF-16LE` to `UTF-16` without removig the `//U` option. I confirmed it. – Tsutomu Sep 14 '13 at 03:51
Windows 8 64bit, option 3 worked. Also just note that I had two execjs folders, execjs-1.4.0 AND execjs-2.0.2. I just did it in both to make sure. – Oct 02 '13 at 07:44
3

I'm seeing a lot of how, but not a lot of why. Why does changing what looks like a character set make a difference just on windows? I'm curious is all. – NathanTempelman Jun 03 '14 at 19:13
Kevin P's option 3 worked on Windows 8 Version 6.2 (Build 9200), using **ruby 2.0.0p195**, **Rails 4.0.0** and **ExecJS 2.2.0**. I also confirmed that @Tsutomu's suggestion works for me. – Marty C. Jun 13 '14 at 02:11
did not work on windows 7 64bit. Had to install Node.js (option 2) and it worked. Thanks – Postscripter Feb 21 '15 at 07:56
Hello KevinP, I Need help. What if the error occurs at line 5, where only removing <%= stylesheet_link_tag 'application', media: 'all', 'data-turbolinks-track' => true %> this line of code fixed the issue. But bootstrap is not applying to the webpage. Even removing *= require_tree . from application.css.sass is not working. My friend's system has Windows 7 32bit, nodejs not installed. Even method 3 suggested by you not working. I think there is no problem with js in my case. Any idea how to prevent the error? – learner Feb 25 '15 at 12:56
I also installed Node.js and the path of npm is set in environment variables. Still same error. I'm developing the application in Windows 8.1 64bit OS, and same gems are used. – learner Feb 25 '15 at 12:58
option 1 did not work for me and option 2 did. Windows 7 prof 64bit sp1. – CupOfTea Jun 05 '15 at 09:08
I tried your solution #3, and it didn't work for me. (Windows 8.1 64 bit). What did eventually work was downgrading the `coffee-script-source` version as suggested in Michael Petch's comment here: http://stackoverflow.com/a/28436913/1586163 – Mike K Jul 09 '15 at 21:52
Unfortunately #3 did not work for me. I tried using `//U` with `UTF-16LE` as well as `UTF-16`, then I tried removing the `//U` and using `UTF-8`, but none worked. Restoring the `runtimes.rb` file to its original state and installing node.js fixed the problem immediately. Still, I would +100 if I could, even though your solution did not work for me. Great thorough answer. – erictgrubaugh Sep 06 '15 at 18:55
2

For those with no clue where to find runtimes.rb its here: `...\RUBYINSTALLATIONFOLDER\lib\ruby\gems\2.2.0\gems\execjs-2.6.0\lib\execjs` eg: `C:\Ruby22-x64\lib\ruby\gems\2.2.0\gems\execjs-2.6.0\lib\execjs` – Chad Mx Dec 20 '15 at 02:53
Working for windows 10 64bit! Thanks! Saved the day here! – bcsanches Apr 02 '16 at 16:04
Well this didn't fix it for me, nor did installing node.js (and rebooting). Guess I'm boned. I don't know what I was thinking, trying to use Windows to do Rails development anyway. – David Krider Jun 09 '16 at 03:35

score 14 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 19 '13 at 23:49

14

Had the same issue OS- Windows 8 Error- 'ExecJS::RuntimeError...' Solution- missing Node.js

install Node.js from http://www.nodejs.org/download/
Restart the computer

answered Jun 19 '13 at 23:49

snassr

1,228
14
10

1

this one worked for me. Does anyone here knows why installing node.js worked? – mpalencia Jan 01 '17 at 14:30

score 12 · Answer 3 · edited Dec 04 '12 at 08:19

I had this problem and was scowering the internet I am running Windows 8 with this rails gem file

source 'https://rubygems.org'

gem 'rails', '3.2.9'

# Bundle edge Rails instead:
# gem 'rails', :git => 'git://github.com/rails/rails.git'

group :development do gem 'sqlite3', '1.3.5' 
end

# Gems used only for assets and not required # in production environments by default. 

group :assets do 
    gem 'sass-rails', '3.2.5' 
    gem 'coffee-rails', '3.2.2'

gem 'uglifier', '1.2.3' 
end

gem 'jquery-rails', '2.0.2'

group :production do 
    gem 'pg', '0.12.2' 
end

Went to http://nodejs.org/download/ installed - restarted the machine and everything worked.

I installed node as suggested, didn't need to restart, just open a new cmd window (guess this is so that the new paths can be accessed) — Will, Nov 09 '15 at 22:52

score 5 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 29 '13 at 00:01

I favoured the Learning route. It seems the problem stems from

IO.popen(command, options) { |f| output = f.read }

returning an empty string in execjs\external_runtine.rb (line 173 in version 1.4.0). This is why the error message contains no text. The changes suggested did not work for me. I changed UTF-16LE to UTF-8, but it still returned an empty string. I removed \\U from the command - this at least returned text, but it was in the wrong encoding - in the browser it displayed as Chinese characters.

According to this MSDN blog post, using the //U flag and redirecting to a file causes cscript to return the result using UTF-16.

And then, magically, it worked (@#%$&^@$%!!!?!?!) using command as "cscript //E:jscript //Nologo" and encoding as "UTF-8". Oh well.

score 4 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 22 '13 at 22:05

I had to add my nodejs folder to my Windows Path environment variable. In Windows 8 open the Control Panel, go to System, Advanced system settings (on the left), click Environment Variables on the left, and edit the Path variable to include the directory to your nodejs folder (probably in Program Files).

Of course you have to have Node.js installed (use the Windows installer) and have installed CoffeeScript through NPM.

score 4 · Answer 6 · answered Jan 20 '15 at 23:43

I know this is a very late answer for this issue, but I got on something similar and went down the full path to understand what was really causing the issue.

Turned out that the default windows jscript engine is still on es3, and many gems are taking advantage of es5 or es6 features. Unfortunately if this happen (you are using a gem or a piece of code that leverage es5 or es6 features), there is no way to let it work on windows with the native js engine.

This is the reason why installing node.js solves the problem (node is at least es5).

Hope this can help some folks struggling with a runtime error of jsexec.

My 2 cents advise is to install node(very easy) or install v8, and not removing the //=require_tree.

Note execjs will automatically use node if detected. Otherwise force its use, adding in boot something like:

ENV['EXECJS_RUNTIME'] = 'Node'

To set the env to node.

installing node is a good idea (and probably simplest), but is still a bit of an overkill considering its size — prusswan, Aug 27 '15 at 10:38

score 4 · Answer 7 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:46

For windows users, this may work. There is a problem with coffee-script-source >1.9.0 running on windows.

It seems you have to add this to your gemfile:

gem 'coffee-script-source', '1.8.0'

then do

bundle update coffee-script-source

I tried all the above options, and also mixed up a few combinations of them, till I found this Rails-4, ExecJS::ProgramError in Pages#welcome and had done multiple system gem updates and bundle installs and updates.

I reverted all my trials and downgraded my coffee-script-source and it works. Posting here to help out anyone else, who may have a similar issue.

Updating files in vendor/cache

coffee-script-source-1.8.0.gem Removing outdated .gem files from vendor/cache coffee-script-source-1.9.1.1.gem Bundle updated!

I tried option 3 of the accepted answer, then got an "Argument Error", tried installing nodejs, didn't help, added nodejs to path variables (I am on Win10) and finally tried your approach. Worked! Thanks — elk, Feb 19 '17 at 12:07

Leandro P. · Answer 8 · 2016-10-12T15:45:04.183

3

For beginners like me:

Navigate to \app\views\layouts\application.html.erb
Change line 6 from:

'<%= javascript_include_tag 'application', 'data-turbolinks-track' => true %>'

to

<%= javascript_include_tag 'defaults', 'data-turbolinks-track' => true %>

Source from tutorial to fix here

edited Oct 12 '16 at 15:45

answered Jul 23 '15 at 23:11

Leandro P.

165
2
5

The mine just works when I put in both lines: `<%= stylesheet_link_tag 'defaults', media: 'all', 'data-turbolinks-track': 'reload' %> <%= javascript_include_tag 'defaults', 'data-turbolinks-track': 'reload' %>` thank's Leandro P. – rld Sep 22 '16 at 18:17
1

Please don't do this. It will just remove all the Javascript in your Rails app. This hides the issue but will cause others later. – mattangriffel Oct 16 '16 at 00:25
Yeah, as @mattangriffel says, don't do this. – Neil Atkinson Nov 18 '16 at 10:58

score 2 · Answer 9 · answered Nov 29 '12 at 16:54

2

Quick and dirty solution: remove //= require_tree . from application.js.

As I explain in the comments for the question, this doesn't actually solve the underlying issue that is causing the error, but merely sidesteps it.

answered Nov 29 '12 at 16:54

Colin R

17,711
2
20
28

Hello Colin R, I Need help. What if the error occurs at line 5, where only removing <%= stylesheet_link_tag 'application', media: 'all', 'data-turbolinks-track' => true %> this line of code fixed the issue. But bootstrap is not applying to the webpage. Even removing *= require_tree . from application.css.sass is not working. My friend's system has Windows 7 32bit, nodejs not installed. Even method 3 suggested by you not working. I think there is no problem with js in my case. Any idea how to prevent the error? – learner Feb 26 '15 at 05:29
I also installed Node.js and the path of npm is set in environment variables. Still same error. I'm developing the application in Windows 8.1 64bit OS, and same gems are used. – learner Feb 26 '15 at 05:30

score 2 · Answer 10 · answered Apr 13 '16 at 20:31

2

I used the solution number 2 because previously i had have this mistake, but in this ocation didn't work, then I added the

gem 'coffee-script-source', '1.8.0'

and run

bundle install

and my problem was fixed

answered Apr 13 '16 at 20:31

Yuliem Alavez

63
1
5

If you used the solution number 2, You must reload all comman line in windnows after install Node.js . Then turn on the server and try again. – Yuliem Alavez May 04 '16 at 05:21

score 1 · Answer 11 · answered Jun 04 '13 at 01:09

Here's a less complicated solution, for beginners:

If you are just working through the tutorial, you are probably working with the default Gemfile (or very nearly). You can open it up in your text editor, and remove the pound sign from the front of this line:

# gem 'therubyracer', :platforms => :ruby

You will need to re-run bundle install, which will likely download a few things. But once it does, you should be able to start the server without any problem.

At least, that worked for me.

This also works on Ubuntu 12.04, by the way.

score 0 · Answer 12 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:26

0

Running Win 8 64 bit rails 4.2.5 ruby 2.1.7

This one worked for me

edited May 23 '17 at 12:26

Community

1
1

answered Nov 18 '15 at 09:22

Sumit Kumar

39
1
4

score 0 · Answer 13 · edited Feb 15 '18 at 06:32

Did you change the location of your code from C:\Users\this-user\yo-app?

When I was young in rails I have created an app and the default location of my app was C:\Users\Duncan\my-app and then, when I changed my-app and placed it in D:\All-my-Apps-folder i had that error....

I scratched my head, tried 1,2,3 and more .....nothing! Until I returned all code to default folder location and to my amazement, I was rolling again :)

In case someone may find this useful (I can't explain why that happened, maybe someone may without speculation)

ExecJS::RuntimeError on Windows trying to follow rubytutorial

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