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alec@Locke:~/workspace/rails/nwis$ rails -v Rails 3.0.7 alec@Locke:~/workspace/rails/nwis$ sudo rails -v sudo: rails: command not found

I need to use sudo because I have a permission denied error when I try to run rails server on my machine.

I think it's an issue with RVM and using Gemsets, but I don't know why. I've tried re-running the Gemset setup process using sudo for each command to make sure my root user and my regular user are on the same page, but that gave me the same result.

To be clear as to why I am running as sudo; when trying to start a rails server, this is what happens:

rails server
=> Booting WEBrick
=> Rails 3.0.7 application starting in development on http://0.0.0.0:3000
=> Call with -d to detach
=> Ctrl-C to shutdown server
Exiting
/home/alec/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p180/gems/rack-1.2.2/lib/rack/server.rb:267:in `initialize': Permission     denied - /home/alec/workspace/rails/nwis/tmp/pids/server.pid (Errno::EACCES)
    from /home/alec/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p180/gems/rack-1.2.2/lib/rack/server.rb:267:in `open'
    from /home/alec/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p180/gems/rack-1.2.2/lib/rack/server.rb:267:in `write_pid'
from /home/alec/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p180/gems/rack-1.2.2/lib/rack/server.rb:203:in `start'
from /home/alec/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p180/gems/railties-3.0.7/lib/rails/commands/server.rb:65:in `start'
from /home/alec/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p180/gems/railties-3.0.7/lib/rails/commands.rb:30:in `block in <top (required)>'
from /home/alec/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p180/gems/railties-3.0.7/lib/rails/commands.rb:27:in `tap'
from /home/alec/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p180/gems/railties-3.0.7/lib/rails/commands.rb:27:in `<top (required)>'
from script/rails:6:in `require'
from script/rails:6:in `<main>'`
Alec
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  • with rvm, you really shouldn't have to use sudo at all -- you might want to try wiping out system-wide installed gems (that you installed via sudo) and starting again. If you need the rails directory owned by another user, consider using sudo to create the necessary group, adding yourself to that group, and giving group write permission to the parent directory. – Ben Taitelbaum May 01 '11 at 17:48
  • There's a good chance that the "permission denied" error is because you've previously used sudo for something. Check the permissions of the files (especially tmp and log files), and make sure that they're owned by alec, not root. Or just try `sudo chown -R alec:users *` in the rails app directory. (use a group that exists though, like 'alec' or 'staff') – Ben Taitelbaum May 01 '11 at 17:54

2 Answers2

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Here's your problem, probably:

Permission     denied - /home/alec/workspace/rails/nwis/tmp/pids/server.pid

Remove that (probably via sudo) and any other temporary files that may have been created under sudo. Then you should be able to run rails as you, without sudo. Mixing the two will always give you permissions troubles.

Or alternatively, just run sudo chown -R alec:alec . (or whatever your group is) in your rails root directory to reset all ownerships to yourself.

Thilo
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  • Is that the full command? Here is my terminal: Input: ~/.rvm$ sudo chown -R alec:alec Output: chown: missing operand after `alec:alec' – Alec May 01 '11 at 18:06
  • Sorry, no - you need to add the directory to apply it to. Fixed in my reply. – Thilo May 01 '11 at 18:08
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Depending on your /etc/sudoers and your distro's default build of sudo, it's quite possible that sudo doesn't keep your PATH (as well as other environment variables). There are a few options:

  1. configure /etc/sudoers to keep the environment variables you want, although for PATH you'll likely run into issues: sudo changes PATH - why?
  2. install rvm as root, systemwide for all users
  3. use rvmsudo
Community
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Ben Taitelbaum
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