Rails 4.1 environment variables not reloading

Question

I created an application.yml file in the config dir and added some key-value pairs (i.e. AWS_REGION: us-east-1). I also added the following to application.rb to read the file and update the ENV hash:

if Rails.env.development?  
  config.before_configuration do
    env_file = File.join(Rails.root, 'config', 'application.yml')
    YAML.load(File.open(env_file)).each do |key, value|
      ENV[key.to_s] = value
    end if File.exists?(env_file)
  end
end

Then, if I run rails c I can see the ENV variables I set in my application.yml file (i.e. ENV['AWS_REGION']). However, if I update any of the values or even add a new key-value pair to the file, on the next time I run rails c the values aren't updated and the new keys aren't available.

I tried restarting Terminal but it didn't work. Any suggestions?

Did you run your YAML through a linter to make sure it's not failing to load? http://www.yamllint.com/ — Elvn, Mar 22 '15 at 14:25
@Valerie I hadn't yet, but just used your link and it passed. Thanks, definitely a cool tool. — vich, Mar 22 '15 at 14:32
@FrederickCheung I don't know if it's related to Spring. My app is currently using 1.1.3. — vich, Mar 22 '15 at 14:33
Yes! I ran `spring stop` and then fired up the console and it worked! I've never had issues with Spring before...do you know what could be causing the issue? — vich, Mar 22 '15 at 14:37
@FrederickCheung feel free to add an answer so I can accept it. — vich, Mar 22 '15 at 14:54

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 22 '15 at 15:25

2

It looks like the problem that spring caches the state of the app as it starts up - it doesn't know that changes to config/application.yml should result in reloading the app

You can customise how spring watches and reloads your app by creating config/spring.rb - it looks like adding something like

Spring.watch "config/application.yml"

is what you're after

answered Mar 22 '15 at 15:25

Frederick Cheung

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I had to run `bin/spring stop` to get this to take effect. http://stackoverflow.com/a/26323727/1011746 – mindriot Dec 10 '15 at 20:19

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 08 '15 at 02:13

2

remove gem 'spring' from Gemfile

answered Jun 08 '15 at 02:13

thedanotto

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spring just wasted more time than it could ever save me – thedanotto Jun 08 '15 at 02:18
Why it wasted your time? Most of the time it is used just out of the box – Aleks Apr 19 '16 at 11:06

Rails 4.1 environment variables not reloading

2 Answers2

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