Error when making a new rails app

Question

I got a problem. When I am trying to make a new rails project/app using the command: rails new app -d mysql or rails new app I get the error message below. My computer is running Windows 10, 64 bit and I am using the rails 4.2.4. If you need more information feel free to ask. (I have deleted my name so that is why you only see Documents\Sider)

Documents\Sider>rails new cmsw -d mysql
  create
  create  README.rdoc
  create  Rakefile
  create  config.ru
  create  .gitignore
  create  Gemfile
  create  app
  create  app/assets/javascripts/application.js
  create  app/assets/stylesheets/application.css
  create  app/controllers/application_controller.rb
  create  app/helpers/application_helper.rb
  create  app/views/layouts/application.html.erb
  create  app/assets/images/.keep
  create  app/mailers/.keep
  create  app/models/.keep
  create  app/controllers/concerns/.keep
  create  app/models/concerns/.keep
  create  bin
  create  bin/bundle
  create  bin/rails
  create  bin/rake
  create  bin/setup
  create  config
  create  config/routes.rb
  create  config/application.rb
  create  config/environment.rb
  create  config/secrets.yml
  create  config/environments
  create  config/environments/development.rb
  create  config/environments/production.rb
  create  config/environments/test.rb
  create  config/initializers
  create  config/initializers/assets.rb
  create  config/initializers/backtrace_silencers.rb
  create  config/initializers/cookies_serializer.rb
  create  config/initializers/filter_parameter_logging.rb
  create  config/initializers/inflections.rb
  create  config/initializers/mime_types.rb
  create  config/initializers/session_store.rb
  create  config/initializers/wrap_parameters.rb
  create  config/locales
  create  config/locales/en.yml
  create  config/boot.rb
  create  config/database.yml
  create  db
  create  db/seeds.rb
  create  lib
  create  lib/tasks
  create  lib/tasks/.keep
  create  lib/assets
  create  lib/assets/.keep
  create  log
  create  log/.keep
  create  public
  create  public/404.html
  create  public/422.html
  create  public/500.html
  create  public/favicon.ico
  create  public/robots.txt
  create  test/fixtures
  create  test/fixtures/.keep
  create  test/controllers
  create  test/controllers/.keep
  create  test/mailers
  create  test/mailers/.keep
  create  test/models
  create  test/models/.keep
  create  test/helpers
  create  test/helpers/.keep
  create  test/integration
  create  test/integration/.keep
  create  test/test_helper.rb
  create  tmp/cache
  create  tmp/cache/assets
  create  vendor/assets/javascripts
  create  vendor/assets/javascripts/.keep
  create  vendor/assets/stylesheets
  create  vendor/assets/stylesheets/.keep
     run  bundle install
C:/Ruby22-x64/lib/ruby/site_ruby/2.2.0/rbreadline.rb:1097:in `<module:RbReadline>': HOME environment variable (or HOMEDRIVE and HOMEPATH) must be set and point to a directory (RuntimeError)
        from C:/Ruby22-x64/lib/ruby/site_ruby/2.2.0/rbreadline.rb:17:in `<top (required)>'
        from C:/Ruby22-x64/lib/ruby/site_ruby/2.2.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:54:in `require'
        from C:/Ruby22-x64/lib/ruby/site_ruby/2.2.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:54:in `require'
        from C:/Ruby22-x64/lib/ruby/site_ruby/2.2.0/readline.rb:10:in `<module:Readline>'
        from C:/Ruby22-x64/lib/ruby/site_ruby/2.2.0/readline.rb:8:in `<top (required)>'
        from C:/Ruby22-x64/lib/ruby/site_ruby/2.2.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:54:in `require'
        from C:/Ruby22-x64/lib/ruby/site_ruby/2.2.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:54:in `require'
        from C:/Ruby22-x64/lib/ruby/gems/2.2.0/gems/bundler-1.10.6/lib/bundler/vendor/thor/lib/thor/line_editor/readline.rb:2:in `<top (required)>'
        from C:/Ruby22-x64/lib/ruby/site_ruby/2.2.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:54:in `require'
        from C:/Ruby22-x64/lib/ruby/site_ruby/2.2.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:54:in `require'
        from C:/Ruby22-x64/lib/ruby/gems/2.2.0/gems/bundler-1.10.6/lib/bundler/vendor/thor/lib/thor/line_editor.rb:2:in `<top (required)>'
        from C:/Ruby22-x64/lib/ruby/site_ruby/2.2.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:54:in `require'
        from C:/Ruby22-x64/lib/ruby/site_ruby/2.2.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:54:in `require'
        from C:/Ruby22-x64/lib/ruby/gems/2.2.0/gems/bundler-1.10.6/lib/bundler/vendor/thor/lib/thor/base.rb:8:in `<top (required)>'
        from C:/Ruby22-x64/lib/ruby/site_ruby/2.2.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:54:in `require'
        from C:/Ruby22-x64/lib/ruby/site_ruby/2.2.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:54:in `require'
        from C:/Ruby22-x64/lib/ruby/gems/2.2.0/gems/bundler-1.10.6/lib/bundler/vendor/thor/lib/thor.rb:2:in `<top (required)>'
        from C:/Ruby22-x64/lib/ruby/site_ruby/2.2.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:54:in `require'
        from C:/Ruby22-x64/lib/ruby/site_ruby/2.2.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:54:in `require'
        from C:/Ruby22-x64/lib/ruby/gems/2.2.0/gems/bundler-1.10.6/lib/bundler/vendored_thor.rb:2:in `<top (required)>'
        from C:/Ruby22-x64/lib/ruby/site_ruby/2.2.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:54:in `require'
        from C:/Ruby22-x64/lib/ruby/site_ruby/2.2.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:54:in `require'
        from C:/Ruby22-x64/lib/ruby/gems/2.2.0/gems/bundler-1.10.6/lib/bundler/friendly_errors.rb:3:in `<top (required)>'
        from C:/Ruby22-x64/lib/ruby/site_ruby/2.2.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:54:in `require'
        from C:/Ruby22-x64/lib/ruby/site_ruby/2.2.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:54:in `require'
        from C:/Ruby22-x64/lib/ruby/gems/2.2.0/gems/bundler-1.10.6/bin/bundle:17:in `<main>'

Answer 1

This is really one annoying fix if your reason was like mine: My first name included an extended ASCII charactor, "ø". That one was used, when the computer setup my account on my PC. E.g. c:\users\Bjørn.

Fix: Rename the folder and your home account to Bjorn.

Create another admin account on you system, which you can use for renaming your account to c:\users\Bjorn\

Here is howto rename an account: https://superuser.com/questions/495290/how-to-rename-user-folder-in-windows-8

I would never have used an extended char in a username in the first place, but when I setup Win8 some years ago and was new to having a possibility to use a microsoft account, then the wizard chose the username.

Answer 2

I faced the same problem. I did not find the exact solution, but found some workaround. Actually Rails on Windows takes the environment variables not directly from Windows' environment variables but from the file:

C:\RailsInstaller\Git\etc\profile

I created a folder C:\Users\Test and used its path it in C:\RailsInstaller\Git\etc\profile to replace the malfunctioning real homepath:

HOME="C:/Users/Test" #added

# normalize HOME to unix path
HOME="$(cd "$HOME" ; pwd)"

After that the error "HOME environment variable (or HOMEDRIVE and HOMEPATH) must be set and point to a directory (RuntimeError)" has gone.

This might generally be a wrong decision but the real solution is somewhat alike.

In my case the problem is about the different encoding, my real homepath contains cyrillic characters and since they are not ASCII rbreadline.rb does not understand them - since some recent time. But earlier there was no such problem, I don't know what happened to make this encoding trouble appear.

Answer 3

It seems that your environment variable is not set. Please follow the link to set the variable:

NOTE: The Window is not recommended for the ruby on rails development. So I suggest Mac/Ubuntu for ROR. That will really make your life much easier