Rails 5 - Could not find generator 'rspec:install'

Question

In my rails 5.0.0 application I've added the following to my Gemfile:

group :development, :test do
  gem 'byebug', platform: :mri
  gem 'rspec-rails', '~> 3.5', '>= 3.5.2'
end

I ran bundle install. Then gem was successfully installed.

Then I ran following:

rails generate rspec:install

But I got an error saying:

Running via Spring preloader in process 8893
Could not find generator 'rspec:install'. Maybe you meant 'css:assets', 'assets' or 'scaffold'
Run `rails generate --help` for more options.

There are whole bunch of other question posted on this error (Could not find generator 'rspec:install'), but none of them worked for me and it looks like I am having a different issue.

Incase its needed, here's my bundle show output:

Gems included by the bundle:
  * actioncable (5.0.0.1)
  * actionmailer (5.0.0.1)
  * actionpack (5.0.0.1)
  * actionview (5.0.0.1)
  * activejob (5.0.0.1)
  * activemodel (5.0.0.1)
  * activerecord (5.0.0.1)
  * activesupport (5.0.0.1)
  * arel (7.1.2)
  * builder (3.2.2)
  * bundler (1.12.5)
  * byebug (9.0.5)
  * coffee-rails (4.2.1)
  * coffee-script (2.4.1)
  * coffee-script-source (1.10.0)
  * concurrent-ruby (1.0.2)
  * debug_inspector (0.0.2)
  * diff-lcs (1.2.5)
  * erubis (2.7.0)
  * execjs (2.7.0)
  * ffi (1.9.14)
  * globalid (0.3.7)
  * i18n (0.7.0)
  * jbuilder (2.6.0)
  * jquery-rails (4.2.1)
  * listen (3.0.8)
  * loofah (2.0.3)
  * mail (2.6.4)
  * method_source (0.8.2)
  * mime-types (3.1)
  * mime-types-data (3.2016.0521)
  * mini_portile2 (2.1.0)
  * minitest (5.9.0)
  * multi_json (1.12.1)
  * nio4r (1.2.1)
  * nokogiri (1.6.8)
  * pkg-config (1.1.7)
  * puma (3.6.0)
  * rack (2.0.1)
  * rack-test (0.6.3)
  * rails (5.0.0.1)
  * rails-dom-testing (2.0.1)
  * rails-html-sanitizer (1.0.3)
  * railties (5.0.0.1)
  * rake (11.2.2)
  * rb-fsevent (0.9.7)
  * rb-inotify (0.9.7)
  * rspec-core (3.5.3)
  * rspec-expectations (3.5.0)
  * rspec-mocks (3.5.0)
  * rspec-rails (3.5.2)
  * rspec-support (3.5.0)
  * sass (3.4.22)
  * sass-rails (5.0.6)
  * spring (1.7.2)
  * spring-watcher-listen (2.0.0)
  * sprockets (3.7.0)
  * sprockets-rails (3.2.0)
  * sqlite3 (1.3.11)
  * thor (0.19.1)
  * thread_safe (0.3.5)
  * tilt (2.0.5)
  * turbolinks (5.0.1)
  * turbolinks-source (5.0.0)
  * tzinfo (1.2.2)
  * uglifier (3.0.2)
  * web-console (3.3.1)
  * websocket-driver (0.6.4)
  * websocket-extensions (0.1.2)

Moreen

Answer 1

Turns out its an issue with spring gem in my case. Restarting spring solved the problem.

First run bin/spring status. If spring is running you will get something similar:

Spring is running:

    8774 spring server | chessboard | started 14 mins ago   
    8808 spring app    | chessboard 6.52.08 PM | started 12 mins ago | development mode

That means you have to stop spring by running:

bin/spring stop

Then start it again:

bin/spring server

Then run rails generate rspec:install and it should work.

You may need to run bundle update.

Moreen

Great! This answer finally pointed me to the fact that Spring server running prevents generators (not just Rspec) to become available to the rails generate command. – Kleon

I had this issue, but just stopping/restarting spring was not enough, needed to run a bundle update after stopping spring too. Then the generator worked. – Ddt

@Ddt Updated the answer based on your comment 🙂 – Moreen

I needed to add -d to run spring in the background. bin/spring server -d – Jotun

Answer 2

I faced the same problem today and as it turned out I forgot to add rspec gem in my Gemfile.

Adding following line in the Gemfile solved the issue.

gem "rspec-rails"

Needed to do the same for foundation (rails g foundation:install Y)

gem 'foundation-rails'

Once added run bundle to update dependencies.

No need to restart spring.

Pavement

Thanks, it was last solution though it worked, yaaay yaaay Mr. Patel!! – Starspangled

Happy to help :) – Pavement

Answer 3

Just adding a variation to the answer by @dhrubo_moy...

1. bin/spring stop
2. bundle update
3. rails generate rspec:install.

Restarting spring before rspec:install did not work for me.

Clemmie

Answer 4

None of the above answers worked for me.

Replacing rspec gem with below was the only fix I could find.

gem "rspec-core", :github => "rspec/rspec-core"
gem "rspec-expectations", :github => "rspec/rspec-expectations"
gem "rspec-mocks", :github => "rspec/rspec-mocks"
gem "rspec-support", :github => "rspec/rspec-support"
gem "rspec-rails", :github => "rspec/rspec-rails"

---

I am using ruby 2.5.1 and gem 'rails', '~> 5.0.7', '>= 5.0.7.2'

Empedocles

Answer 5

In my case, Rails 6.1.4.1, Ruby 2.7.4, VSCode IDE, I was adding the gem dependency to Gemfile as:-

gem "rspec-rails"

The problem was eradicated by specifying the version as mentioned in RSpec documentation:-

gem "rspec-rails", '~> 4.0.2'

Saccharate