Uninitialized constant Encoding with sqlite3-ruby on windows

Question

On a new machine, installed ruby with the 1-click installer for windows. Installed rails 2.3.2 and all associated gems, then I installed the sqlite3 binaries (into the c:\ruby\bin folder). Lastly I did gem install sqlite3-ruby -v=1.2.3 (which is apparently the latest version that works with windows)

This error happens when I run rake db:migrate or when any ActiveRecord object is touched at runtime.

The error looks like this:

** Invoke db:migrate (first_time)
** Invoke environment (first_time)
** Execute environment
** Execute db:migrate
rake aborted!
**uninitialized constant Encoding**  <----

Any help resolving this error would be greatly appreciated!

Trace:

 C:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.2/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:443:in `load_missing_constant'
    C:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.2/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:80:in `const_missing'
    C:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.2/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:92:in `const_missing'
    C:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/sqlite3-0.0.3/lib/sqlite3/encoding.rb:9:in `find'
    C:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/sqlite3-0.0.3/lib/sqlite3/database.rb:69:in `initialize'
    C:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.2/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/sqlite3_adapter.rb:13:in `new'
    C:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.2/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/sqlite3_adapter.rb:13:in `sqlite3_connection'
    C:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.2/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:223:in `send'
    C:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.2/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:223:in `new_connection'
    C:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.2/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:245:in `checkout_new_connection'
    C:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.2/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:188:in `checkout'
    C:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.2/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:184:in `loop'
    C:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.2/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:184:in `checkout'
    C:/Ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/monitor.rb:242:in `synchronize'
    C:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.2/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:183:in `checkout'
    C:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.2/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:98:in `connection'
    C:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.2/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:326:in `retrieve_connection'
    C:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.2/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_specification.rb:123:in `retrieve_connection'
    C:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.2/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_specification.rb:115:in `connection'
    C:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.2/lib/active_record/migration.rb:435:in `initialize'
    C:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.2/lib/active_record/migration.rb:400:in `new'
    C:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.2/lib/active_record/migration.rb:400:in `up'
    C:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.2/lib/active_record/migration.rb:383:in `migrate'
    C:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-2.3.2/lib/tasks/databases.rake:116
    C:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:636:in `call'
    C:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:636:in `execute'
    C:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:631:in `each'
    C:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:631:in `execute'
    C:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:597:in `invoke_with_call_chain'
    C:/Ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/monitor.rb:242:in `synchronize'
    C:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:590:in `invoke_with_call_chain'
    C:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:583:in `invoke'
    C:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2051:in `invoke_task'
    C:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2029:in `top_level'
    C:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2029:in `each'
    C:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2029:in `top_level'
    C:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2068:in `standard_exception_handling'
    C:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2023:in `top_level'
    C:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2001:in `run'
    C:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2068:in `standard_exception_handling'
    C:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:1998:in `run'
    C:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/bin/rake:31
    C:/Ruby/bin/rake:19:in `load'
    C:/Ruby/bin/rake:19

Gere

Answer 1

If you look at the backtrace will noticed that the issue is not sqlite3-ruby but another gem you have installed:

C:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/sqlite3-0.0.3/lib/sqlite3/encoding.rb:9:in `find'
C:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/sqlite3-0.0.3/lib/sqlite3/database.rb:69:in `initialize'

Please uninstall sqlite3 gem (gem uninstall sqlite3) since seems interfering with the loading mechanism.

The sqlite3-ruby gem version 1.2.5 has been updated for Windows and should work out of the box.

I recommend reading the tutorials of the new RubyInstaller that replaces One-Click:

Tutorials

And also install latest RC1 version, instead of One-Click from here

Hope this helps.

Itacolumite

That solved it! What's weird though is that I tried to install sqlite3-ruby 1.2.5 and got a ton of "no definition for _wrap_sqlite3_yada_yada" messages and the installation didn't work. Rolling back to 1.2.3 worked and now my migrations run without errors. Any ideas why the 1.2.5 didn't work? Should I try the new Ruby Installer instead? – Gere

The "no definition for" is a warning from RDoc, not an error and can be safely ignored. you can try installing with --no-rdoc --no-ri if you don't want the noise. Dunno why didn't work, worked fine for lot of people. – Itacolumite

I just spent about 3 hours on this problem. Thanks for the help. It is so easy to install sqlite3 gem instead of sqlite3. When I sat down and realized I needed sqlite3 support in ruby, I just thought, hey, theres a gem for that, let me just try "gem install sqlite3". Which, of course, does install the gem. But not sqlite3-ruby... quite confusing. – Whitewall

I had this problem too, on ubuntu. Somewhat annoying that. – Stonechat

Very annoying. I've reported this to the gem author: github.com/qoobaa/sqlite3/issues/closed#issue/1 But he closed it and the gem was left as is. I can't do more than that. – Itacolumite

Extremely helpful question and answer, spent 3 minutes on this instead of 3 hours like Matt. Stack Overflow's Google juice to the rescue! – Procurator