rake db:create throws “database does not exist” error with postgresql

Question

I\'m using rails 4.1.5 with postgresql 9.1 under Debian 7, and I\'m not able to create a database in my development environment. When I run

bin/rake db:create
         


        

Answer 1

I found the issue ...

It has to do with Rails initializers: Rails seems to load all the initializers before executing bin/rake db:create.

And, in this particular application, there are a few custom initializers which depend on an ActiveRecord model (which, in turn, depends on the database being created, available and with the corresponding table).

Therefore rake never gets to actually execute the task, it fails when executing the initializers. I should have known if I had carefully read the full error message log. This is the full log (see below, in bold, the offending lines):

/home/rs/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/activerecord-4.1.5/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/postgresql_adapter.rb:898:in `rescue in connect': FATAL:  database "ds-dev" does not exist
Run `$ bin/rake db:create db:migrate` to create your database (ActiveRecord::NoDatabaseError)
from /home/rs/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/activerecord-4.1.5/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/postgresql_adapter.rb:888:in `connect'
from /home/rs/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/activerecord-4.1.5/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/postgresql_adapter.rb:568:in `initialize'
from /home/rs/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/activerecord-4.1.5/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/postgresql_adapter.rb:41:in `new'
from /home/rs/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/activerecord-4.1.5/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/postgresql_adapter.rb:41:in `postgresql_connection'
from /home/rs/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/activerecord-4.1.5/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:435:in `new_connection'
from /home/rs/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/activerecord-4.1.5/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:445:in `checkout_new_connection'
from /home/rs/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/activerecord-4.1.5/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:416:in `acquire_connection'
from /home/rs/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/activerecord-4.1.5/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:351:in `block in checkout'
from /home/rs/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.2/lib/ruby/2.1.0/monitor.rb:211:in `mon_synchronize'
from /home/rs/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/activerecord-4.1.5/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:350:in `checkout'
from /home/rs/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/activerecord-4.1.5/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:265:in `block in connection'
from /home/rs/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.2/lib/ruby/2.1.0/monitor.rb:211:in `mon_synchronize'
from /home/rs/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/activerecord-4.1.5/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:264:in `connection'
from /home/rs/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/activerecord-4.1.5/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:541:in `retrieve_connection'
from /home/rs/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/activerecord-4.1.5/lib/active_record/connection_handling.rb:113:in `retrieve_connection'
from /home/rs/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/activerecord-4.1.5/lib/active_record/connection_handling.rb:87:in `connection'
from /home/rs/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/activerecord-4.1.5/lib/active_record/model_schema.rb:209:in `table_exists?'
from /home/rs/pr/ds/app/models/property.rb:32:in `get'
from /home/rs/pr/ds/config/initializers/custom/setup_mail.rb:3:in `'
from /home/rs/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/activesupport-4.1.5/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:241:in `load'
from /home/rs/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/activesupport-4.1.5/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:241:in `block in load'
from /home/rs/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/activesupport-4.1.5/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:232:in `load_dependency'
from /home/rs/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/activesupport-4.1.5/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:241:in `load'
from /home/rs/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/railties-4.1.5/lib/rails/engine.rb:648:in `block in load_config_initializer'
from /home/rs/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/activesupport-4.1.5/lib/active_support/notifications.rb:161:in `instrument'
from /home/rs/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/railties-4.1.5/lib/rails/engine.rb:647:in `load_config_initializer'
from /home/rs/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/railties-4.1.5/lib/rails/engine.rb:612:in `block (2 levels) in '
from /home/rs/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/railties-4.1.5/lib/rails/engine.rb:611:in `each'
from /home/rs/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/railties-4.1.5/lib/rails/engine.rb:611:in `block in '
from /home/rs/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/railties-4.1.5/lib/rails/initializable.rb:30:in `instance_exec'
from /home/rs/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/railties-4.1.5/lib/rails/initializable.rb:30:in `run'
from /home/rs/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/railties-4.1.5/lib/rails/initializable.rb:55:in `block in run_initializers'
from /home/rs/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.2/lib/ruby/2.1.0/tsort.rb:226:in `block in tsort_each'
from /home/rs/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.2/lib/ruby/2.1.0/tsort.rb:348:in `block (2 levels) in each_strongly_connected_component'
from /home/rs/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.2/lib/ruby/2.1.0/tsort.rb:418:in `block (2 levels) in each_strongly_connected_component_from'
from /home/rs/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.2/lib/ruby/2.1.0/tsort.rb:427:in `each_strongly_connected_component_from'
from /home/rs/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.2/lib/ruby/2.1.0/tsort.rb:417:in `block in each_strongly_connected_component_from'
from /home/rs/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/railties-4.1.5/lib/rails/initializable.rb:44:in `each'
from /home/rs/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/railties-4.1.5/lib/rails/initializable.rb:44:in `tsort_each_child'
from /home/rs/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.2/lib/ruby/2.1.0/tsort.rb:411:in `call'
from /home/rs/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.2/lib/ruby/2.1.0/tsort.rb:411:in `each_strongly_connected_component_from'
from /home/rs/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.2/lib/ruby/2.1.0/tsort.rb:347:in `block in each_strongly_connected_component'
from /home/rs/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.2/lib/ruby/2.1.0/tsort.rb:345:in `each'
from /home/rs/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.2/lib/ruby/2.1.0/tsort.rb:345:in `call'
from /home/rs/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.2/lib/ruby/2.1.0/tsort.rb:345:in `each_strongly_connected_component'
from /home/rs/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.2/lib/ruby/2.1.0/tsort.rb:224:in `tsort_each'
from /home/rs/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.2/lib/ruby/2.1.0/tsort.rb:205:in `tsort_each'
from /home/rs/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/railties-4.1.5/lib/rails/initializable.rb:54:in `run_initializers'
from /home/rs/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/railties-4.1.5/lib/rails/application.rb:300:in `initialize!'
from /home/rs/pr/ds/config/environment.rb:5:in `'
from /home/rs/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/activesupport-4.1.5/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:247:in `require'
from /home/rs/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/activesupport-4.1.5/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:247:in `block in require'
from /home/rs/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/activesupport-4.1.5/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:232:in `load_dependency'
from /home/rs/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/activesupport-4.1.5/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:247:in `require'
from /home/rs/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/spring-1.1.3/lib/spring/application.rb:92:in `preload'
from /home/rs/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/spring-1.1.3/lib/spring/application.rb:140:in `serve'
from /home/rs/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/spring-1.1.3/lib/spring/application.rb:128:in `block in run'
from /home/rs/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/spring-1.1.3/lib/spring/application.rb:122:in `loop'
from /home/rs/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/spring-1.1.3/lib/spring/application.rb:122:in `run'
from /home/rs/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/spring-1.1.3/lib/spring/application/boot.rb:18:in `'
from /home/rs/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.2/lib/ruby/2.1.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:55:in `require'
from /home/rs/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.2/lib/ruby/2.1.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:55:in `require'
from -e:1:in `'

I will work on refactoring the code, in order to get rid of any model dependencies in the initializers (which I'm pretty sure it must be a very bad practice).