v7.0.3
More at rubyonrails.org: More Ruby on Rails

Configuring Rails Applications

This guide covers the configuration and initialization features available to Rails applications.

After reading this guide, you will know:

1 Locations for Initialization Code

Rails offers four standard spots to place initialization code:

  • config/application.rb
  • Environment-specific configuration files
  • Initializers
  • After-initializers

2 Running Code Before Rails

In the rare event that your application needs to run some code before Rails itself is loaded, put it above the call to require "rails/all" in config/application.rb.

3 Configuring Rails Components

In general, the work of configuring Rails means configuring the components of Rails, as well as configuring Rails itself. The configuration file config/application.rb and environment-specific configuration files (such as config/environments/production.rb) allow you to specify the various settings that you want to pass down to all of the components.

For example, you could add this setting to config/application.rb file:

config.time_zone = 'Central Time (US & Canada)'

This is a setting for Rails itself. If you want to pass settings to individual Rails components, you can do so via the same config object in config/application.rb:

config.active_record.schema_format = :ruby

Rails will use that particular setting to configure Active Record.

Use the public configuration methods over calling directly to the associated class. e.g. Rails.application.config.action_mailer.options instead of ActionMailer::Base.options.

If you need to apply configuration directly to a class, use a lazy load hook in an initializer to avoid autoloading the class before initialization has completed. This will break because autoloading during initialization cannot be safely repeated when the app reloads.

3.1 Versioned Default Values

config.load_defaults loads default configuration values for a target version and all versions prior. For example, config.load_defaults 6.1 will load defaults for all versions up to and including version 6.1.

Below are the default values associated with each target version. In cases of conflicting values, newer versions take precedence over older versions.

3.1.1 Default Values for Target Version 7.0
3.1.2 Default Values for Target Version 6.1
3.1.3 Default Values for Target Version 6.0
3.1.4 Default Values for Target Version 5.2
3.1.5 Default Values for Target Version 5.1
3.1.6 Default Values for Target Version 5.0

3.2 Rails General Configuration

The following configuration methods are to be called on a Rails::Railtie object, such as a subclass of Rails::Engine or Rails::Application.

3.2.1 config.after_initialize

Takes a block which will be run after Rails has finished initializing the application. That includes the initialization of the framework itself, engines, and all the application's initializers in config/initializers. Note that this block will be run for rake tasks. Useful for configuring values set up by other initializers:

config.after_initialize do
  ActionView::Base.sanitized_allowed_tags.delete 'div'
end
3.2.2 config.asset_host

Sets the host for the assets. Useful when CDNs are used for hosting assets, or when you want to work around the concurrency constraints built-in in browsers using different domain aliases. Shorter version of config.action_controller.asset_host.

3.2.3 config.autoload_once_paths

Accepts an array of paths from which Rails will autoload constants that won't be wiped per request. Relevant if config.cache_classes is false, which is the default in the development environment. Otherwise, all autoloading happens only once. All elements of this array must also be in autoload_paths. Default is an empty array.

3.2.4 config.autoload_paths

Accepts an array of paths from which Rails will autoload constants. Default is an empty array. Since Rails 6, it is not recommended to adjust this. See Autoloading and Reloading Constants.

3.2.5 config.add_autoload_paths_to_load_path

Says whether autoload paths have to be added to $LOAD_PATH. This flag is true by default, but it is recommended to be set to false in :zeitwerk mode early, in config/application.rb. Zeitwerk uses absolute paths internally, and applications running in :zeitwerk mode do not need require_dependency, so models, controllers, jobs, etc. do not need to be in $LOAD_PATH. Setting this to false saves Ruby from checking these directories when resolving require calls with relative paths, and saves Bootsnap work and RAM, since it does not need to build an index for them.

3.2.6 config.cache_classes

Controls whether or not application classes and modules should be reloaded if they change. When the cache is enabled (true), reloading will not occur. Defaults to false in the development environment, and true in production. In the test environment, the default is false if Spring is installed, true otherwise.

3.2.7 config.beginning_of_week

Sets the default beginning of week for the application. Accepts a valid day of week as a symbol (e.g. :monday).

3.2.8 config.cache_store

Configures which cache store to use for Rails caching. Options include one of the symbols :memory_store, :file_store, :mem_cache_store, :null_store, :redis_cache_store, or an object that implements the cache API. Defaults to :file_store. See Cache Stores for per-store configuration options.

3.2.9 config.colorize_logging

Specifies whether or not to use ANSI color codes when logging information. Defaults to true.

3.2.10 config.consider_all_requests_local

Is a flag. If true then any error will cause detailed debugging information to be dumped in the HTTP response, and the Rails::Info controller will show the application runtime context in /rails/info/properties. true by default in the development and test environments, and false in production. For finer-grained control, set this to false and implement show_detailed_exceptions? in controllers to specify which requests should provide debugging information on errors.

3.2.11 config.console

Allows you to set the class that will be used as console when you run bin/rails console. It's best to run it in the console block:

console do
  # this block is called only when running console,
  # so we can safely require pry here
  require "pry"
  config.console = Pry
end
3.2.12 config.disable_sandbox

Controls whether or not someone can start a console in sandbox mode. This is helpful to avoid a long running session of sandbox console, that could lead a database server to run out of memory. Defaults to false.

3.2.13 config.eager_load

When true, eager loads all registered config.eager_load_namespaces. This includes your application, engines, Rails frameworks, and any other registered namespace.

3.2.14 config.eager_load_namespaces

Registers namespaces that are eager loaded when config.eager_load is set to true. All namespaces in the list must respond to the eager_load! method.

3.2.15 config.eager_load_paths

Accepts an array of paths from which Rails will eager load on boot if config.cache_classes is set to true. Defaults to every folder in the app directory of the application.

3.2.16 config.enable_dependency_loading

When true, enables autoloading, even if the application is eager loaded and config.cache_classes is set to true. Defaults to false.

3.2.17 config.encoding

Sets up the application-wide encoding. Defaults to UTF-8.

3.2.18 config.exceptions_app

Sets the exceptions application invoked by the ShowException middleware when an exception happens. Defaults to ActionDispatch::PublicExceptions.new(Rails.public_path).

3.2.19 config.debug_exception_response_format

Sets the format used in responses when errors occur in the development environment. Defaults to :api for API only apps and :default for normal apps.

3.2.20 config.file_watcher

Is the class used to detect file updates in the file system when config.reload_classes_only_on_change is true. Rails ships with ActiveSupport::FileUpdateChecker, the default, and ActiveSupport::EventedFileUpdateChecker (this one depends on the listen gem). Custom classes must conform to the ActiveSupport::FileUpdateChecker API.

3.2.21 config.filter_parameters

Used for filtering out the parameters that you don't want shown in the logs, such as passwords or credit card numbers. It also filters out sensitive values of database columns when calling #inspect on an Active Record object. By default, Rails filters out passwords by adding the following filters in config/initializers/filter_parameter_logging.rb.

Rails.application.config.filter_parameters += [
  :passw, :secret, :token, :_key, :crypt, :salt, :certificate, :otp, :ssn
]

Parameters filter works by partial matching regular expression.

3.2.22 config.force_ssl

Forces all requests to be served over HTTPS, and sets "https://" as the default protocol when generating URLs. Enforcement of HTTPS is handled by the ActionDispatch::SSL middleware, which can be configured via config.ssl_options.

3.2.23 config.javascript_path

Sets the path where your app's JavaScript lives relative to the app directory. The default is javascript, used by webpacker. An app's configured javascript_path will be excluded from autoload_paths.

3.2.24 config.log_formatter

Defines the formatter of the Rails logger. This option defaults to an instance of ActiveSupport::Logger::SimpleFormatter for all environments. If you are setting a value for config.logger you must manually pass the value of your formatter to your logger before it is wrapped in an ActiveSupport::TaggedLogging instance, Rails will not do it for you.

3.2.25 config.log_level

Defines the verbosity of the Rails logger. This option defaults to :debug for all environments except production, where it defaults to :info. The available log levels are: :debug, :info, :warn, :error, :fatal, and :unknown.

3.2.26 config.log_tags

Accepts a list of methods that the request object responds to, a Proc that accepts the request object, or something that responds to to_s. This makes it easy to tag log lines with debug information like subdomain and request id - both very helpful in debugging multi-user production applications.

3.2.27 config.logger

Is the logger that will be used for Rails.logger and any related Rails logging such as ActiveRecord::Base.logger. It defaults to an instance of ActiveSupport::TaggedLogging that wraps an instance of ActiveSupport::Logger which outputs a log to the log/ directory. You can supply a custom logger, to get full compatibility you must follow these guidelines:

  • To support a formatter, you must manually assign a formatter from the config.log_formatter value to the logger.
  • To support tagged logs, the log instance must be wrapped with ActiveSupport::TaggedLogging.
  • To support silencing, the logger must include ActiveSupport::LoggerSilence module. The ActiveSupport::Logger class already includes these modules.
class MyLogger < ::Logger
  include ActiveSupport::LoggerSilence
end

mylogger           = MyLogger.new(STDOUT)
mylogger.formatter = config.log_formatter
config.logger      = ActiveSupport::TaggedLogging.new(mylogger)
3.2.28 config.middleware

Allows you to configure the application's middleware. This is covered in depth in the Configuring Middleware section below.

3.2.29 config.rake_eager_load

When true, eager load the application when running Rake tasks. Defaults to false.

3.2.30 config.reload_classes_only_on_change

Enables or disables reloading of classes only when tracked files change. By default tracks everything on autoload paths and is set to true. If config.cache_classes is true, this option is ignored.

3.2.31 config.credentials.content_path

Configures lookup path for encrypted credentials.

3.2.32 config.credentials.key_path

Configures lookup path for encryption key.

3.2.33 secret_key_base

Is used for specifying a key which allows sessions for the application to be verified against a known secure key to prevent tampering. Applications get a random generated key in test and development environments, other environments should set one in config/credentials.yml.enc.

3.2.34 config.require_master_key

Causes the app to not boot if a master key hasn't been made available through ENV["RAILS_MASTER_KEY"] or the config/master.key file.

3.2.35 config.public_file_server.enabled

Configures Rails to serve static files from the public directory. This option defaults to true, but in the production environment it is set to false because the server software (e.g. NGINX or Apache) used to run the application should serve static files instead. If you are running or testing your app in production using WEBrick (it is not recommended to use WEBrick in production) set the option to true. Otherwise, you won't be able to use page caching and request for files that exist under the public directory.

3.2.36 config.session_store

Specifies what class to use to store the session. Possible values are :cookie_store, :mem_cache_store, a custom store, or :disabled. :disabled tells Rails not to deal with sessions.

This setting is configured via a regular method call, rather than a setter. This allows additional options to be passed:

config.session_store :cookie_store, key: "_your_app_session"

If a custom store is specified as a symbol, it will be resolved to the ActionDispatch::Session namespace:

# use ActionDispatch::Session::MyCustomStore as the session store
config.session_store :my_custom_store

The default store is a cookie store with the application name as the session key.

3.2.37 config.ssl_options

Configuration options for the ActionDispatch::SSL middleware.

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) {}
5.0 { hsts: { subdomains: true } }
3.2.38 config.time_zone

Sets the default time zone for the application and enables time zone awareness for Active Record.

3.3 Configuring Assets

3.3.1 config.assets.css_compressor

Defines the CSS compressor to use. It is set by default by sass-rails. The unique alternative value at the moment is :yui, which uses the yui-compressor gem.

3.3.2 config.assets.js_compressor

Defines the JavaScript compressor to use. Possible values are :terser, :closure, :uglifier, and :yui, which require the use of the terser, closure-compiler, uglifier, or yui-compressor gems respectively.

3.3.3 config.assets.gzip

A flag that enables the creation of gzipped version of compiled assets, along with non-gzipped assets. Set to true by default.

3.3.4 config.assets.paths

Contains the paths which are used to look for assets. Appending paths to this configuration option will cause those paths to be used in the search for assets.

3.3.5 config.assets.precompile

Allows you to specify additional assets (other than application.css and application.js) which are to be precompiled when rake assets:precompile is run.

3.3.6 config.assets.unknown_asset_fallback

Allows you to modify the behavior of the asset pipeline when an asset is not in the pipeline, if you use sprockets-rails 3.2.0 or newer.

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) true
5.1 false
3.3.7 config.assets.prefix

Defines the prefix where assets are served from. Defaults to /assets.

3.3.8 config.assets.manifest

Defines the full path to be used for the asset precompiler's manifest file. Defaults to a file named manifest-<random>.json in the config.assets.prefix directory within the public folder.

3.3.9 config.assets.digest

Enables the use of SHA256 fingerprints in asset names. Set to true by default.

3.3.10 config.assets.debug

Disables the concatenation and compression of assets. Set to true by default in development.rb.

3.3.11 config.assets.version

Is an option string that is used in SHA256 hash generation. This can be changed to force all files to be recompiled.

3.3.12 config.assets.compile

Is a boolean that can be used to turn on live Sprockets compilation in production.

3.3.13 config.assets.logger

Accepts a logger conforming to the interface of Log4r or the default Ruby Logger class. Defaults to the same configured at config.logger. Setting config.assets.logger to false will turn off served assets logging.

3.3.14 config.assets.quiet

Disables logging of assets requests. Set to true by default in development.rb.

3.4 Configuring Generators

Rails allows you to alter what generators are used with the config.generators method. This method takes a block:

config.generators do |g|
  g.orm :active_record
  g.test_framework :test_unit
end

The full set of methods that can be used in this block are as follows:

  • force_plural allows pluralized model names. Defaults to false.
  • helper defines whether or not to generate helpers. Defaults to true.
  • integration_tool defines which integration tool to use to generate integration tests. Defaults to :test_unit.
  • system_tests defines which integration tool to use to generate system tests. Defaults to :test_unit.
  • orm defines which orm to use. Defaults to false and will use Active Record by default.
  • resource_controller defines which generator to use for generating a controller when using bin/rails generate resource. Defaults to :controller.
  • resource_route defines whether a resource route definition should be generated or not. Defaults to true.
  • scaffold_controller different from resource_controller, defines which generator to use for generating a scaffolded controller when using bin/rails generate scaffold. Defaults to :scaffold_controller.
  • test_framework defines which test framework to use. Defaults to false and will use minitest by default.
  • template_engine defines which template engine to use, such as ERB or Haml. Defaults to :erb.

3.5 Configuring Middleware

Every Rails application comes with a standard set of middleware which it uses in this order in the development environment:

3.5.1 ActionDispatch::HostAuthorization

Prevents against DNS rebinding and other Host header attacks. It is included in the development environment by default with the following configuration:

Rails.application.config.hosts = [
  IPAddr.new("0.0.0.0/0"),        # All IPv4 addresses.
  IPAddr.new("::/0"),             # All IPv6 addresses.
  "localhost",                    # The localhost reserved domain.
  ENV["RAILS_DEVELOPMENT_HOSTS"]  # Additional comma-separated hosts for development.
]

In other environments Rails.application.config.hosts is empty and no Host header checks will be done. If you want to guard against header attacks on production, you have to manually permit the allowed hosts with:

Rails.application.config.hosts << "product.com"

The host of a request is checked against the hosts entries with the case operator (#===), which lets hosts support entries of type Regexp, Proc and IPAddr to name a few. Here is an example with a regexp.

# Allow requests from subdomains like `www.product.com` and
# `beta1.product.com`.
Rails.application.config.hosts << /.*\.product\.com/

The provided regexp will be wrapped with both anchors (\A and \z) so it must match the entire hostname. /product.com/, for example, once anchored, would fail to match www.product.com.

A special case is supported that allows you to permit all sub-domains:

# Allow requests from subdomains like `www.product.com` and
# `beta1.product.com`.
Rails.application.config.hosts << ".product.com"

You can exclude certain requests from Host Authorization checks by setting config.host_authorization.exclude:

# Exclude requests for the /healthcheck/ path from host checking
Rails.application.config.host_authorization = {
  exclude: ->(request) { request.path =~ /healthcheck/ }
}

When a request comes to an unauthorized host, a default Rack application will run and respond with 403 Forbidden. This can be customized by setting config.host_authorization.response_app. For example:

Rails.application.config.host_authorization = {
  response_app: -> env do
    [400, { "Content-Type" => "text/plain" }, ["Bad Request"]]
  end
}
3.5.2 ActionDispatch::SSL

Forces every request to be served using HTTPS. Enabled if config.force_ssl is set to true. Options passed to this can be configured by setting config.ssl_options.

3.5.3 ActionDispatch::Static

Is used to serve static assets. Disabled if config.public_file_server.enabled is false. Set config.public_file_server.index_name if you need to serve a static directory index file that is not named index. For example, to serve main.html instead of index.html for directory requests, set config.public_file_server.index_name to "main".

3.5.4 ActionDispatch::Executor

Allows thread safe code reloading. Disabled if config.allow_concurrency is false, which causes Rack::Lock to be loaded. Rack::Lock wraps the app in mutex so it can only be called by a single thread at a time.

3.5.5 ActiveSupport::Cache::Strategy::LocalCache

Serves as a basic memory backed cache. This cache is not thread safe and is intended only for serving as a temporary memory cache for a single thread.

3.5.6 Rack::Runtime

Sets an X-Runtime header, containing the time (in seconds) taken to execute the request.

3.5.7 Rails::Rack::Logger

Notifies the logs that the request has begun. After request is complete, flushes all the logs.

3.5.8 ActionDispatch::ShowExceptions

Rescues any exception returned by the application and renders nice exception pages if the request is local or if config.consider_all_requests_local is set to true. If config.action_dispatch.show_exceptions is set to false, exceptions will be raised regardless.

3.5.9 ActionDispatch::RequestId

Makes a unique X-Request-Id header available to the response and enables the ActionDispatch::Request#uuid method. Configurable with config.action_dispatch.request_id_header.

3.5.10 ActionDispatch::RemoteIp

Checks for IP spoofing attacks and gets valid client_ip from request headers. Configurable with the config.action_dispatch.ip_spoofing_check, and config.action_dispatch.trusted_proxies options.

3.5.11 Rack::Sendfile

Intercepts responses whose body is being served from a file and replaces it with a server specific X-Sendfile header. Configurable with config.action_dispatch.x_sendfile_header.

3.5.12 ActionDispatch::Callbacks

Runs the prepare callbacks before serving the request.

3.5.13 ActionDispatch::Cookies

Sets cookies for the request.

3.5.14 ActionDispatch::Session::CookieStore

Is responsible for storing the session in cookies. An alternate middleware can be used for this by changing config.session_store.

3.5.15 ActionDispatch::Flash

Sets up the flash keys. Only available if config.session_store is set to a value.

3.5.16 Rack::MethodOverride

Allows the method to be overridden if params[:_method] is set. This is the middleware which supports the PATCH, PUT, and DELETE HTTP method types.

3.5.17 Rack::Head

Converts HEAD requests to GET requests and serves them as so.

3.5.18 Adding Custom Middleware

Besides these usual middleware, you can add your own by using the config.middleware.use method:

config.middleware.use Magical::Unicorns

This will put the Magical::Unicorns middleware on the end of the stack. You can use insert_before if you wish to add a middleware before another.

config.middleware.insert_before Rack::Head, Magical::Unicorns

Or you can insert a middleware to exact position by using indexes. For example, if you want to insert Magical::Unicorns middleware on top of the stack, you can do it, like so:

config.middleware.insert_before 0, Magical::Unicorns

There's also insert_after which will insert a middleware after another:

config.middleware.insert_after Rack::Head, Magical::Unicorns

Middlewares can also be completely swapped out and replaced with others:

config.middleware.swap ActionController::Failsafe, Lifo::Failsafe

Middlewares can be moved from one place to another:

config.middleware.move_before ActionDispatch::Flash, Magical::Unicorns

This will move the Magical::Unicorns middleware before ActionDispatch::Flash. You can also move it after:

config.middleware.move_after ActionDispatch::Flash, Magical::Unicorns

They can also be removed from the stack completely:

config.middleware.delete Rack::MethodOverride

3.6 Configuring i18n

All these configuration options are delegated to the I18n library.

3.6.1 config.i18n.available_locales

Defines the permitted available locales for the app. Defaults to all locale keys found in locale files, usually only :en on a new application.

3.6.2 config.i18n.default_locale

Sets the default locale of an application used for i18n. Defaults to :en.

3.6.3 config.i18n.enforce_available_locales

Ensures that all locales passed through i18n must be declared in the available_locales list, raising an I18n::InvalidLocale exception when setting an unavailable locale. Defaults to true. It is recommended not to disable this option unless strongly required, since this works as a security measure against setting any invalid locale from user input.

3.6.4 config.i18n.load_path

Sets the path Rails uses to look for locale files. Defaults to config/locales/**/*.{yml,rb}.

3.6.5 config.i18n.raise_on_missing_translations

Determines whether an error should be raised for missing translations in controllers and views. This defaults to false.

3.6.6 config.i18n.fallbacks

Sets fallback behavior for missing translations. Here are 3 usage examples for this option:

  • You can set the option to true for using default locale as fallback, like so:

    config.i18n.fallbacks = true

  • Or you can set an array of locales as fallback, like so:

    config.i18n.fallbacks = [:tr, :en]

  • Or you can set different fallbacks for locales individually. For example, if you want to use :tr for :az and :de, :en for :da as fallbacks, you can do it, like so:

    config.i18n.fallbacks = { az: :tr, da: [:de, :en] }
#or
config.i18n.fallbacks.map = { az: :tr, da: [:de, :en] }

3.7 Configuring Active Model

3.7.1 config.active_model.i18n_customize_full_message

Is a boolean value which controls whether the full_message error format can be overridden at the attribute or model level in the locale files. This is false by default.

3.8 Configuring Active Record

config.active_record includes a variety of configuration options:

3.8.1 config.active_record.logger

Accepts a logger conforming to the interface of Log4r or the default Ruby Logger class, which is then passed on to any new database connections made. You can retrieve this logger by calling logger on either an Active Record model class or an Active Record model instance. Set to nil to disable logging.

3.8.2 config.active_record.primary_key_prefix_type

Lets you adjust the naming for primary key columns. By default, Rails assumes that primary key columns are named id (and this configuration option doesn't need to be set). There are two other choices:

  • :table_name would make the primary key for the Customer class customerid.
  • :table_name_with_underscore would make the primary key for the Customer class customer_id.
3.8.3 config.active_record.table_name_prefix

Lets you set a global string to be prepended to table names. If you set this to northwest_, then the Customer class will look for northwest_customers as its table. The default is an empty string.

3.8.4 config.active_record.table_name_suffix

Lets you set a global string to be appended to table names. If you set this to _northwest, then the Customer class will look for customers_northwest as its table. The default is an empty string.

3.8.5 config.active_record.schema_migrations_table_name

Lets you set a string to be used as the name of the schema migrations table.

3.8.6 config.active_record.internal_metadata_table_name

Lets you set a string to be used as the name of the internal metadata table.

3.8.7 config.active_record.protected_environments

Lets you set an array of names of environments where destructive actions should be prohibited.

3.8.8 config.active_record.pluralize_table_names

Specifies whether Rails will look for singular or plural table names in the database. If set to true (the default), then the Customer class will use the customers table. If set to false, then the Customer class will use the customer table.

3.8.9 config.active_record.default_timezone

Determines whether to use Time.local (if set to :local) or Time.utc (if set to :utc) when pulling dates and times from the database. The default is :utc.

3.8.10 config.active_record.schema_format

Controls the format for dumping the database schema to a file. The options are :ruby (the default) for a database-independent version that depends on migrations, or :sql for a set of (potentially database-dependent) SQL statements.

3.8.11 config.active_record.error_on_ignored_order

Specifies if an error should be raised if the order of a query is ignored during a batch query. The options are true (raise error) or false (warn). Default is false.

3.8.12 config.active_record.timestamped_migrations

Controls whether migrations are numbered with serial integers or with timestamps. The default is true, to use timestamps, which are preferred if there are multiple developers working on the same application.

3.8.13 config.active_record.lock_optimistically

Controls whether Active Record will use optimistic locking and is true by default.

3.8.14 config.active_record.cache_timestamp_format

Controls the format of the timestamp value in the cache key. Default is :usec.

3.8.15 config.active_record.record_timestamps

Is a boolean value which controls whether or not timestamping of create and update operations on a model occur. The default value is true.

3.8.16 config.active_record.partial_inserts

Is a boolean value and controls whether or not partial writes are used when creating new records (i.e. whether inserts only set attributes that are different from the default).

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) true
7.0 false
3.8.17 config.active_record.partial_updates

Is a boolean value and controls whether or not partial writes are used when updating existing records (i.e. whether updates only set attributes that are dirty). Note that when using partial updates, you should also use optimistic locking config.active_record.lock_optimistically since concurrent updates may write attributes based on a possibly stale read state. The default value is true.

3.8.18 config.active_record.maintain_test_schema

Is a boolean value which controls whether Active Record should try to keep your test database schema up-to-date with db/schema.rb (or db/structure.sql) when you run your tests. The default is true.

3.8.19 config.active_record.dump_schema_after_migration

Is a flag which controls whether or not schema dump should happen (db/schema.rb or db/structure.sql) when you run migrations. This is set to false in config/environments/production.rb which is generated by Rails. The default value is true if this configuration is not set.

3.8.20 config.active_record.dump_schemas

Controls which database schemas will be dumped when calling db:schema:dump. The options are :schema_search_path (the default) which dumps any schemas listed in schema_search_path, :all which always dumps all schemas regardless of the schema_search_path, or a string of comma separated schemas.

3.8.21 config.active_record.belongs_to_required_by_default

Is a boolean value and controls whether a record fails validation if belongs_to association is not present.

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) nil
5.0 true
3.8.22 config.active_record.action_on_strict_loading_violation

Enables raising or logging an exception if strict_loading is set on an association. The default value is :raise in all environments. It can be changed to :log to send violations to the logger instead of raising.

3.8.23 config.active_record.strict_loading_by_default

Is a boolean value that either enables or disables strict_loading mode by default. Defaults to false.

3.8.24 config.active_record.warn_on_records_fetched_greater_than

Allows setting a warning threshold for query result size. If the number of records returned by a query exceeds the threshold, a warning is logged. This can be used to identify queries which might be causing a memory bloat.

3.8.25 config.active_record.index_nested_attribute_errors

Allows errors for nested has_many relationships to be displayed with an index as well as the error. Defaults to false.

3.8.26 config.active_record.use_schema_cache_dump

Enables users to get schema cache information from db/schema_cache.yml (generated by bin/rails db:schema:cache:dump), instead of having to send a query to the database to get this information. Defaults to true.

3.8.27 config.active_record.cache_versioning

Indicates whether to use a stable #cache_key method that is accompanied by a changing version in the #cache_version method.

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) false
5.2 true
3.8.28 config.active_record.collection_cache_versioning

Enables the same cache key to be reused when the object being cached of type ActiveRecord::Relation changes by moving the volatile information (max updated at and count) of the relation's cache key into the cache version to support recycling cache key.

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) false
6.0 true
3.8.29 config.active_record.has_many_inversing

Enables setting the inverse record when traversing belongs_to to has_many associations.

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) false
6.1 true
3.8.30 config.active_record.automatic_scope_inversing

Enables automatically inferring the inverse_of for associations with a scope.

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) false
7.0 true
3.8.31 config.active_record.legacy_connection_handling

Allows to enable new connection handling API. For applications using multiple databases, this new API provides support for granular connection swapping.

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) true
6.1 false
3.8.32 config.active_record.destroy_association_async_job

Allows specifying the job that will be used to destroy the associated records in background. It defaults to ActiveRecord::DestroyAssociationAsyncJob.

3.8.33 config.active_record.queues.destroy

Allows specifying the Active Job queue to use for destroy jobs. When this option is nil, purge jobs are sent to the default Active Job queue (see config.active_job.default_queue_name). It defaults to nil.

3.8.34 config.active_record.enumerate_columns_in_select_statements

When true, will always include column names in SELECT statements, and avoid wildcard SELECT * FROM ... queries. This avoids prepared statement cache errors when adding columns to a PostgreSQL database for example. Defaults to false.

3.8.35 config.active_record.verify_foreign_keys_for_fixtures

Ensures all foreign key constraints are valid after fixtures are loaded in tests. Supported by PostgreSQL and SQLite only.

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) false
7.0 true
3.8.36 config.active_record.query_log_tags_enabled

Specifies whether or not to enable adapter-level query comments. Defaults to false.

3.8.37 config.active_record.query_log_tags

Define an Array specifying the key/value tags to be inserted in an SQL comment. Defaults to [ :application ], a predefined tag returning the application name.

3.8.38 config.active_record.cache_query_log_tags

Specifies whether or not to enable caching of query log tags. For applications that have a large number of queries, caching query log tags can provide a performance benefit when the context does not change during the lifetime of the request or job execution. Defaults to false.

3.8.39 config.active_record.schema_cache_ignored_tables

Define the list of table that should be ignored when generating the schema cache. It accepts an Array of strings, representing the table names, or regular expressions.

3.8.40 config.active_record.verbose_query_logs

Specifies if source locations of methods that call database queries should be logged below relevant queries. By default, the flag is true in development and false in all other environments.

3.8.41 config.active_record.async_query_executor

Specifies how asynchronous queries are pooled.

It defaults to nil, which means load_async is disabled and instead directly executes queries in the foreground. For queries to actually be performed asynchronously, it must be set to either :global_thread_pool or :multi_thread_pool.

:global_thread_pool will use a single pool for all databases the application connects to. This is the preferred configuration for applications with only a single database, or applications which only ever query one database shard at a time.

:multi_thread_pool will use one pool per database, and each pool size can be configured individually in database.yml through the max_threads and min_thread properties. This can be useful to applications regularly querying multiple databases at a time, and that need to more precisely define the max concurrency.

3.8.42 config.active_record.global_executor_concurrency

Used in conjunction with config.active_record.async_query_executor = :global_thread_pool, defines how many asynchronous queries can be executed concurrently.

Defaults to 4.

This number must be considered in accordance with the database pool size configured in database.yml. The connection pool should be large enough to accommodate both the foreground threads (.e.g web server or job worker threads) and background threads.

3.8.43 ActiveRecord::ConnectionAdapters::Mysql2Adapter.emulate_booleans

Controls whether the Active Record MySQL adapter will consider all tinyint(1) columns as booleans. Defaults to true.

3.8.44 ActiveRecord::ConnectionAdapters::PostgreSQLAdapter.create_unlogged_tables

Controls whether database tables created by PostgreSQL should be "unlogged", which can speed up performance but adds a risk of data loss if the database crashes. It is highly recommended that you do not enable this in a production environment. Defaults to false in all environments.

3.8.45 ActiveRecord::ConnectionAdapters::PostgreSQLAdapter.datetime_type

Controls what native type the Active Record PostgreSQL adapter should use when you call datetime in a migration or schema. It takes a symbol which must correspond to one of the configured NATIVE_DATABASE_TYPES. The default is :timestamp, meaning t.datetime in a migration will create a "timestamp without time zone" column. To use "timestamp with time zone", change this to :timestamptz in an initializer. You should run bin/rails db:migrate to rebuild your schema.rb if you change this.

3.8.46 ActiveRecord::SchemaDumper.ignore_tables

Accepts an array of tables that should not be included in any generated schema file.

3.8.47 ActiveRecord::SchemaDumper.fk_ignore_pattern

Allows setting a different regular expression that will be used to decide whether a foreign key's name should be dumped to db/schema.rb or not. By default, foreign key names starting with fk_rails_ are not exported to the database schema dump. Defaults to /^fk_rails_[0-9a-f]{10}$/.

3.9 Configuring Action Controller

config.action_controller includes a number of configuration settings:

3.9.1 config.action_controller.asset_host

Sets the host for the assets. Useful when CDNs are used for hosting assets rather than the application server itself. You should only use this if you have a different configuration for Action Mailer, otherwise use config.asset_host.

3.9.2 config.action_controller.perform_caching

Configures whether the application should perform the caching features provided by the Action Controller component or not. Set to false in the development environment, true in production. If it's not specified, the default will be true.

3.9.3 config.action_controller.default_static_extension

Configures the extension used for cached pages. Defaults to .html.

3.9.4 config.action_controller.include_all_helpers

Configures whether all view helpers are available everywhere or are scoped to the corresponding controller. If set to false, UsersHelper methods are only available for views rendered as part of UsersController. If true, UsersHelper methods are available everywhere. The default configuration behavior (when this option is not explicitly set to true or false) is that all view helpers are available to each controller.

3.9.5 config.action_controller.logger

Accepts a logger conforming to the interface of Log4r or the default Ruby Logger class, which is then used to log information from Action Controller. Set to nil to disable logging.

3.9.6 config.action_controller.request_forgery_protection_token

Sets the token parameter name for RequestForgery. Calling protect_from_forgery sets it to :authenticity_token by default.

3.9.7 config.action_controller.allow_forgery_protection

Enables or disables CSRF protection. By default this is false in the test environment and true in all other environments.

3.9.8 config.action_controller.forgery_protection_origin_check

Configures whether the HTTP Origin header should be checked against the site's origin as an additional CSRF defense.

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) false
5.0 true
3.9.9 config.action_controller.per_form_csrf_tokens

Configures whether CSRF tokens are only valid for the method/action they were generated for.

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) false
5.0 true
3.9.10 config.action_controller.default_protect_from_forgery

Determines whether forgery protection is added on ActionController::Base.

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) false
5.2 true
3.9.11 config.action_controller.urlsafe_csrf_tokens

Configures whether generated CSRF tokens are URL-safe.

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) false
6.1 true
3.9.12 config.action_controller.relative_url_root

Can be used to tell Rails that you are deploying to a subdirectory. The default is ENV['RAILS_RELATIVE_URL_ROOT'].

3.9.13 config.action_controller.permit_all_parameters

Sets all the parameters for mass assignment to be permitted by default. The default value is false.

3.9.14 config.action_controller.action_on_unpermitted_parameters

Controls behavior when parameters that are not explicitly permitted are found. The default value is :log in test and development environments, false otherwise. The values can be:

  • false to take no action
  • :log to emit an ActiveSupport::Notifications.instrument event on the unpermitted_parameters.action_controller topic and log at the DEBUG level
  • :raise to raise a ActionController::UnpermittedParameters exception
3.9.15 config.action_controller.always_permitted_parameters

Sets a list of permitted parameters that are permitted by default. The default values are ['controller', 'action'].

3.9.16 config.action_controller.enable_fragment_cache_logging

Determines whether to log fragment cache reads and writes in verbose format as follows:

Read fragment views/v1/2914079/v1/2914079/recordings/70182313-20160225015037000000/d0bdf2974e1ef6d31685c3b392ad0b74 (0.6ms)
Rendered messages/_message.html.erb in 1.2 ms [cache hit]
Write fragment views/v1/2914079/v1/2914079/recordings/70182313-20160225015037000000/3b4e249ac9d168c617e32e84b99218b5 (1.1ms)
Rendered recordings/threads/_thread.html.erb in 1.5 ms [cache miss]

By default it is set to false which results in following output:

Rendered messages/_message.html.erb in 1.2 ms [cache hit]
Rendered recordings/threads/_thread.html.erb in 1.5 ms [cache miss]
3.9.17 config.action_controller.raise_on_open_redirects

Raises an ArgumentError when an unpermitted open redirect occurs.

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) false
7.0 true
3.9.18 config.action_controller.log_query_tags_around_actions

Determines whether controller context for query tags will be automatically updated via an around_filter. The default value is true.

3.9.19 config.action_controller.wrap_parameters_by_default

Configures the ParamsWrapper to wrap json request by default.

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) false
7.0 true
3.9.20 ActionController::Base.wrap_parameters

Configures the ParamsWrapper. This can be called at the top level, or on individual controllers.

3.10 Configuring Action Dispatch

3.10.1 config.action_dispatch.cookies_serializer

Specifies which serializer to use for cookies. For more information, see Action Controller Cookies.

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) :marshal
7.0 :json
3.10.2 config.action_dispatch.default_headers

Is a hash with HTTP headers that are set by default in each response.

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) 
{
  "X-Frame-Options" => "SAMEORIGIN",
  "X-XSS-Protection" => "1; mode=block",
  "X-Content-Type-Options" => "nosniff",
  "X-Download-Options" => "noopen",
  "X-Permitted-Cross-Domain-Policies" => "none",
  "Referrer-Policy" => "strict-origin-when-cross-origin"
}
7.0 
{
  "X-Frame-Options" => "SAMEORIGIN",
  "X-XSS-Protection" => "0",
  "X-Content-Type-Options" => "nosniff",
  "X-Download-Options" => "noopen",
  "X-Permitted-Cross-Domain-Policies" => "none",
  "Referrer-Policy" => "strict-origin-when-cross-origin"
}
3.10.3 config.action_dispatch.default_charset

Specifies the default character set for all renders. Defaults to nil.

3.10.4 config.action_dispatch.tld_length

Sets the TLD (top-level domain) length for the application. Defaults to 1.

3.10.5 config.action_dispatch.ignore_accept_header

Is used to determine whether to ignore accept headers from a request. Defaults to false.

3.10.6 config.action_dispatch.x_sendfile_header

Specifies server specific X-Sendfile header. This is useful for accelerated file sending from server. For example it can be set to 'X-Sendfile' for Apache.

3.10.7 config.action_dispatch.http_auth_salt

Sets the HTTP Auth salt value. Defaults to 'http authentication'.

Sets the signed cookies salt value. Defaults to 'signed cookie'.

Sets the encrypted cookies salt value. Defaults to 'encrypted cookie'.

Sets the signed encrypted cookies salt value. Defaults to 'signed encrypted cookie'.

Sets the authenticated encrypted cookie salt. Defaults to 'authenticated encrypted cookie'.

Sets the cipher to be used for encrypted cookies. This defaults to "aes-256-gcm".

Sets the digest to be used for signed cookies. This defaults to "SHA1".

3.10.14 config.action_dispatch.cookies_rotations

Allows rotating secrets, ciphers, and digests for encrypted and signed cookies.

Controls whether signed and encrypted cookies use the AES-256-GCM cipher or the older AES-256-CBC cipher.

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) false
5.2 true
3.10.16 config.action_dispatch.use_cookies_with_metadata

Enables writing cookies with the purpose metadata embedded.

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) false
6.0 true
3.10.17 config.action_dispatch.perform_deep_munge

Configures whether deep_munge method should be performed on the parameters. See Security Guide for more information. It defaults to true.

3.10.18 config.action_dispatch.rescue_responses

Configures what exceptions are assigned to an HTTP status. It accepts a hash and you can specify pairs of exception/status. By default, this is defined as:

config.action_dispatch.rescue_responses = {
  'ActionController::RoutingError'
    => :not_found,
  'AbstractController::ActionNotFound'
    => :not_found,
  'ActionController::MethodNotAllowed'
    => :method_not_allowed,
  'ActionController::UnknownHttpMethod'
    => :method_not_allowed,
  'ActionController::NotImplemented'
    => :not_implemented,
  'ActionController::UnknownFormat'
    => :not_acceptable,
  'ActionController::InvalidAuthenticityToken'
    => :unprocessable_entity,
  'ActionController::InvalidCrossOriginRequest'
    => :unprocessable_entity,
  'ActionDispatch::Http::Parameters::ParseError'
    => :bad_request,
  'ActionController::BadRequest'
    => :bad_request,
  'ActionController::ParameterMissing'
    => :bad_request,
  'Rack::QueryParser::ParameterTypeError'
    => :bad_request,
  'Rack::QueryParser::InvalidParameterError'
    => :bad_request,
  'ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound'
    => :not_found,
  'ActiveRecord::StaleObjectError'
    => :conflict,
  'ActiveRecord::RecordInvalid'
    => :unprocessable_entity,
  'ActiveRecord::RecordNotSaved'
    => :unprocessable_entity
}

Any exceptions that are not configured will be mapped to 500 Internal Server Error.

3.10.19 config.action_dispatch.return_only_request_media_type_on_content_type

Change the return value of ActionDispatch::Request#content_type to the Content-Type header without modification.

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) true
7.0 false
3.10.20 config.action_dispatch.cookies_same_site_protection

Configures the default value of the SameSite attribute when setting cookies. When set to nil, the SameSite attribute is not added. To allow the value of the SameSite attribute to be configured dynamically based on the request, a proc may be specified. For example:

config.action_dispatch.cookies_same_site_protection = ->(request) do
  :strict unless request.user_agent == "TestAgent"
end

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) nil
6.1 :lax
3.10.21 config.action_dispatch.ssl_default_redirect_status

Configures the default HTTP status code used when redirecting non-GET/HEAD requests from HTTP to HTTPS in the ActionDispatch::SSL middleware.

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) 307
6.1 308
3.10.22 config.action_dispatch.log_rescued_responses

Enables logging those unhandled exceptions configured in rescue_responses. It defaults to true.

3.10.23 ActionDispatch::Callbacks.before

Takes a block of code to run before the request.

3.10.24 ActionDispatch::Callbacks.after

Takes a block of code to run after the request.

3.11 Configuring Action View

config.action_view includes a small number of configuration settings:

3.11.1 config.action_view.cache_template_loading

Controls whether or not templates should be reloaded on each request. Defaults to whatever is set for config.cache_classes.

3.11.2 config.action_view.field_error_proc

Provides an HTML generator for displaying errors that come from Active Model. The block is evaluated within the context of an Action View template. The default is

Proc.new { |html_tag, instance| content_tag :div, html_tag, class: "field_with_errors" }
3.11.3 config.action_view.default_form_builder

Tells Rails which form builder to use by default. The default is ActionView::Helpers::FormBuilder. If you want your form builder class to be loaded after initialization (so it's reloaded on each request in development), you can pass it as a String.

3.11.4 config.action_view.logger

Accepts a logger conforming to the interface of Log4r or the default Ruby Logger class, which is then used to log information from Action View. Set to nil to disable logging.

3.11.5 config.action_view.erb_trim_mode

Gives the trim mode to be used by ERB. It defaults to '-', which turns on trimming of tail spaces and newline when using <%= -%> or <%= =%>. See the Erubis documentation for more information.

3.11.6 config.action_view.frozen_string_literal

Compiles the ERB template with the # frozen_string_literal: true magic comment, making all string literals frozen and saving allocations. Set to true to enable it for all views.

3.11.7 config.action_view.embed_authenticity_token_in_remote_forms

Allows you to set the default behavior for authenticity_token in forms with remote: true. By default it's set to false, which means that remote forms will not include authenticity_token, which is helpful when you're fragment-caching the form. Remote forms get the authenticity from the meta tag, so embedding is unnecessary unless you support browsers without JavaScript. In such case you can either pass authenticity_token: true as a form option or set this config setting to true.

3.11.8 config.action_view.prefix_partial_path_with_controller_namespace

Determines whether or not partials are looked up from a subdirectory in templates rendered from namespaced controllers. For example, consider a controller named Admin::ArticlesController which renders this template:

<%= render @article %>

The default setting is true, which uses the partial at /admin/articles/_article.erb. Setting the value to false would render /articles/_article.erb, which is the same behavior as rendering from a non-namespaced controller such as ArticlesController.

3.11.9 config.action_view.automatically_disable_submit_tag

Determines whether submit_tag should automatically disable on click, this defaults to true.

3.11.10 config.action_view.debug_missing_translation

Determines whether to wrap the missing translations key in a <span> tag or not. This defaults to true.

3.11.11 config.action_view.form_with_generates_remote_forms

Determines whether form_with generates remote forms or not.

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
5.1 true
6.1 false
3.11.12 config.action_view.form_with_generates_ids

Determines whether form_with generates ids on inputs.

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) false
5.2 true
3.11.13 config.action_view.default_enforce_utf8

Determines whether forms are generated with a hidden tag that forces older versions of Internet Explorer to submit forms encoded in UTF-8.

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) true
6.0 false
3.11.14 config.action_view.image_loading

Specifies a default value for the loading attribute of <img> tags rendered by the image_tag helper. For example, when set to "lazy", <img> tags rendered by image_tag will include loading="lazy", which instructs the browser to wait until an image is near the viewport to load it. (This value can still be overridden per image by passing e.g. loading: "eager" to image_tag.) Defaults to nil.

3.11.15 config.action_view.image_decoding

Specifies a default value for the decoding attribute of <img> tags rendered by the image_tag helper. Defaults to nil.

3.11.16 config.action_view.annotate_rendered_view_with_filenames

Determines whether to annotate rendered view with template file names. This defaults to false.

Determines whether javascript_include_tag and stylesheet_link_tag will generate a Link header that preload assets.

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) nil
6.1 true
3.11.18 config.action_view.button_to_generates_button_tag

Determines whether button_to will render <button> element, regardless of whether or not the content is passed as the first argument or as a block.

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) false
7.0 true
3.11.19 config.action_view.apply_stylesheet_media_default

Determines whether stylesheet_link_tag will render screen as the default value for the attribute media when it's not provided.

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) true
7.0 false

3.12 Configuring Action Mailbox

config.action_mailbox provides the following configuration options:

3.12.1 config.action_mailbox.logger

Contains the logger used by Action Mailbox. It accepts a logger conforming to the interface of Log4r or the default Ruby Logger class. The default is Rails.logger.

config.action_mailbox.logger = ActiveSupport::Logger.new(STDOUT)
3.12.2 config.action_mailbox.incinerate_after

Accepts an ActiveSupport::Duration indicating how long after processing ActionMailbox::InboundEmail records should be destroyed. It defaults to 30.days.

# Incinerate inbound emails 14 days after processing.
config.action_mailbox.incinerate_after = 14.days
3.12.3 config.action_mailbox.queues.incineration

Accepts a symbol indicating the Active Job queue to use for incineration jobs. When this option is nil, incineration jobs are sent to the default Active Job queue (see config.active_job.default_queue_name).

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) :action_mailbox_incineration
6.1 nil
3.12.4 config.action_mailbox.queues.routing

Accepts a symbol indicating the Active Job queue to use for routing jobs. When this option is nil, routing jobs are sent to the default Active Job queue (see config.active_job.default_queue_name).

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) :action_mailbox_routing
6.1 nil
3.12.5 config.action_mailbox.storage_service

Accepts a symbol indicating the Active Storage service to use for uploading emails. When this option is nil, emails are uploaded to the default Active Storage service (see config.active_storage.service).

3.13 Configuring Action Mailer

There are a number of settings available on config.action_mailer:

3.13.1 config.action_mailer.asset_host

Sets the host for the assets. Useful when CDNs are used for hosting assets rather than the application server itself. You should only use this if you have a different configuration for Action Controller, otherwise use config.asset_host.

3.13.2 config.action_mailer.logger

Accepts a logger conforming to the interface of Log4r or the default Ruby Logger class, which is then used to log information from Action Mailer. Set to nil to disable logging.

3.13.3 config.action_mailer.smtp_settings

Allows detailed configuration for the :smtp delivery method. It accepts a hash of options, which can include any of these options:

  • :address - Allows you to use a remote mail server. Just change it from its default "localhost" setting.
  • :port - On the off chance that your mail server doesn't run on port 25, you can change it.
  • :domain - If you need to specify a HELO domain, you can do it here.
  • :user_name - If your mail server requires authentication, set the username in this setting.
  • :password - If your mail server requires authentication, set the password in this setting.
  • :authentication - If your mail server requires authentication, you need to specify the authentication type here. This is a symbol and one of :plain, :login, :cram_md5.
  • :enable_starttls - Use STARTTLS when connecting to your SMTP server and fail if unsupported. It defaults to false.
  • :enable_starttls_auto - Detects if STARTTLS is enabled in your SMTP server and starts to use it. It defaults to true.
  • :openssl_verify_mode - When using TLS, you can set how OpenSSL checks the certificate. This is useful if you need to validate a self-signed and/or a wildcard certificate. This can be one of the OpenSSL verify constants, :none or :peer -- or the constant directly OpenSSL::SSL::VERIFY_NONE or OpenSSL::SSL::VERIFY_PEER, respectively.
  • :ssl/:tls - Enables the SMTP connection to use SMTP/TLS (SMTPS: SMTP over direct TLS connection).
  • :open_timeout - Number of seconds to wait while attempting to open a connection.
  • :read_timeout - Number of seconds to wait until timing-out a read(2) call.

Additionally, it is possible to pass any configuration option Mail::SMTP respects.

3.13.4 config.action_mailer.smtp_timeout

Allows to configure both the :open_timeout and :read_timeout values for :smtp delivery method.

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) nil
7.0 5
3.13.5 config.action_mailer.sendmail_settings

Allows detailed configuration for the sendmail delivery method. It accepts a hash of options, which can include any of these options:

  • :location - The location of the sendmail executable. Defaults to /usr/sbin/sendmail.
  • :arguments - The command line arguments. Defaults to -i.
3.13.6 config.action_mailer.raise_delivery_errors

Specifies whether to raise an error if email delivery cannot be completed. It defaults to true.

3.13.7 config.action_mailer.delivery_method

Defines the delivery method and defaults to :smtp. See the configuration section in the Action Mailer guide for more info.

3.13.8 config.action_mailer.perform_deliveries

Specifies whether mail will actually be delivered and is true by default. It can be convenient to set it to false for testing.

3.13.9 config.action_mailer.default_options

Configures Action Mailer defaults. Use to set options like from or reply_to for every mailer. These default to:

mime_version:  "1.0",
charset:       "UTF-8",
content_type: "text/plain",
parts_order:  ["text/plain", "text/enriched", "text/html"]

Assign a hash to set additional options:

config.action_mailer.default_options = {
  from: "noreply@example.com"
}
3.13.10 config.action_mailer.observers

Registers observers which will be notified when mail is delivered.

config.action_mailer.observers = ["MailObserver"]
3.13.11 config.action_mailer.interceptors

Registers interceptors which will be called before mail is sent.

config.action_mailer.interceptors = ["MailInterceptor"]
3.13.12 config.action_mailer.preview_interceptors

Registers interceptors which will be called before mail is previewed.

config.action_mailer.preview_interceptors = ["MyPreviewMailInterceptor"]
3.13.13 config.action_mailer.preview_path

Specifies the location of mailer previews.

config.action_mailer.preview_path = "#{Rails.root}/lib/mailer_previews"
3.13.14 config.action_mailer.show_previews

Enable or disable mailer previews. By default this is true in development.

config.action_mailer.show_previews = false
3.13.15 config.action_mailer.deliver_later_queue_name

Specifies the Active Job queue to use for delivery jobs. When this option is set to nil, delivery jobs are sent to the default Active Job queue (see config.active_job.default_queue_name). Make sure that your Active Job adapter is also configured to process the specified queue, otherwise delivery jobs may be silently ignored.

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) :mailers
6.1 nil
3.13.16 config.action_mailer.perform_caching

Specifies whether the mailer templates should perform fragment caching or not. If it's not specified, the default will be true.

3.13.17 config.action_mailer.delivery_job

Specifies delivery job for mail.

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) ActionMailer::MailDeliveryJob
6.0 "ActionMailer::MailDeliveryJob"

3.14 Configuring Active Support

There are a few configuration options available in Active Support:

3.14.1 config.active_support.bare

Enables or disables the loading of active_support/all when booting Rails. Defaults to nil, which means active_support/all is loaded.

3.14.2 config.active_support.test_order

Sets the order in which the test cases are executed. Possible values are :random and :sorted. Defaults to :random.

3.14.3 config.active_support.escape_html_entities_in_json

Enables or disables the escaping of HTML entities in JSON serialization. Defaults to true.

3.14.4 config.active_support.use_standard_json_time_format

Enables or disables serializing dates to ISO 8601 format. Defaults to true.

3.14.5 config.active_support.time_precision

Sets the precision of JSON encoded time values. Defaults to 3.

3.14.6 config.active_support.hash_digest_class

Allows configuring the digest class to use to generate non-sensitive digests, such as the ETag header.

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) OpenSSL::Digest::MD5
5.2 OpenSSL::Digest::SHA1
7.0 OpenSSL::Digest::SHA256
3.14.7 config.active_support.key_generator_hash_digest_class

Allows configuring the digest class to use to derive secrets from the configured secret base, such as for encrypted cookies.

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) OpenSSL::Digest::SHA1
7.0 OpenSSL::Digest::SHA256
3.14.8 config.active_support.use_authenticated_message_encryption

Specifies whether to use AES-256-GCM authenticated encryption as the default cipher for encrypting messages instead of AES-256-CBC.

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) false
5.2 true
3.14.9 config.active_support.cache_format_version

Specifies which version of the cache serializer to use. Possible values are 6.1 and 7.0.

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) 6.1
7.0 7.0
3.14.10 config.active_support.deprecation

Configures the behavior of deprecation warnings. The options are :raise, :stderr, :log, :notify, or :silence. The default is :stderr. Alternatively, you can set ActiveSupport::Deprecation.behavior.

3.14.11 config.active_support.disallowed_deprecation

Configures the behavior of disallowed deprecation warnings. The options are :raise, :stderr, :log, :notify, or :silence. The default is :raise. Alternatively, you can set ActiveSupport::Deprecation.disallowed_behavior.

3.14.12 config.active_support.disallowed_deprecation_warnings

Configures deprecation warnings that the Application considers disallowed. This allows, for example, specific deprecations to be treated as hard failures. Alternatively, you can set ActiveSupport::Deprecation.disallowed_warnings.

3.14.13 config.active_support.report_deprecations

Allows you to disable all deprecation warnings (including disallowed deprecations); it makes ActiveSupport::Deprecation.warn a no-op. This is enabled by default in production.

3.14.14 config.active_support.remove_deprecated_time_with_zone_name

Specifies whether to remove the deprecated override of the ActiveSupport::TimeWithZone.name method, to avoid triggering its deprecation warning.

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) nil
7.0 true
3.14.15 config.active_support.isolation_level

Configures the locality of most of Rails internal state. If you use a fiber based server or job processor (e.g. falcon), you should set it to :fiber. Otherwise it is best to use :thread locality. Defaults to :thread.

3.14.16 config.active_support.use_rfc4122_namespaced_uuids

Specifies whether generated namespaced UUIDs follow the RFC 4122 standard for namespace IDs provided as a String to Digest::UUID.uuid_v3 or Digest::UUID.uuid_v5 method calls.

If set to true:

  • Only UUIDs are allowed as namespace IDs. If a namespace ID value provided is not allowed, an ArgumentError will be raised.
  • No deprecation warning will be generated, no matter if the namespace ID used is one of the constants defined on Digest::UUID or a String.
  • Namespace IDs are case-insensitive.
  • All generated namespaced UUIDs should be compliant to the standard.

If set to false:

  • Any String value can be used as namespace ID (although not recommended). No ArgumentError will be raised in this case in order to preserve backwards-compatibility.
  • A deprecation warning will be generated if the namespace ID provided is not one of the constants defined on Digest::UUID.
  • Namespace IDs are case-sensitive.
  • Only namespaced UUIDs generated using one of the namespace ID constants defined on Digest::UUID are compliant to the standard.

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) false
7.0 true
3.14.17 config.active_support.executor_around_test_case

Configure the test suite to call Rails.application.executor.wrap around test cases. This makes test cases behave closer to an actual request or job. Several features that are normally disabled in test, such as Active Record query cache and asynchronous queries will then be enabled.

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) false
7.0 true
3.14.18 config.active_support.disable_to_s_conversion

Disables the override of the #to_s methods in some Ruby core classes. This config is for applications that want to take advantage early of a Ruby 3.1 optimization. This configuration needs to be set in config/application.rb inside the application class, otherwise it will not take effect.

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) false
7.0 true
3.14.19 ActiveSupport::Logger.silencer

Is set to false to disable the ability to silence logging in a block. The default is true.

3.14.20 ActiveSupport::Cache::Store.logger

Specifies the logger to use within cache store operations.

3.14.21 ActiveSupport.to_time_preserves_timezone

Specifies whether to_time methods preserve the UTC offset of their receivers. If false, to_time methods will convert to the local system UTC offset instead.

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) false
5.0 true
3.14.22 ActiveSupport.utc_to_local_returns_utc_offset_times

Configures ActiveSupport::TimeZone.utc_to_local to return a time with a UTC offset instead of a UTC time incorporating that offset.

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) false
6.1 true

3.15 Configuring Active Job

config.active_job provides the following configuration options:

3.15.1 config.active_job.queue_adapter

Sets the adapter for the queuing backend. The default adapter is :async. For an up-to-date list of built-in adapters see the ActiveJob::QueueAdapters API documentation.

# Be sure to have the adapter's gem in your Gemfile
# and follow the adapter's specific installation
# and deployment instructions.
config.active_job.queue_adapter = :sidekiq
3.15.2 config.active_job.default_queue_name

Can be used to change the default queue name. By default this is "default".

config.active_job.default_queue_name = :medium_priority
3.15.3 config.active_job.queue_name_prefix

Allows you to set an optional, non-blank, queue name prefix for all jobs. By default it is blank and not used.

The following configuration would queue the given job on the production_high_priority queue when run in production:

config.active_job.queue_name_prefix = Rails.env

class GuestsCleanupJob < ActiveJob::Base
  queue_as :high_priority
  #....
end
3.15.4 config.active_job.queue_name_delimiter

Has a default value of '_'. If queue_name_prefix is set, then queue_name_delimiter joins the prefix and the non-prefixed queue name.

The following configuration would queue the provided job on the video_server.low_priority queue:

# prefix must be set for delimiter to be used
config.active_job.queue_name_prefix = 'video_server'
config.active_job.queue_name_delimiter = '.'

class EncoderJob < ActiveJob::Base
  queue_as :low_priority
  #....
end
3.15.5 config.active_job.logger

Accepts a logger conforming to the interface of Log4r or the default Ruby Logger class, which is then used to log information from Active Job. You can retrieve this logger by calling logger on either an Active Job class or an Active Job instance. Set to nil to disable logging.

3.15.6 config.active_job.custom_serializers

Allows to set custom argument serializers. Defaults to [].

3.15.7 config.active_job.log_arguments

Controls if the arguments of a job are logged. Defaults to true.

3.15.8 config.active_job.retry_jitter

Controls the amount of "jitter" (random variation) applied to the delay time calculated when retrying failed jobs.

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) 0.0
6.1 0.15
3.15.9 config.active_job.log_query_tags_around_perform

Determines whether job context for query tags will be automatically updated via an around_perform. The default value is true.

3.16 Configuring Action Cable

3.16.1 config.action_cable.url

Accepts a string for the URL for where you are hosting your Action Cable server. You would use this option if you are running Action Cable servers that are separated from your main application.

3.16.2 config.action_cable.mount_path

Accepts a string for where to mount Action Cable, as part of the main server process. Defaults to /cable. You can set this as nil to not mount Action Cable as part of your normal Rails server.

You can find more detailed configuration options in the Action Cable Overview.

3.16.3 config.action_cable.precompile_assets

Determines whether the Action Cable assets should be added to the asset pipeline precompilation. It has no effect if Sprockets is not used. The default value is true.

3.17 Configuring Active Storage

config.active_storage provides the following configuration options:

3.17.1 config.active_storage.variant_processor

Accepts a symbol :mini_magick or :vips, specifying whether variant transformations and blob analysis will be performed with MiniMagick or ruby-vips.

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) :mini_magick
7.0 :vips
3.17.2 config.active_storage.analyzers

Accepts an array of classes indicating the analyzers available for Active Storage blobs. By default, this is defined as:

config.active_storage.analyzers = [ActiveStorage::Analyzer::ImageAnalyzer::Vips, ActiveStorage::Analyzer::ImageAnalyzer::ImageMagick, ActiveStorage::Analyzer::VideoAnalyzer, ActiveStorage::Analyzer::AudioAnalyzer]

The image analyzers can extract width and height of an image blob; the video analyzer can extract width, height, duration, angle, aspect ratio, and presence/absence of video/audio channels of a video blob; the audio analyzer can extract duration and bit rate of an audio blob.

3.17.3 config.active_storage.previewers

Accepts an array of classes indicating the image previewers available in Active Storage blobs. By default, this is defined as:

config.active_storage.previewers = [ActiveStorage::Previewer::PopplerPDFPreviewer, ActiveStorage::Previewer::MuPDFPreviewer, ActiveStorage::Previewer::VideoPreviewer]

PopplerPDFPreviewer and MuPDFPreviewer can generate a thumbnail from the first page of a PDF blob; VideoPreviewer from the relevant frame of a video blob.

3.17.4 config.active_storage.paths

Accepts a hash of options indicating the locations of previewer/analyzer commands. The default is {}, meaning the commands will be looked for in the default path. Can include any of these options:

  • :ffprobe - The location of the ffprobe executable.
  • :mutool - The location of the mutool executable.
  • :ffmpeg - The location of the ffmpeg executable.
config.active_storage.paths[:ffprobe] = '/usr/local/bin/ffprobe'
3.17.5 config.active_storage.variable_content_types

Accepts an array of strings indicating the content types that Active Storage can transform through ImageMagick. By default, this is defined as:

config.active_storage.variable_content_types = %w(image/png image/gif image/jpeg image/tiff image/vnd.adobe.photoshop image/vnd.microsoft.icon image/webp image/avif image/heic image/heif)
3.17.6 config.active_storage.web_image_content_types

Accepts an array of strings regarded as web image content types in which variants can be processed without being converted to the fallback PNG format. If you want to use WebP or AVIF variants in your application you can add image/webp or image/avif to this array. By default, this is defined as:

config.active_storage.web_image_content_types = %w(image/png image/jpeg image/gif)
3.17.7 config.active_storage.content_types_to_serve_as_binary

Accepts an array of strings indicating the content types that Active Storage will always serve as an attachment, rather than inline. By default, this is defined as:

config.active_storage.content_types_to_serve_as_binary = %w(text/html image/svg+xml application/postscript application/x-shockwave-flash text/xml application/xml application/xhtml+xml application/mathml+xml text/cache-manifest)
3.17.8 config.active_storage.content_types_allowed_inline

Accepts an array of strings indicating the content types that Active Storage allows to serve as inline. By default, this is defined as:

config.active_storage.content_types_allowed_inline` = %w(image/png image/gif image/jpeg image/tiff image/vnd.adobe.photoshop image/vnd.microsoft.icon application/pdf)
3.17.9 config.active_storage.silence_invalid_content_types_warning

Since Rails 7, Active Storage will warn if you use an invalid content type that was incorrectly supported in Rails 6. You can use this config to turn the warning off.

config.active_storage.silence_invalid_content_types_warning = false
3.17.10 config.active_storage.queues.analysis

Accepts a symbol indicating the Active Job queue to use for analysis jobs. When this option is nil, analysis jobs are sent to the default Active Job queue (see config.active_job.default_queue_name).

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
6.0 :active_storage_analysis
6.1 nil
3.17.11 config.active_storage.queues.purge

Accepts a symbol indicating the Active Job queue to use for purge jobs. When this option is nil, purge jobs are sent to the default Active Job queue (see config.active_job.default_queue_name).

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
6.0 :active_storage_purge
6.1 nil
3.17.12 config.active_storage.queues.mirror

Accepts a symbol indicating the Active Job queue to use for direct upload mirroring jobs. When this option is nil, mirroring jobs are sent to the default Active Job queue (see config.active_job.default_queue_name). The default is nil.

3.17.13 config.active_storage.logger

Can be used to set the logger used by Active Storage. Accepts a logger conforming to the interface of Log4r or the default Ruby Logger class.

config.active_storage.logger = ActiveSupport::Logger.new(STDOUT)
3.17.14 config.active_storage.service_urls_expire_in

Determines the default expiry of URLs generated by:

  • ActiveStorage::Blob#url
  • ActiveStorage::Blob#service_url_for_direct_upload
  • ActiveStorage::Variant#url

The default is 5 minutes.

3.17.15 config.active_storage.urls_expire_in

Determines the default expiry of URLs in the Rails application generated by Active Storage. The default is nil.

3.17.16 config.active_storage.routes_prefix

Can be used to set the route prefix for the routes served by Active Storage. Accepts a string that will be prepended to the generated routes.

config.active_storage.routes_prefix = '/files'

The default is /rails/active_storage.

3.17.17 config.active_storage.replace_on_assign_to_many

Determines whether assigning to a collection of attachments declared with has_many_attached replaces any existing attachments or appends to them.

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) false
6.0 true
3.17.18 config.active_storage.track_variants

Determines whether variants are recorded in the database.

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) false
6.1 true
3.17.19 config.active_storage.draw_routes

Can be used to toggle Active Storage route generation. The default is true.

3.17.20 config.active_storage.resolve_model_to_route

Can be used to globally change how Active Storage files are delivered.

Allowed values are:

  • :rails_storage_redirect: Redirect to signed, short-lived service URLs.
  • :rails_storage_proxy: Proxy files by downloading them.

The default is :rails_storage_redirect.

3.17.21 config.active_storage.video_preview_arguments

Can be used to alter the way ffmpeg generates video preview images.

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) "-y -vframes 1 -f image2"
7.0 "-vf 'select=eq(n\\,0)+eq(key\\,1)+gt(scene\\,0.015)"1
+ ",loop=loop=-1:size=2,trim=start_frame=1'"2
+ " -frames:v 1 -f image2"

  1. Select the first video frame, plus keyframes, plus frames that meet the scene change threshold.
  2. Use the first video frame as a fallback when no other frames meet the criteria by looping the first (one or) two selected frames, then dropping the first looped frame.
3.17.22 config.active_storage.multiple_file_field_include_hidden

In Rails 7.1 and beyond, Active Storage has_many_attached relationships will default to replacing the current collection instead of appending to it. Thus to support submitting an empty collection, when multiple_file_field_include_hidden is true, the file_field helper will render an auxiliary hidden field, similar to the auxiliary field rendered by the check_box helper.

The default value depends on the config.load_defaults target version:

Starting with version The default value is
(original) false
7.0 true
3.17.23 config.active_storage.precompile_assets

Determines whether the Active Storage assets should be added to the asset pipeline precompilation. It has no effect if Sprockets is not used. The default value is true.

3.18 Configuring Action Text

3.18.1 config.action_text.attachment_tag_name

Accepts a string for the HTML tag used to wrap attachments. Defaults to "action-text-attachment".

3.19 Configuring a Database

Just about every Rails application will interact with a database. You can connect to the database by setting an environment variable ENV['DATABASE_URL'] or by using a configuration file called config/database.yml.

Using the config/database.yml file you can specify all the information needed to access your database:

development:
  adapter: postgresql
  database: blog_development
  pool: 5

This will connect to the database named blog_development using the postgresql adapter. This same information can be stored in a URL and provided via an environment variable like this:

ENV['DATABASE_URL'] # => "postgresql://localhost/blog_development?pool=5"

The config/database.yml file contains sections for three different environments in which Rails can run by default:

  • The development environment is used on your development/local computer as you interact manually with the application.
  • The test environment is used when running automated tests.
  • The production environment is used when you deploy your application for the world to use.

If you wish, you can manually specify a URL inside of your config/database.yml

development:
  url: postgresql://localhost/blog_development?pool=5

The config/database.yml file can contain ERB tags <%= %>. Anything in the tags will be evaluated as Ruby code. You can use this to pull out data from an environment variable or to perform calculations to generate the needed connection information.

You don't have to update the database configurations manually. If you look at the options of the application generator, you will see that one of the options is named --database. This option allows you to choose an adapter from a list of the most used relational databases. You can even run the generator repeatedly: cd .. && rails new blog --database=mysql. When you confirm the overwriting of the config/database.yml file, your application will be configured for MySQL instead of SQLite. Detailed examples of the common database connections are below.

3.20 Connection Preference

Since there are two ways to configure your connection (using config/database.yml or using an environment variable) it is important to understand how they can interact.

If you have an empty config/database.yml file but your ENV['DATABASE_URL'] is present, then Rails will connect to the database via your environment variable:

$ cat config/database.yml

$ echo $DATABASE_URL
postgresql://localhost/my_database

If you have a config/database.yml but no ENV['DATABASE_URL'] then this file will be used to connect to your database:

$ cat config/database.yml
development:
  adapter: postgresql
  database: my_database
  host: localhost

$ echo $DATABASE_URL

If you have both config/database.yml and ENV['DATABASE_URL'] set then Rails will merge the configuration together. To better understand this we must see some examples.

When duplicate connection information is provided the environment variable will take precedence:

$ cat config/database.yml
development:
  adapter: sqlite3
  database: NOT_my_database
  host: localhost

$ echo $DATABASE_URL
postgresql://localhost/my_database

$ bin/rails runner 'puts ActiveRecord::Base.configurations'
#<ActiveRecord::DatabaseConfigurations:0x00007fd50e209a28>

$ bin/rails runner 'puts ActiveRecord::Base.configurations.inspect'
#<ActiveRecord::DatabaseConfigurations:0x00007fc8eab02880 @configurations=[
  #<ActiveRecord::DatabaseConfigurations::UrlConfig:0x00007fc8eab020b0
    @env_name="development", @spec_name="primary",
    @config={"adapter"=>"postgresql", "database"=>"my_database", "host"=>"localhost"}
    @url="postgresql://localhost/my_database">
  ]

Here the adapter, host, and database match the information in ENV['DATABASE_URL'].

If non-duplicate information is provided you will get all unique values, environment variable still takes precedence in cases of any conflicts.

$ cat config/database.yml
development:
  adapter: sqlite3
  pool: 5

$ echo $DATABASE_URL
postgresql://localhost/my_database

$ bin/rails runner 'puts ActiveRecord::Base.configurations'
#<ActiveRecord::DatabaseConfigurations:0x00007fd50e209a28>

$ bin/rails runner 'puts ActiveRecord::Base.configurations.inspect'
#<ActiveRecord::DatabaseConfigurations:0x00007fc8eab02880 @configurations=[
  #<ActiveRecord::DatabaseConfigurations::UrlConfig:0x00007fc8eab020b0
    @env_name="development", @spec_name="primary",
    @config={"adapter"=>"postgresql", "database"=>"my_database", "host"=>"localhost", "pool"=>5}
    @url="postgresql://localhost/my_database">
  ]

Since pool is not in the ENV['DATABASE_URL'] provided connection information its information is merged in. Since adapter is duplicate, the ENV['DATABASE_URL'] connection information wins.

The only way to explicitly not use the connection information in ENV['DATABASE_URL'] is to specify an explicit URL connection using the "url" sub key:

$ cat config/database.yml
development:
  url: sqlite3:NOT_my_database

$ echo $DATABASE_URL
postgresql://localhost/my_database

$ bin/rails runner 'puts ActiveRecord::Base.configurations'
#<ActiveRecord::DatabaseConfigurations:0x00007fd50e209a28>

$ bin/rails runner 'puts ActiveRecord::Base.configurations.inspect'
#<ActiveRecord::DatabaseConfigurations:0x00007fc8eab02880 @configurations=[
  #<ActiveRecord::DatabaseConfigurations::UrlConfig:0x00007fc8eab020b0
    @env_name="development", @spec_name="primary",
    @config={"adapter"=>"sqlite3", "database"=>"NOT_my_database"}
    @url="sqlite3:NOT_my_database">
  ]

Here the connection information in ENV['DATABASE_URL'] is ignored, note the different adapter and database name.

Since it is possible to embed ERB in your config/database.yml it is best practice to explicitly show you are using the ENV['DATABASE_URL'] to connect to your database. This is especially useful in production since you should not commit secrets like your database password into your source control (such as Git).

$ cat config/database.yml
production:
  url: <%= ENV['DATABASE_URL'] %>

Now the behavior is clear, that we are only using the connection information in ENV['DATABASE_URL'].

3.20.1 Configuring an SQLite3 Database

Rails comes with built-in support for SQLite3, which is a lightweight serverless database application. While a busy production environment may overload SQLite, it works well for development and testing. Rails defaults to using an SQLite database when creating a new project, but you can always change it later.

Here's the section of the default configuration file (config/database.yml) with connection information for the development environment:

development:
  adapter: sqlite3
  database: db/development.sqlite3
  pool: 5
  timeout: 5000

Rails uses an SQLite3 database for data storage by default because it is a zero configuration database that just works. Rails also supports MySQL (including MariaDB) and PostgreSQL "out of the box", and has plugins for many database systems. If you are using a database in a production environment Rails most likely has an adapter for it.

3.20.2 Configuring a MySQL or MariaDB Database

If you choose to use MySQL or MariaDB instead of the shipped SQLite3 database, your config/database.yml will look a little different. Here's the development section:

development:
  adapter: mysql2
  encoding: utf8mb4
  database: blog_development
  pool: 5
  username: root
  password:
  socket: /tmp/mysql.sock

If your development database has a root user with an empty password, this configuration should work for you. Otherwise, change the username and password in the development section as appropriate.

If your MySQL version is 5.5 or 5.6 and want to use the utf8mb4 character set by default, please configure your MySQL server to support the longer key prefix by enabling innodb_large_prefix system variable.

Advisory Locks are enabled by default on MySQL and are used to make database migrations concurrent safe. You can disable advisory locks by setting advisory_locks to false:

production:
  adapter: mysql2
  advisory_locks: false
3.20.3 Configuring a PostgreSQL Database

If you choose to use PostgreSQL, your config/database.yml will be customized to use PostgreSQL databases:

development:
  adapter: postgresql
  encoding: unicode
  database: blog_development
  pool: 5

By default Active Record uses database features like prepared statements and advisory locks. You might need to disable those features if you're using an external connection pooler like PgBouncer:

production:
  adapter: postgresql
  prepared_statements: false
  advisory_locks: false

If enabled, Active Record will create up to 1000 prepared statements per database connection by default. To modify this behavior you can set statement_limit to a different value:

production:
  adapter: postgresql
  statement_limit: 200

The more prepared statements in use: the more memory your database will require. If your PostgreSQL database is hitting memory limits, try lowering statement_limit or disabling prepared statements.

3.20.4 Configuring an SQLite3 Database for JRuby Platform

If you choose to use SQLite3 and are using JRuby, your config/database.yml will look a little different. Here's the development section:

development:
  adapter: jdbcsqlite3
  database: db/development.sqlite3
3.20.5 Configuring a MySQL or MariaDB Database for JRuby Platform

If you choose to use MySQL or MariaDB and are using JRuby, your config/database.yml will look a little different. Here's the development section:

development:
  adapter: jdbcmysql
  database: blog_development
  username: root
  password:
3.20.6 Configuring a PostgreSQL Database for JRuby Platform

If you choose to use PostgreSQL and are using JRuby, your config/database.yml will look a little different. Here's the development section:

development:
  adapter: jdbcpostgresql
  encoding: unicode
  database: blog_development
  username: blog
  password:

Change the username and password in the development section as appropriate.

3.20.7 Configuring Metadata Storage

By default Rails will store information about your Rails environment and schema in an internal table named ar_internal_metadata.

To turn this off per connection, set use_metadata_table in your database configuration. This is useful when working with a shared database and/or database user that cannot create tables.

development:
  adapter: postgresql
  use_metadata_table: false

3.21 Creating Rails Environments

By default Rails ships with three environments: "development", "test", and "production". While these are sufficient for most use cases, there are circumstances when you want more environments.

Imagine you have a server which mirrors the production environment but is only used for testing. Such a server is commonly called a "staging server". To define an environment called "staging" for this server, just create a file called config/environments/staging.rb. Please use the contents of any existing file in config/environments as a starting point and make the necessary changes from there.

That environment is no different than the default ones, start a server with bin/rails server -e staging, a console with bin/rails console -e staging, Rails.env.staging? works, etc.

3.22 Deploy to a Subdirectory (relative URL root)

By default Rails expects that your application is running at the root (e.g. /). This section explains how to run your application inside a directory.

Let's assume we want to deploy our application to "/app1". Rails needs to know this directory to generate the appropriate routes:

config.relative_url_root = "/app1"

alternatively you can set the RAILS_RELATIVE_URL_ROOT environment variable.

Rails will now prepend "/app1" when generating links.

3.22.1 Using Passenger

Passenger makes it easy to run your application in a subdirectory. You can find the relevant configuration in the Passenger manual.

3.22.2 Using a Reverse Proxy

Deploying your application using a reverse proxy has definite advantages over traditional deploys. They allow you to have more control over your server by layering the components required by your application.

Many modern web servers can be used as a proxy server to balance third-party elements such as caching servers or application servers.

One such application server you can use is Unicorn to run behind a reverse proxy.

In this case, you would need to configure the proxy server (NGINX, Apache, etc) to accept connections from your application server (Unicorn). By default Unicorn will listen for TCP connections on port 8080, but you can change the port or configure it to use sockets instead.

You can find more information in the Unicorn readme and understand the philosophy behind it.

Once you've configured the application server, you must proxy requests to it by configuring your web server appropriately. For example your NGINX config may include:

upstream application_server {
  server 0.0.0.0:8080;
}

server {
  listen 80;
  server_name localhost;

  root /root/path/to/your_app/public;

  try_files $uri/index.html $uri.html @app;

  location @app {
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
    proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
    proxy_redirect off;
    proxy_pass http://application_server;
  }

  # some other configuration
}

Be sure to read the NGINX documentation for the most up-to-date information.

4 Rails Environment Settings

Some parts of Rails can also be configured externally by supplying environment variables. The following environment variables are recognized by various parts of Rails:

  • ENV["RAILS_ENV"] defines the Rails environment (production, development, test, and so on) that Rails will run under.

  • ENV["RAILS_RELATIVE_URL_ROOT"] is used by the routing code to recognize URLs when you deploy your application to a subdirectory.

  • ENV["RAILS_CACHE_ID"] and ENV["RAILS_APP_VERSION"] are used to generate expanded cache keys in Rails' caching code. This allows you to have multiple separate caches from the same application.

5 Using Initializer Files

After loading the framework and any gems in your application, Rails turns to loading initializers. An initializer is any Ruby file stored under config/initializers in your application. You can use initializers to hold configuration settings that should be made after all of the frameworks and gems are loaded, such as options to configure settings for these parts.

The files in config/initializers (and any subdirectories of config/initializers) are sorted and loaded one by one as part of the load_config_initializers initializer.

If an initializer has code that relies on code in another initializer, you can combine them into a single initializer instead. This makes the dependencies more explicit, and can help surface new concepts within your application. Rails also supports numbering of initializer file names, but this can lead to file name churn. Explicitly loading initializers with require is not recommended, since it will cause the initializer to get loaded twice.

There is no guarantee that your initializers will run after all the gem initializers, so any initialization code that depends on a given gem having been initialized should go into a config.after_initialize block.

6 Initialization events

Rails has 5 initialization events which can be hooked into (listed in the order that they are run):

  • before_configuration: This is run as soon as the application constant inherits from Rails::Application. The config calls are evaluated before this happens.

  • before_initialize: This is run directly before the initialization process of the application occurs with the :bootstrap_hook initializer near the beginning of the Rails initialization process.

  • to_prepare: Run after the initializers are run for all Railties (including the application itself), but before eager loading and the middleware stack is built. More importantly, will run upon every code reload in development, but only once (during boot-up) in production and test.

  • before_eager_load: This is run directly before eager loading occurs, which is the default behavior for the production environment and not for the development environment.

  • after_initialize: Run directly after the initialization of the application, after the application initializers in config/initializers are run.

To define an event for these hooks, use the block syntax within a Rails::Application, Rails::Railtie or Rails::Engine subclass:

module YourApp
  class Application < Rails::Application
    config.before_initialize do
      # initialization code goes here
    end
  end
end

Alternatively, you can also do it through the config method on the Rails.application object:

Rails.application.config.before_initialize do
  # initialization code goes here
end

Some parts of your application, notably routing, are not yet set up at the point where the after_initialize block is called.

6.1 Rails::Railtie#initializer

Rails has several initializers that run on startup that are all defined by using the initializer method from Rails::Railtie. Here's an example of the set_helpers_path initializer from Action Controller:

initializer "action_controller.set_helpers_path" do |app|
  ActionController::Helpers.helpers_path = app.helpers_paths
end

The initializer method takes three arguments with the first being the name for the initializer and the second being an options hash (not shown here) and the third being a block. The :before key in the options hash can be specified to specify which initializer this new initializer must run before, and the :after key will specify which initializer to run this initializer after.

Initializers defined using the initializer method will be run in the order they are defined in, with the exception of ones that use the :before or :after methods.

You may put your initializer before or after any other initializer in the chain, as long as it is logical. Say you have 4 initializers called "one" through "four" (defined in that order) and you define "four" to go before "two" but after "three", that just isn't logical and Rails will not be able to determine your initializer order.

The block argument of the initializer method is the instance of the application itself, and so we can access the configuration on it by using the config method as done in the example.

Because Rails::Application inherits from Rails::Railtie (indirectly), you can use the initializer method in config/application.rb to define initializers for the application.

6.2 Initializers

Below is a comprehensive list of all the initializers found in Rails in the order that they are defined (and therefore run in, unless otherwise stated).

  • load_environment_hook: Serves as a placeholder so that :load_environment_config can be defined to run before it.

  • load_active_support: Requires active_support/dependencies which sets up the basis for Active Support. Optionally requires active_support/all if config.active_support.bare is un-truthful, which is the default.

  • initialize_logger: Initializes the logger (an ActiveSupport::Logger object) for the application and makes it accessible at Rails.logger, provided that no initializer inserted before this point has defined Rails.logger.

  • initialize_cache: If Rails.cache isn't set yet, initializes the cache by referencing the value in config.cache_store and stores the outcome as Rails.cache. If this object responds to the middleware method, its middleware is inserted before Rack::Runtime in the middleware stack.

  • set_clear_dependencies_hook: This initializer - which runs only if cache_classes is set to false - uses ActionDispatch::Callbacks.after to remove the constants which have been referenced during the request from the object space so that they will be reloaded during the following request.

  • bootstrap_hook: Runs all configured before_initialize blocks.

  • i18n.callbacks: In the development environment, sets up a to_prepare callback which will call I18n.reload! if any of the locales have changed since the last request. In production this callback will only run on the first request.

  • active_support.deprecation_behavior: Sets up deprecation reporting for environments, defaulting to :log for development, :silence for production, and :stderr for test. Can be set to an array of values. This initializer also sets up behaviors for disallowed deprecations, defaulting to :raise for development and test and :silence for production. Disallowed deprecation warnings default to an empty array.

  • active_support.initialize_time_zone: Sets the default time zone for the application based on the config.time_zone setting, which defaults to "UTC".

  • active_support.initialize_beginning_of_week: Sets the default beginning of week for the application based on config.beginning_of_week setting, which defaults to :monday.

  • active_support.set_configs: Sets up Active Support by using the settings in config.active_support by send'ing the method names as setters to ActiveSupport and passing the values through.

  • action_dispatch.configure: Configures the ActionDispatch::Http::URL.tld_length to be set to the value of config.action_dispatch.tld_length.

  • action_view.set_configs: Sets up Action View by using the settings in config.action_view by send'ing the method names as setters to ActionView::Base and passing the values through.

  • action_controller.assets_config: Initializes the config.action_controller.assets_dir to the app's public directory if not explicitly configured.

  • action_controller.set_helpers_path: Sets Action Controller's helpers_path to the application's helpers_path.

  • action_controller.parameters_config: Configures strong parameters options for ActionController::Parameters.

  • action_controller.set_configs: Sets up Action Controller by using the settings in config.action_controller by send'ing the method names as setters to ActionController::Base and passing the values through.

  • action_controller.compile_config_methods: Initializes methods for the config settings specified so that they are quicker to access.

  • active_record.initialize_timezone: Sets ActiveRecord::Base.time_zone_aware_attributes to true, as well as setting ActiveRecord::Base.default_timezone to UTC. When attributes are read from the database, they will be converted into the time zone specified by Time.zone.

  • active_record.logger: Sets ActiveRecord::Base.logger - if it's not already set - to Rails.logger.

  • active_record.migration_error: Configures middleware to check for pending migrations.

  • active_record.check_schema_cache_dump: Loads the schema cache dump if configured and available.

  • active_record.warn_on_records_fetched_greater_than: Enables warnings when queries return large numbers of records.

  • active_record.set_configs: Sets up Active Record by using the settings in config.active_record by send'ing the method names as setters to ActiveRecord::Base and passing the values through.

  • active_record.initialize_database: Loads the database configuration (by default) from config/database.yml and establishes a connection for the current environment.

  • active_record.log_runtime: Includes ActiveRecord::Railties::ControllerRuntime which is responsible for reporting the time taken by Active Record calls for the request back to the logger.

  • active_record.set_reloader_hooks: Resets all reloadable connections to the database if config.cache_classes is set to false.

  • active_record.add_watchable_files: Adds schema.rb and structure.sql files to watchable files.

  • active_job.logger: Sets ActiveJob::Base.logger - if it's not already set - to Rails.logger.

  • active_job.set_configs: Sets up Active Job by using the settings in config.active_job by send'ing the method names as setters to ActiveJob::Base and passing the values through.

  • action_mailer.logger: Sets ActionMailer::Base.logger - if it's not already set - to Rails.logger.

  • action_mailer.set_configs: Sets up Action Mailer by using the settings in config.action_mailer by send'ing the method names as setters to ActionMailer::Base and passing the values through.

  • action_mailer.compile_config_methods: Initializes methods for the config settings specified so that they are quicker to access.

  • set_load_path: This initializer runs before bootstrap_hook. Adds paths specified by config.load_paths and all autoload paths to $LOAD_PATH.

  • set_autoload_paths: This initializer runs before bootstrap_hook. Adds all sub-directories of app and paths specified by config.autoload_paths, config.eager_load_paths and config.autoload_once_paths to ActiveSupport::Dependencies.autoload_paths.

  • add_routing_paths: Loads (by default) all config/routes.rb files (in the application and railties, including engines) and sets up the routes for the application.

  • add_locales: Adds the files in config/locales (from the application, railties, and engines) to I18n.load_path, making available the translations in these files.

  • add_view_paths: Adds the directory app/views from the application, railties, and engines to the lookup path for view files for the application.

  • load_environment_config: Loads the config/environments file for the current environment.

  • prepend_helpers_path: Adds the directory app/helpers from the application, railties, and engines to the lookup path for helpers for the application.

  • load_config_initializers: Loads all Ruby files from config/initializers in the application, railties, and engines. The files in this directory can be used to hold configuration settings that should be made after all of the frameworks are loaded.

  • engines_blank_point: Provides a point-in-initialization to hook into if you wish to do anything before engines are loaded. After this point, all railtie and engine initializers are run.

  • add_generator_templates: Finds templates for generators at lib/templates for the application, railties, and engines, and adds these to the config.generators.templates setting, which will make the templates available for all generators to reference.

  • ensure_autoload_once_paths_as_subset: Ensures that the config.autoload_once_paths only contains paths from config.autoload_paths. If it contains extra paths, then an exception will be raised.

  • add_to_prepare_blocks: The block for every config.to_prepare call in the application, a railtie, or engine is added to the to_prepare callbacks for Action Dispatch which will be run per request in development, or before the first request in production.

  • add_builtin_route: If the application is running under the development environment then this will append the route for rails/info/properties to the application routes. This route provides the detailed information such as Rails and Ruby version for public/index.html in a default Rails application.

  • build_middleware_stack: Builds the middleware stack for the application, returning an object which has a call method which takes a Rack environment object for the request.

  • eager_load!: If config.eager_load is true, runs the config.before_eager_load hooks and then calls eager_load! which will load all config.eager_load_namespaces.

  • finisher_hook: Provides a hook for after the initialization of process of the application is complete, as well as running all the config.after_initialize blocks for the application, railties, and engines.

  • set_routes_reloader_hook: Configures Action Dispatch to reload the routes file using ActiveSupport::Callbacks.to_run.

  • disable_dependency_loading: Disables the automatic dependency loading if the config.eager_load is set to true.

7 Database pooling

Active Record database connections are managed by ActiveRecord::ConnectionAdapters::ConnectionPool which ensures that a connection pool synchronizes the amount of thread access to a limited number of database connections. This limit defaults to 5 and can be configured in database.yml.

development:
  adapter: sqlite3
  database: db/development.sqlite3
  pool: 5
  timeout: 5000

Since the connection pooling is handled inside of Active Record by default, all application servers (Thin, Puma, Unicorn, etc.) should behave the same. The database connection pool is initially empty. As demand for connections increases it will create them until it reaches the connection pool limit.

Any one request will check out a connection the first time it requires access to the database. At the end of the request it will check the connection back in. This means that the additional connection slot will be available again for the next request in the queue.

If you try to use more connections than are available, Active Record will block you and wait for a connection from the pool. If it cannot get a connection, a timeout error similar to that given below will be thrown.

ActiveRecord::ConnectionTimeoutError - could not obtain a database connection within 5.000 seconds (waited 5.000 seconds)

If you get the above error, you might want to increase the size of the connection pool by incrementing the pool option in database.yml

If you are running in a multi-threaded environment, there could be a chance that several threads may be accessing multiple connections simultaneously. So depending on your current request load, you could very well have multiple threads contending for a limited number of connections.

8 Custom configuration

You can configure your own code through the Rails configuration object with custom configuration under either the config.x namespace, or config directly. The key difference between these two is that you should be using config.x if you are defining nested configuration (ex: config.x.nested.hi), and just config for single level configuration (ex: config.hello).

config.x.payment_processing.schedule = :daily
config.x.payment_processing.retries  = 3
config.super_debugger = true

These configuration points are then available through the configuration object:

Rails.configuration.x.payment_processing.schedule # => :daily
Rails.configuration.x.payment_processing.retries  # => 3
Rails.configuration.x.payment_processing.not_set  # => nil
Rails.configuration.super_debugger                # => true

You can also use Rails::Application.config_for to load whole configuration files:

# config/payment.yml
production:
  environment: production
  merchant_id: production_merchant_id
  public_key:  production_public_key
  private_key: production_private_key

development:
  environment: sandbox
  merchant_id: development_merchant_id
  public_key:  development_public_key
  private_key: development_private_key

# config/application.rb
module MyApp
  class Application < Rails::Application
    config.payment = config_for(:payment)
  end
end

Rails.configuration.payment['merchant_id'] # => production_merchant_id or development_merchant_id

Rails::Application.config_for supports a shared configuration to group common configurations. The shared configuration will be merged into the environment configuration.

# config/example.yml
shared:
  foo:
    bar:
      baz: 1

development:
  foo:
    bar:
      qux: 2

# development environment
Rails.application.config_for(:example)[:foo][:bar] #=> { baz: 1, qux: 2 }

9 Search Engines Indexing

Sometimes, you may want to prevent some pages of your application to be visible on search sites like Google, Bing, Yahoo, or Duck Duck Go. The robots that index these sites will first analyze the http://your-site.com/robots.txt file to know which pages it is allowed to index.

Rails creates this file for you inside the /public folder. By default, it allows search engines to index all pages of your application. If you want to block indexing on all pages of your application, use this:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

To block just specific pages, it's necessary to use a more complex syntax. Learn it on the official documentation.

10 Evented File System Monitor

If the listen gem is loaded Rails uses an evented file system monitor to detect changes when config.cache_classes is false:

group :development do
  gem 'listen', '~> 3.3'
end

Otherwise, in every request Rails walks the application tree to check if anything has changed.

On Linux and macOS no additional gems are needed, but some are required for *BSD and for Windows.

Note that some setups are unsupported.

Feedback

You're encouraged to help improve the quality of this guide.

Please contribute if you see any typos or factual errors. To get started, you can read our documentation contributions section.

You may also find incomplete content or stuff that is not up to date. Please do add any missing documentation for main. Make sure to check Edge Guides first to verify if the issues are already fixed or not on the main branch. Check the Ruby on Rails Guides Guidelines for style and conventions.

If for whatever reason you spot something to fix but cannot patch it yourself, please open an issue.

And last but not least, any kind of discussion regarding Ruby on Rails documentation is very welcome on the rubyonrails-docs mailing list.