Understanding the Ruby on Rails CLI

Ruby on Rails is such a vast framework. The Ruby on Rails CLI makes working with the framework that much easier. This video/article is the result of my own trials and tribulations while learning the framework.

Understanding the Rails CLI is beyond helpful when first creating a new application. Once you have Rails itself installed, you can open up a new terminal window and type rails. There, a large list of options will appear to help guide you with setting up your app for the first time. The available options are virtually endless which makes configuring your app a walk in the park.

In my video example I created a new ruby on rails application by running:

$ rails new demo_api --skip-coffee -T --webpack=vue --api

This scaffolds a new app whilst doing the following changes:

• --skip-coffee - skips using CoffeeScript and opts for regular javascript instead.
• -T - skips adding any new tests when a model or resource is generated.
• --webpack=vue - This tells rails to utilize webpack (which is now built in if you want it) and also installs/configures the Vue.js front-end javascript framework
• --api - Configures the new application to be API only so every controller renders json and there are no views besides mailers.

While this list is a great start, there are even more options you could pass to enhance or "dehance" your app depending on what it is you are looking to build.

Within a new application

Having created your new app you can again run rails alone within your root app directory. This presents another long list of commands available. My demo app created in the video has the following. There's a lot of creating commands here that make our lives as ruby on rails developers that much easier. I invite you to get to know them more so your workflow can be faster.

The most common rails commands are:
 generate     Generate new code (short-cut alias: "g")
 console      Start the Rails console (short-cut alias: "c")
 server       Start the Rails server (short-cut alias: "s")
 test         Run tests except system tests (short-cut alias: "t")
 test:system  Run system tests
 dbconsole    Start a console for the database specified in config/database.yml
              (short-cut alias: "db")

 new          Create a new Rails application. "rails new my_app" creates a
              new application called MyApp in "./my_app"


All commands can be run with -h (or --help) for more information.
In addition to those commands, there are:

Rails:
  console
  credentials:edit
  credentials:show
  dbconsole
  destroy
  encrypted:edit
  encrypted:show
  generate
  new
  runner
  secrets:edit
  secrets:setup
  secrets:show
  server
  test
  version

Rake:
  about
  active_storage:install
  app:template
  app:update
  db:create
  db:drop
  db:environment:set
  db:fixtures:load
  db:migrate
  db:migrate:status
  db:rollback
  db:schema:cache:clear
  db:schema:cache:dump
  db:schema:dump
  db:schema:load
  db:seed
  db:setup
  db:structure:dump
  db:structure:load
  db:version
  dev:cache
  initializers
  log:clear
  middleware
  notes
  notes:custom
  restart
  routes
  secret
  stats
  time:zones[country_or_offset]
  tmp:clear
  tmp:create
  webpacker
  webpacker:binstubs
  webpacker:check_binstubs
  webpacker:check_node
  webpacker:check_yarn
  webpacker:clobber
  webpacker:compile
  webpacker:info
  webpacker:install
  webpacker:install:angular
  webpacker:install:coffee
  webpacker:install:elm
  webpacker:install:erb
  webpacker:install:react
  webpacker:install:stimulus
  webpacker:install:typescript
  webpacker:install:vue
  webpacker:verify_install
  webpacker:yarn_install
  yarn:install

Closing thoughts

The CLI built into Ruby on Rails was all too daunting to me when I first started. Over time, and after building a few apps, I have grown to love what it offers. Quickly configuring things, generating things, deleting things, and more are all too possible using the command line tool. If you are a newcomer to Ruby on Rails you should fiddle with the CLI a bit on a test project to see what you can come up with. Break things and rebuilt them again. This is the best way to learn.

Related videos

• A Guide to Using Ruby on Rails Application Templates

Shameless plugs

If you liked this post, I have many more builds on YouTube and my blog. I plan to start authoring more here as well. Want more content like this in your inbox? Subscribe to my newsletter and get it automatically.

☝ Want to learn Ruby on Rails from the ground up? Check out my upcoming course called Hello Rails