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Question

"app error: Missing `secret_token` and `secret_key_base` for 'production' environment"

  • Posted February 10, 2015

Using the 1-Click Ruby on Rails on Ubuntu 14.04 Image, I’m getting the following error on initial request to the app:

ERROR: app error: Missing `secret_token` and `secret_key_base` for 'production' environment, set these values in `config/secrets.yml` (RuntimeError)

my config/secrets.yml file includes the following:

# Do not keep production secrets in the repository,
# instead read values from the environment.
production:
  secret_key_base: <%= ENV["SECRET_KEY_BASE"] %>
  secret_token: <%= ENV["SECRET_KEY_BASE"] %>

and I’ve set ENV["SECRET_KEY_BASE"]

stack: ‘rails’, ‘4.2.0’ ruby ‘2.1.3’ unicorn (4.8.3)

all my reading says that secret_token is no longer used in Rails 4.2.

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ewelinaw • February 11, 2015

I have the same with rails 4.1.1 env is set but error still appears (only sector key, no token)

l0c0luke • February 11, 2015

I am having this same problem with same versions. Will wait with you.

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jfuentes • January 2, 2016

Include in /etc/default/unicorn export SECRET_KEY_BASE=your_code

Preen • April 28, 2015

I use this with capistrano. it works nice:

I create a file: config/local_env.yml, put my variables there

and then in application rb

config.before_configuration do env_file = File.join(Rails.root, ‘config’, ‘local_env.yml’) YAML.load(File.open(env_file)).each do |key, value| ENV[key.to_s] = value end if File.exists?(env_file) end

michael.trojanek • April 20, 2015

I can refute Unicorn not being able to read environment variables.

I am using a similar stack (rbenv, nginx, Unicorn) on CentOS machines and I set environment variables with rbenv-vars (although I have been using custom scripts in /etc/profile.d and they also worked like a charm).

I published an article about Rails and environment variables yesterday (http://www.relativkreativ.at/articles/what-you-should-now-before-setting-environment-variables-for-your-rails-application) – while it does not solve your problem, it may point you in the right direction …

cosmicfires • February 24, 2015

The solution is to set SECRET_KEY_BASE in /etc/apache2/envvars (ubuntu 14.04) or wherever your webserver’s environment variables are set.

lhagemann • February 11, 2015

The only solution I found was to put the secret_key_base && secret_token values directly into secrets.yml.

apparently Unicorn can’t read from the Environment Variables. (I have nothing to back that up, only conjecture and a comment on StackOverflow which identified that as a solution to a similar issue)