rake assets:precompile with NoMethodError: undefined method `tr' for nil:NilClass

Question

I have a simple rails app that I am trying to reply via Capistrano. The app works fine in development but fails on deploy. I traced it back to the assets:precompile step which also fails on my local machine. I have seen some other posts on sort of the same issues but nothing that really points me in the right direction.

I am not strong enough to figure out where to look next so any pointers would be appreciated.

Solara:myapp dan$ rake assets:precompile --trace
** Invoke assets:precompile (first_time)
** Invoke assets:environment (first_time)
** Execute assets:environment
** Invoke environment (first_time)
** Execute environment
rake aborted!
NoMethodError: undefined method `tr' for nil:NilClass
/Users/dan/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/activerecord-4.2.4/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/connection_specification.rb:37:in `initialize'
/Users/dan/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/activerecord-4.2.4/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/connection_specification.rb:270:in `new'
/Users/dan/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/activerecord-4.2.4/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/connection_specification.rb:270:in `resolve_url_connection'
/Users/dan/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/activerecord-4.2.4/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/connection_specification.rb:258:in `resolve_hash_connection'
/Users/dan/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/activerecord-4.2.4/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/connection_specification.rb:215:in `resolve_connection'
/Users/dan/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/activerecord-4.2.4/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/connection_specification.rb:139:in `resolve'
/Users/dan/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/activerecord-4.2.4/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/connection_specification.rb:151:in `block in resolve_all'
/Users/dan/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/activerecord-4.2.4/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/connection_specification.rb:150:in `each'
/Users/dan/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/activerecord-4.2.4/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/connection_specification.rb:150:in `resolve_all'
/Users/dan/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/activerecord-4.2.4/lib/active_record/connection_handling.rb:69:in `resolve'
/Users/dan/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/activerecord-4.2.4/lib/active_record/core.rb:46:in `configurations='
/Users/dan/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/activerecord-4.2.4/lib/active_record/railtie.rb:117:in `block (2 levels) in <class:Railtie>'
/Users/dan/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/activesupport-4.2.4/lib/active_support/lazy_load_hooks.rb:38:in `instance_eval'
/Users/dan/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/activesupport-4.2.4/lib/active_support/lazy_load_hooks.rb:38:in `execute_hook'
/Users/dan/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/activesupport-4.2.4/lib/active_support/lazy_load_hooks.rb:28:in `block in on_load'
/Users/dan/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/activesupport-4.2.4/lib/active_support/lazy_load_hooks.rb:27:in `each'
/Users/dan/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/activesupport-4.2.4/lib/active_support/lazy_load_hooks.rb:27:in `on_load'
/Users/dan/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/activerecord-4.2.4/lib/active_record/railtie.rb:116:in `block in <class:Railtie>'
/Users/dan/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/railties-4.2.4/lib/rails/initializable.rb:30:in `instance_exec'
/Users/dan/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/railties-4.2.4/lib/rails/initializable.rb:30:in `run'
/Users/dan/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/railties-4.2.4/lib/rails/initializable.rb:55:in `block in run_initializers'
/Users/dan/.rbenv/versions/2.2.0/lib/ruby/2.2.0/tsort.rb:226:in `block in tsort_each'
/Users/dan/.rbenv/versions/2.2.0/lib/ruby/2.2.0/tsort.rb:348:in `block (2 levels) in each_strongly_connected_component'
/Users/dan/.rbenv/versions/2.2.0/lib/ruby/2.2.0/tsort.rb:429:in `each_strongly_connected_component_from'
/Users/dan/.rbenv/versions/2.2.0/lib/ruby/2.2.0/tsort.rb:347:in `block in each_strongly_connected_component'
/Users/dan/.rbenv/versions/2.2.0/lib/ruby/2.2.0/tsort.rb:345:in `each'
/Users/dan/.rbenv/versions/2.2.0/lib/ruby/2.2.0/tsort.rb:345:in `call'
/Users/dan/.rbenv/versions/2.2.0/lib/ruby/2.2.0/tsort.rb:345:in `each_strongly_connected_component'
/Users/dan/.rbenv/versions/2.2.0/lib/ruby/2.2.0/tsort.rb:224:in `tsort_each'
/Users/dan/.rbenv/versions/2.2.0/lib/ruby/2.2.0/tsort.rb:203:in `tsort_each'
/Users/dan/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/railties-4.2.4/lib/rails/initializable.rb:54:in `run_initializers'
/Users/dan/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/railties-4.2.4/lib/rails/application.rb:352:in `initialize!'
/Users/dan/Rails/myapp/config/environment.rb:5:in `<top (required)>'
/Users/dan/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/activesupport-4.2.4/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:274:in `require'
/Users/dan/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/activesupport-4.2.4/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:274:in `block in require'
/Users/dan/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/activesupport-4.2.4/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:240:in `load_dependency'
/Users/dan/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/activesupport-4.2.4/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:274:in `require'
/Users/dan/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/railties-4.2.4/lib/rails/application.rb:328:in `require_environment!'
/Users/dan/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/railties-4.2.4/lib/rails/application.rb:457:in `block in run_tasks_blocks'
/Users/dan/.rbenv/versions/2.2.0/lib/ruby/2.2.0/rake/task.rb:240:in `call'
/Users/dan/.rbenv/versions/2.2.0/lib/ruby/2.2.0/rake/task.rb:240:in `block in execute'
/Users/dan/.rbenv/versions/2.2.0/lib/ruby/2.2.0/rake/task.rb:235:in `each'
/Users/dan/.rbenv/versions/2.2.0/lib/ruby/2.2.0/rake/task.rb:235:in `execute'
/Users/dan/.rbenv/versions/2.2.0/lib/ruby/2.2.0/rake/task.rb:179:in `block in invoke_with_call_chain'
/Users/dan/.rbenv/versions/2.2.0/lib/ruby/2.2.0/monitor.rb:211:in `mon_synchronize'
/Users/dan/.rbenv/versions/2.2.0/lib/ruby/2.2.0/rake/task.rb:172:in `invoke_with_call_chain'
/Users/dan/.rbenv/versions/2.2.0/lib/ruby/2.2.0/rake/task.rb:165:in `invoke'
/Users/dan/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/sprockets-rails-2.3.3/lib/sprockets/rails/task.rb:64:in `block (2 levels) in define'
/Users/dan/.rbenv/versions/2.2.0/lib/ruby/2.2.0/rake/task.rb:240:in `call'
/Users/dan/.rbenv/versions/2.2.0/lib/ruby/2.2.0/rake/task.rb:240:in `block in execute'
/Users/dan/.rbenv/versions/2.2.0/lib/ruby/2.2.0/rake/task.rb:235:in `each'
/Users/dan/.rbenv/versions/2.2.0/lib/ruby/2.2.0/rake/task.rb:235:in `execute'
/Users/dan/.rbenv/versions/2.2.0/lib/ruby/2.2.0/rake/task.rb:179:in `block in invoke_with_call_chain'
/Users/dan/.rbenv/versions/2.2.0/lib/ruby/2.2.0/monitor.rb:211:in `mon_synchronize'
/Users/dan/.rbenv/versions/2.2.0/lib/ruby/2.2.0/rake/task.rb:172:in `invoke_with_call_chain'
/Users/dan/.rbenv/versions/2.2.0/lib/ruby/2.2.0/rake/task.rb:201:in `block in invoke_prerequisites'
/Users/dan/.rbenv/versions/2.2.0/lib/ruby/2.2.0/rake/task.rb:199:in `each'
/Users/dan/.rbenv/versions/2.2.0/lib/ruby/2.2.0/rake/task.rb:199:in `invoke_prerequisites'
/Users/dan/.rbenv/versions/2.2.0/lib/ruby/2.2.0/rake/task.rb:178:in `block in invoke_with_call_chain'
/Users/dan/.rbenv/versions/2.2.0/lib/ruby/2.2.0/monitor.rb:211:in `mon_synchronize'
/Users/dan/.rbenv/versions/2.2.0/lib/ruby/2.2.0/rake/task.rb:172:in `invoke_with_call_chain'
/Users/dan/.rbenv/versions/2.2.0/lib/ruby/2.2.0/rake/task.rb:165:in `invoke'
/Users/dan/.rbenv/versions/2.2.0/lib/ruby/2.2.0/rake/application.rb:150:in `invoke_task'
/Users/dan/.rbenv/versions/2.2.0/lib/ruby/2.2.0/rake/application.rb:106:in `block (2 levels) in top_level'
/Users/dan/.rbenv/versions/2.2.0/lib/ruby/2.2.0/rake/application.rb:106:in `each'
/Users/dan/.rbenv/versions/2.2.0/lib/ruby/2.2.0/rake/application.rb:106:in `block in top_level'
/Users/dan/.rbenv/versions/2.2.0/lib/ruby/2.2.0/rake/application.rb:115:in `run_with_threads'
/Users/dan/.rbenv/versions/2.2.0/lib/ruby/2.2.0/rake/application.rb:100:in `top_level'
/Users/dan/.rbenv/versions/2.2.0/lib/ruby/2.2.0/rake/application.rb:78:in `block in run'
/Users/dan/.rbenv/versions/2.2.0/lib/ruby/2.2.0/rake/application.rb:176:in `standard_exception_handling'
/Users/dan/.rbenv/versions/2.2.0/lib/ruby/2.2.0/rake/application.rb:75:in `run'
/Users/dan/.rbenv/versions/2.2.0/bin/rake:33:in `<main>'
Tasks: TOP => environment
Solara:wingnut dan$ 

Answer 1

Looks like a problem w/ your database settings, probably in config/database.yml

Here is the code that's throwing an error:

# == Example
#
#   url = "postgresql://foo:bar@localhost:9000/foo_test?pool=5&timeout=3000"
#   ConnectionUrlResolver.new(url).to_hash
#   # => {
#     "adapter"  => "postgresql",
#     "host"     => "localhost",
#     "port"     => 9000,
#     "database" => "foo_test",
#     "username" => "foo",
#     "password" => "bar",
#     "pool"     => "5",
#     "timeout"  => "3000"
#   }
def initialize(url)
  raise "Database URL cannot be empty" if url.blank?
  @uri     = uri_parser.parse(url)
  @adapter = @uri.scheme.tr('-', '_')

So for some reason it can't figure out what type of database you're trying to connect to (like PostgreSQL). If you continue having problems, please post the content of you database.yml file remembering to remove your passwords.