Rails 2.1.1: Lots of bug fixes
Posted by David September 05, 2008 @ 09:19 AM
Rails 2.1.1 is another maintenance release that includes a bunch of bug fixes and a fix for the REXML vulnerability. I’ve extracted all the changes from the CHANGELOGs into a single Gist. Enjoy!
To install, just do: gem install rails --version 2.1.1.
Next upcoming release will be Rails 2.2 beta which is quite close.

Thanks to eveybody involved! Seems to work fine for me.
Can’t wait to try out 2.2
Good Deal
Thanks, thats good news! Especially that the 2.2 beta is close. ;)
Wow. Rails is getting better every day.
2.1.1 dies badly for me on OS X 10.5.4 with Ruby 1.8.6 installed from MacPorts.
See http://gist.github.com/8981 for the details.
I will tinker and see if I can work out what’s happening over the weekend.
Seems that the REXML fix is checking the REXML version using REXML::VERSION, but it’s actually defined as REXML::Version in some cases.
You can’t freeze to 2.1.1 yet. :(
Added the 2.1.1 tag. We’ll look into the REXML Version/VERSION thing.
Did version 2.1.1 get released before version 2.1?
I’m so confused.
@Tim 2.1 has been out for several months. I think you are confusing it with 2.2.
2.1 added Named Scopes, Timestamped migrations, etc.
When is the release date of Rails 2.2 then?
Thanks! I tried out most of the exciting features of 2.1, but eagerly waiting for the stable 2.2 for production
I find few problems with rails 2.1.1 and Netbeans 6.1. The rake file does not show any commands and neither of web server starts. I i change the option from Rails 2.1.1 to Rails 2.0.2 it works easily. Can some one guide me.
@WebReservoir I also use Netbeans 6.1, and all works fine for me. Web server (Mongrel 1.1.5) starts up with no errors. I’m on WinXP…
Thanks for this bugfix!
@eyp, Thanks for guiding me. I updated all the gems and now it works. But Unfortunately.. only Webrick works for me. Mongrel does not start….
@WebReservoir – try to update your Netbeans (Help -> Check for updates). Maybe it’ll help. On my machine (WinXP + Netbeans 6.1) Rails 2.1.1 seems working fine. Webrick starts via Netbeans without any problem.
so do we need the rexml-expansion-fix gem require now or not ?
Hoping this saves someone else a couple of hours of unsuccessful googling. If anyone else gets the REXML::VERSION (NameError) error when creating a project: Replace ‘VERSION’ with ‘Version’ at rexml.rb:8 (your path to the file should be displayed in the error message)
Trady, you don’t need that gem with 2.1.1 or 2.0.4.
If you use Ubuntu Dapper, which ships with Ruby 1.8.4, it includes an earlier version of the REXML library (for XML processing).
Unfortunately, the library that ships with 1.8.4 is slightly incorrect. Ruby conventions state that a constant should be all capitals so, quite rightly, the Rails updates check for a constant called REXML::VERSION. However, in 1.8.4, the constant is actually called REXML::Version meaning that Rails falls over with an “uninitialized constant REXML::VERSION” error.
The quick fix is to manually edit /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/rexml/rexml.rb and add a new (correctly named constant).
(From http://blog.brightbox.co.uk/posts/uninitialized-constant-rexmlversion-with-rails-211-and-rails-22)
i.e. add the line: VERSION = “3.1.3”
A better fix may be to use REXML::Version in activesupport/lib/active_support/core_ext/rexml.rb
REXML::Version appears to be deprecated, but is still available. REXML::VERSION is the newer variable.
good work…