It’s been a little while that I have decided to always extract my gem binaries into my rails application “bin” path. That way, I always execute binaries by specifying the relative path. For example “./bin/rails g model User”. At first I wasn’t sure about the idea. I was like: “Wait a minute! I will have to type “./bin/” all the time?! It will get annoying really fast!”. This turned to be an unfounded fear. Having to type “./bin/rails” or “./bin/rake” is a good thing and it feels really natural. When you do this, there is no magic involved: you know exactly WHICH binary is going to be executed.

Isn’t it exactly like typing “bundle exec” ?

Yes, you’re right… it’s more or less the same thing. But I find that having to type “./bin/” is even more obvious. Believe me, you will get the hang of it quickly. Anyway, with TAB completion, it’s not like you have to type “./bin” really. It will look more like “./b” then TAB. It becomes second nature really fast.

Wow! This is the discovery of the century! I’m sold, how can I do this ? (end sarcasm)

Whenever you update your Gemfile, you do
bundle –binstubs