---
title: But I Don't Want to `bundle exec`
teaser: 'What if `bundle exec` increases your development time? Avoid it now to eliminate
  extra mental effort.

  '
tags: ruby,rake
author: Bosun Olanrewaju
published_on: 2015-11-02
---

I have seen a number of [discussions][3] on different forums about `bundle exec
rake` vs `rake`. Best practice is that you run your executable scripts with
bundle exec.

Recently when running `rake` on a project I'd just joined, I ran into an odd
error related to different versions of gems being activated. However, `RubyGems`
was friendly enough to suggest a potential solution to my problem: use `bundle
exec`.

```bash
$ rake
rake aborted!
Gem::LoadError: You have already activated rake 10.4.2, but your Gemfile requires rake 10.4.0. Prepending `bundle exec` to your command may solve this.
```

Before taking up the suggestion, I checked the Gemfile and found that the rake
version specified was different from the one installed systemwide. So I ran rake
once again, this time with `bundle exec` prepended.

```bash
$ bundle exec rake
...............................................

47 examples, 0 failures
```

## Troubleshooting

Moving forward, I thought I needed to know the exact rake version that was used
to execute the test tasks. Running `rake --version` gives the version of the
rake install systemwide. So I ran it...

```bash
$ rake --version
rake, version 10.4.2
```

This is the systemwide version of rake installed. Running it again with `bundle
exec` prepended gave the version of the rake specified in the app's Gemfile.

```bash
$ bundle exec rake --version
rake, version 10.4.0
```

This confirms what has been stated on [bundler's website][1]<sup>[1](#fn1)</sup>
and also, the first paragraph of this article - why it is important to run your
executables with bundle exec.

## But, what if I don't want to `bundle exec`?

Lazy? Some programmers believe it is too much extra work to prepend `rake` every
time with `bundle exec`. Well, it’s not a bad thing to be a lazy programmer. The
benefit of being lazy is that you get things done in the smartest, shortest way
possible. This is because you tend to avoid doing too much.

So as lazy as you want to be, if you want to run `rake` without typing `bundle
exec` you might want to consider using [bundler's binstubs][4]. For `rbenv` and
`chruby` users, you can automatically [get binstubs in your][5] `$PATH` by
running `mkdir -p .git/safe && export PATH=".git/safe/../../bin:$PATH"` while
`rvm` users can follow the steps [in our prior blog post][2]. This means after
integrating binstubs, you won't have to type `bundle exec` ever again.

Another thing developers do is to set an `alias` for `bundle exec` in their
computer's `.bash_profile` or `.zshrc` for zsh. If you want to go with the alias
method, before you set the alias for `bundle exec`, check if the alias you want
use has not been set for another command. Running `alias <your_alias>` in zsh
returns the command set for the alias if it already exist. In our case let's
check for `be`.

```bash
$ alias be
$
```

Returning nothing shows that it is free to use. Now, we would add `alias
be='bundle exec'` to `.bash_profile` or `.zshrc` and run our executables with
`be` prepended to the commands just like this: `be rake`. You can load the
edited file to the current shell session by running `source .zshrc` or restart
your shell session to reload the file - opening a new tab or window should do.

```bash
$ be rake
...............................................

47 examples, 0 failures
```

Whether you use [binstubs][4] or `alias` method, you can now eliminate extra
mental effort by running your executable without explicitly preprending the
command with `bundle exec`.

## Footnotes

<a id="fn1">1.</a>

> In some cases, running executables without bundle exec may work, if the
executable happens to be installed in your system and does not pull in any gems
that conflict with your bundle. However, this is unreliable and is the source of
considerable pain. Even if it looks like it works, it may not work in the future
or on another machine.

[1]: http://bundler.io/
[2]: https://thoughtbot.com/blog/use-bundlers-binstubs
[3]: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8275885/use-bundle-exec-rake-or-just-rake
[4]: http://bundler.io/v1.7/bundle_binstubs.html
[5]: http://raygrasso.com/posts/2015/02/making-chruby-and-binstubs-play-nice.html
[6]: http://bash.cyberciti.biz/guide/Source_command