root() public

Returns a Pathname object of the current Rails project, otherwise it returns nil if there is no project:

Rails.root
  # => #<Pathname:/Users/someuser/some/path/project>
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June 4, 2009
2 thanks

example

Ruby style

Dir[File.join(RAILS_ROOT, 'vendor', 'plugins', '*')]

Rails style

Dir[Rails.root.join('vendor', 'plugins', '*')]
February 25, 2010
2 thanks

Possible gotcha

This method returns a Pathname object which handles paths starting with a / as absolute (starting from the root of the filesystem). Compare:

>> Rails.root
=> #<Pathname:/some/path/to/project>
>> Rails.root + "file"
=> #<Pathname:/some/path/to/project/file>
>> Rails.root + "/file"
=> #<Pathname:/file>
>> Rails.root.join "file"
=> #<Pathname:/some/path/to/project/file>
>> Rails.root.join "/file"
=> #<Pathname:/file>