Rails 3 Quicktip: Autoload lib directory including all subdirectories, avoid lazy loading

Rails 3 Quicktip: Autoload lib directory including all subdirectories, avoid lazy loading

Posted on September 22, 2010

Rails 3 doesn’t autoload files under the lib directory anymore (aka lazy loading). There was quite a discussion about this controversial decision, while lazy loading can be very good and useful, it is also convenient to not have to include every file/folder manually. Fortunately, there is an easy way to enable autoloading again. While most solutions on the Internet only show how to load one directory, here is a solution thatautoloads lib including all subdirectories on startup.
Put this in config/application.rb:

      
      

       
       # application.rb
      
      
      
      

       
       

      
      
      
      

       
       # Custom directories with classes and modules you want to be autoloadable.
      
      
      
      

       
       # config.autoload_paths += %W(#{config.root}/extras)
      
      
      
      

       
       config
       
       .
       
       autoload_paths 
       
       += 
       
       %W(
       
       #{
       
       config
       
       .
       
       root
       
       }
       
       /lib)
      
      
      
      

       
       config
       
       .
       
       autoload_paths 
       
       += 
       
       Dir
       
       [
       
       "
       
       #{
       
       config
       
       .
       
       root
       
       }
       
       /lib/**/"
       
       ]
      
      

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