awesome-print/awesome_print · warning

Could not load '.aprc' from ENV['HOME']: #{e}

Error message

Could not load '.aprc' from ENV['HOME']: #{e}

What it means

AwesomePrint prints this warning to stderr when it cannot load or apply your personal config file ~/.aprc. Every ap/ai call builds an AwesomePrint::Inspector, whose initialize calls merge_custom_defaults!: it Ruby-`load`s #{ENV['HOME']}/.aprc (inspector.rb:148) and then merges AwesomePrint.defaults into the options. Any StandardError raised in that process — ENV['HOME'] being nil inside File.join, a runtime error while executing .aprc, or a :color default that is not a Hash making @options[:color].merge! raise TypeError — is rescued, the original exception is embedded via #{e}, and the library silently falls back to built-in defaults. Nothing crashes; your custom defaults are simply ignored (a pure Ruby syntax error in .aprc raises SyntaxError, which this rescue does not catch at all).

Source

Thrown at lib/awesome_print/inspector.rb:166

      dotfile = File.join(ENV['HOME'], '.aprc')
      load dotfile if dotfile_readable?(dotfile)
    end

    def dotfile_readable? dotfile
      if @@dotfile_readable.nil? || @@dotfile != dotfile
        @@dotfile_readable = File.readable?(@@dotfile = dotfile)
      end
      @@dotfile_readable
    end
    @@dotfile_readable = @@dotfile = nil

    # Load ~/.aprc file with custom defaults that override default options.
    #---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    def merge_custom_defaults!
      load_dotfile
      merge_options!(AwesomePrint.defaults) if AwesomePrint.defaults.is_a?(Hash)
    rescue => e
      $stderr.puts "Could not load '.aprc' from ENV['HOME']: #{e}"
    end
  end
end

View on GitHub (pinned to 8a7ff0aaba)

Solutions

1. Read the tail of the message: the #{e} part carries the real underlying exception (e.g. 'no implicit conversion of nil into String' or 'uninitialized constant') — fix that cause, not awesome_print.
2. Verify the dotfile standalone: ruby -c ~/.aprc for syntax, then ruby -e "load File.expand_path('~/.aprc')" to reproduce any runtime error outside your app.
3. If HOME is unset (CI/container/service), set it before any printing: export HOME in the CI config, or add ENV['HOME'] ||= Dir.home early in boot.
4. Fix the defaults shape — :color must be a nested Hash: AwesomePrint.defaults = { color: { string: :redish }, indent: -2 }.
5. Still unexplained? Rename ~/.aprc to ~/.aprc.bak and re-run; if the warning disappears, bisect the dotfile line by line.

Example fix

# before (~/.aprc) — :color is a Symbol, merge_options! raises TypeError on every ap
AwesomePrint.defaults = { color: :blue, indent: 2 }

# after — :color is a Hash, loads cleanly
AwesomePrint.defaults = { color: { string: :blue }, indent: 2 }

# Run once at boot, before the first ap/ai call
aprc = File.join(ENV['HOME'].to_s, '.aprc')
if File.readable?(aprc)
  RubyVM::InstructionSequence.compile_file(aprc) # surfaces SyntaxError early, with a line number
  load aprc                                       # surfaces runtime errors now, not on every print
end
if AwesomePrint.defaults.is_a?(Hash) && AwesomePrint.defaults.key?(:color) && !AwesomePrint.defaults[:color].is_a?(Hash)
  raise ArgumentError, 'AwesomePrint.defaults[:color] must be a Hash'
end

def valid_aprc_defaults?
  d = AwesomePrint.defaults
  d.nil? || (d.is_a?(Hash) && (d[:color].nil? || d[:color].is_a?(Hash)))
end

raise 'bad .aprc defaults shape' unless valid_aprc_defaults?

When it happens

Trigger: Calling ap(anything) or object.ai in a process where ENV['HOME'] is nil (File.join(nil, '.aprc') raises TypeError: no implicit conversion of nil into String); a ~/.aprc whose Ruby raises StandardError when loaded, e.g. referencing an app constant undefined outside the app (NameError); AwesomePrint.defaults = { color: :blue } (non-Hash :color) making merge_options! at inspector.rb:140 call @options[:color].merge!(:blue) (TypeError); File.readable? raising Errno (EACCES/ENOENT) because $HOME points to an unreadable or stale path.

Common situations: CI runners, Docker containers, cron jobs, or systemd services where HOME is unset or scrubbed from the environment; a .aprc tuned inside a Rails console (referencing Rails/app constants) then used in plain ruby or irb; hand-edited .aprc with a typo or wrong defaults shape; shared dotfiles copied between machines with different users and permissions.

Related errors

• (Object doesn't support #ai)

AI-assisted analysis of awesome-print/awesome_print@8a7ff0aaba (2026-08-23). Data as JSON: /api/errors/633145db27047b66. Report an issue: GitHub.