Richard KorantengDatabase Engineering
Guide

Vagrant Up Throws Undefined Method Error

undefined method `exists?' for class File (NoMethodError)

1 min read
Vagrant Up throws NoMethodError
Symptom

vagrant up fails with undefined method `exists?' for class File (NoMethodError).

Cause

Ruby 3.2 removed File.exists?, but the vagrant-vbguest plugin still calls it.

Fix

Patch line 84 of the plugin's virtualbox.rb to use File.exist?, then rerun vagrant up.

Applies to

Vagrant with VirtualBox, vagrant-vbguest 0.32.0, Ruby 3.2 and later

Issue

Seeing the following error when running 'vagrant up' on single-instance oracle vagrant file

text
undefined method `exists?' for class File (NoMethodError)

Cause

Small but critical Ruby API change. Ruby’s File.exists? method has been deprecated for years and was removed in Ruby 3.2+.

✅ Correct method:

ruby
File.exist?

❌ But the vagrant-vbguest plugin being used is calling the old method:

ruby
File.exists?

So the plugin fails when it tries to check for a file.

Solution

Manually patch the line that throws the error:

  1. open the file
text
C:/Users/your_user/.vagrant.d/gems/3.3.8/gems/vagrant-vbguest-0.32.0/lib/vagrant-vbguest/hosts/virtualbox.rb
  1. Find and change line 84
diff
- path && File.exists?(path)
+ path && File.exist?(path)
  1. Save the file and rerun vagrant up.