Rails 5 improves route search with advanced options

rails routes shows all the routes in the application.

1
2$ rake routes
3
4Prefix       Verb   URI Pattern                   Controller#Action
5wishlist_user GET    /users/:id/wishlist(.:format) users#wishlist
6        users GET    /users(.:format)              users#index
7              POST   /users(.:format)              users#create
8     new_user GET    /users/new(.:format)          users#new
9    edit_user GET    /users/:id/edit(.:format)     users#edit
10         user GET    /users/:id(.:format)          users#show
11              PATCH  /users/:id(.:format)          users#update
12              PUT    /users/:id(.:format)          users#update
13              DELETE /users/:id(.:format)          users#destroy
14     products GET    /products(.:format)           products#index
15              POST   /products(.:format)           products#create
16and so on ......
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This list can be lengthy and it could be difficult to locate exactly what user is looking for.

Ways to search specific routes prior to Rails 5

To see only specific routes we can use commands like grep.

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2$ rake routes | grep products
3Prefix       Verb   URI Pattern                   Controller#Action
4products      GET    /products(.:format)           products#index
5              POST   /products(.:format)           products#create
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Options with Rails 5

Rails 5 has added options in rails routes to perform pattern matching on routes.

Controller specific search

Use option -c to search for routes related to controller. Also remember that Rails does case insensitive search. So rails routes -c users is same as rails routes -c Users.

1
2# Search for Controller name
3$ rails routes -c users
4       Prefix Verb   URI Pattern                   Controller#Action
5wishlist_user GET    /users/:id/wishlist(.:format) users#wishlist
6        users GET    /users(.:format)              users#index
7              POST   /users(.:format)              users#create
8
9# Search for namespaced Controller name.
10$ rails routes -c admin/users
11         Prefix Verb   URI Pattern                     Controller#Action
12    admin_users GET    /admin/users(.:format)          admin/users#index
13                POST   /admin/users(.:format)          admin/users#create
14
15# Search for namespaced Controller name.
16$ rails routes -c Admin::UsersController
17         Prefix Verb   URI Pattern                     Controller#Action
18    admin_users GET    /admin/users(.:format)          admin/users#index
19                POST   /admin/users(.:format)          admin/users#create
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Pattern specific search

Use -g option to do general purpose pattern matching. This results in any routes that partially matches Prefix, Controller#Action or the URI pattern.

1
2# Search with pattern
3$ rails routes -g wishlist
4       Prefix Verb URI Pattern                   Controller#Action
5wishlist_user GET  /users/:id/wishlist(.:format) users#wishlist
6
7# Search with HTTP Verb
8$ rails routes -g POST
9    Prefix Verb URI Pattern            Controller#Action
10           POST /users(.:format)       users#create
11           POST /admin/users(.:format) admin/users#create
12           POST /products(.:format)    products#create
13
14# Search with URI pattern
15$ rails routes -g admin
16       Prefix Verb   URI Pattern                     Controller#Action
17  admin_users GET    /admin/users(.:format)          admin/users#index
18              POST   /admin/users(.:format)          admin/users#create
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Note that using CONTROLLER=some_controller has now been deprecated. This had the same effect as searching for a controller specific route.