Switching between projects where some use spring and some don't

First, setup spring per the installation instructions, making sure to perform the binstubs step:

bundle exec spring binstub --all

Now, the challenge becomes: how do I use one method to execute spring-driven commands in this project and non-spring-driven commands in other projects that don't use spring.

One solution (for bash shell):

# .bash_profile
rakec()   { type ./bin/rake >/dev/null; if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then ./bin/rake $*; else bundle exec rake $*; fi }
railsc()  { type ./bin/rails >/dev/null; if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then ./bin/rails $*; else rails $*; fi }

The naming I used here is just short for "rake command" and "rails command" -- use whatever you'd like. What the commands do is, they'll check if there's a binstub in the current project for the associated rake / rails command, and, if so, use it. Otherwise it defaults to the standard bundle exec rake / rails commands.

Now you can use the rakec and railsc commands directly, or integrate them into your own macros. For example:

# .bash_profile
rc() { railsc console $*; }
rs() { railsc server $*; }
rg() { railsc generate $*; }

rr() { rakec routes; }
rt() { rakec test $*; }
rtprep() { rakec db:test:prepare; }