Question

By using devise for user_auth it sets up some default routes (e.g. /user/edit and /user/sign_in). In routes.rb I have

devise_scope :user do
  get 'signin' => 'devise/sessions#new'
  etc.
end

The problem is that both /signin and /user/sign_in work to link to the sign in page. I want to so how make the /user/sign_in link inactive meaning it gives a 404 error when navigating to that page.

My rake routes is:

    new_user_session GET    /users/sign_in(.:format)            {:action=>"new", :controller=>"devise/sessions"}
        user_session POST   /users/sign_in(.:format)            {:action=>"create", :controller=>"devise/sessions"}
destroy_user_session DELETE /users/sign_out(.:format)           {:action=>"destroy", :controller=>"devise/sessions"}
       user_password POST   /users/password(.:format)           {:action=>"create", :controller=>"devise/passwords"}
   new_user_password GET    /users/password/new(.:format)       {:action=>"new", :controller=>"devise/passwords"}
  edit_user_password GET    /users/password/edit(.:format)      {:action=>"edit", :controller=>"devise/passwords"}
                     PUT    /users/password(.:format)           {:action=>"update", :controller=>"devise/passwords"}
cancel_user_registration GET    /users/cancel(.:format)             {:action=>"cancel", :controller=>"registrations"}
   user_registration POST   /users(.:format)                    {:action=>"create", :controller=>"registrations"}
new_user_registration GET    /users/sign_up(.:format)            {:action=>"new", :controller=>"registrations"}
edit_user_registration GET    /users/edit(.:format)               {:action=>"edit", :controller=>"registrations"}
                     PUT    /users(.:format)                    {:action=>"update", :controller=>"registrations"}
                     DELETE /users(.:format)                    {:action=>"destroy", :controller=>"registrations"}
              signin GET    /signin(.:format)                   {:action=>"new", :controller=>"devise/sessions"}
             signout GET    /signout(.:format)                  {:action=>"destroy", :controller=>"devise/sessions"}
              signup GET    /signup(.:format)                   {:action=>"new", :controller=>"devise/registrations"}
             command GET    /command(.:format)                  {:action=>"edit", :controller=>"devise/registrations"}

Answer 1

Use devise_for to change the path and names of the default urls

devise_for :users, :path => '', :path_names => { :sign_in => 'signin', :sign_out => 'signout', :sign_up => 'signup' }

I would recommend leaving the path names as sign_in, sign_out, and sign_up since signin looks like gibberish.

Also, selectively editing these defaults will probably just make your routes more confusing in the long run. So, unless there is a great reason to overwrite the defaults, you should go with what devise recommends.