'Back' browser action in Ruby on Rails

Use

<%= link_to 'Back', :back %>

This is specificied in the RDoc here

This generates some Javascript to navigate backward. I've just tested it, and it works.

In Rails 3 and earlier:

link_to_function "Back", "history.back()"

In Rails 4, this method has been removed. See Andreas's comment.

This is working in Rails 5.1 along with Turbolinks.

link_to 'Back', 'javascript:history.back()'

You can use link_to("Hello", :back) to generate <a href="javascript:history.back()">Hello</a>.

If you like me do not want the behaviour of link_to "cancel", :back you could implement a helper method which either links to the records index path or show path. (i.e teams_path or team_path(@team)

module CancelFormButtonHelper
  def cancel_button(record)
    index_path = record.class.to_s.pluralize.downcase + "_path"
    path = record.persisted? ? record : eval(index_path)

    link_to "Cancel", path
  end
end

which can then be used as <%= cancel_button @team %> within a form for example.