Capistrano - override default, get/copy source from local

Rails
1

I am working on getting Capistrano running for an app but need to ask it
to
download source to a local directory and then send it to the deployment
server via scp/etc (there are reasons for this I won’t get into). Below
is
where I am and what I am trying — if anyone has done this or can show
me
where I am going wrong I’d appreciate it.

I found the following info but it does not seem to work, cap deploy
seems to
run the same as without it:

http://rdoc.info/rdoc/capistrano/capistrano/blob/6d540a5d4d04278312f96ae8276e9cacc2d826e5/Capistrano/Deploy/Strategy/Copy.html

set :copy_strategy, :export

set :copy_cache, true
set :copy_exclude, “.git/*”

set :copy_cache, “/tmp/caches/myapp”

Following is my deploy.rb:

set :application, “compare”
set :repository, “[email protected]:structuralartistry/compare.git”

set :scm, “git”
set :user, “myuser” # The server’s user for deploys
set :scm_passphrase, “mypassphrase”

set :copy_strategy, :export
set :copy_cache, true
set :copy_exclude, “.git/*”
set :copy_cache, “~/Documents/ror/deployment/compare”

set :use_sudo, false

set :branch, “master”
#set :deploy_via, :remote_cache
set :deploy_to, “/home/myuser/webapps/compare”

role :web, “xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx” # Your HTTP
server,
Apache/etc
role :app, “xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx” # This may be the
same
as your Web server
role :db, “xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx”, :primary => true # This is where Rails
migrations will run

namespace :deploy do
task :start, :roles => :app do
run “touch #{current_release}/tmp/restart.txt”
end

task :stop, :roles => :app do
# Do nothing.
end

desc “Restart Application”
task :restart, :roles => :app do
run “touch #{current_release}/tmp/restart.txt”
end
end

2

I use this script, and it works for me (although, I’m sure I could
improve it…) - hope this helps!
================ START deploy.rb =============

set :application, “MY_APP”
set :user, “your_username”
set :admin_runner, user
set :rails_env, ‘test’

set :deploy_to, “/path/to/MY_APP/#{application}” # this is the path on
your server you’re deploying to
set :deploy_via, :copy

set :scm, :git
set :repository, “/My/local/git/repository”
set :branch, “master”
set :port, YOUR_PORT_HERE

set :location, “your_domain.com”

role :app, location
role :web, location
role :db, location, :primary => true

namespace :deploy do
desc “Restarting mod_rails with restart.txt”
task :restart, :roles => :app, :except => { :no_release => true } do
run “touch #{current_path}/tmp/restart.txt”
end

[:start, :stop].each do |t|
desc “#{t} task is a no-op with mod_rails”
task t, :roles => :app do ; end
end

RailsEnv is set in apache my_app vhost config, but also set it in

environment.rb,

so applicaitons can acccess the RAILS_ENV constant.

task :set_rails_env do
tmp = “#{current_release}/MY_APP/tmp/environment.rb”
final = “#{current_release}/MY_APP/config/environment.rb”
run <<-BASH
echo “ENV[‘RAILS_ENV’] ||= ‘#{rails_env}’” > #{tmp};
cat #{final} >> #{tmp} && mv #{tmp} #{final};
BASH
end

end

After the current release has been updated, re-create the symbolic

links on the server

so that the database.yml and uploads (in shared directory) are

“understood” by the current release
namespace(:customs) do
task :config, :roles => :app do
run <<-CMD
ln -nfs #{shared_path}/system/database.yml #{release_path}/
MY_APP/config/database.yml
CMD
end
task :symlink, :roles => :app do
run <<-CMD
ln -nfs #{shared_path}/system/uploads #{release_path}/MY_APP/
public/uploads
CMD
end
end

after “deploy:update_code”, “customs:config”
after “deploy:symlink”,“customs:symlink”
after “deploy”, “deploy:cleanup”
after “deploy:finalize_update”, “deploy:set_rails_env”

3

oops…
Replace this one line in the previous post I made to:

set :repository, “ssh://git@your_git_server:your_git_port/path/to/git/
repository”

This will get your source from your remote git server. The previous
one is assuming that you already have a copy of the git repository
locally.

4

Hi, thanks for the script, was very useful! I found that I was missing
“set
:deploy_via, :copy”. Got it working on the first try.

The part at the bottom on replacing the database.yml was useful too as I
need to both replace this and config.rb. Really minor but found a
slightly
simpler way to do this (which puts the callback in the first line rather
than having to place somewhere else) when I was googling around trying
to
understand this:

task :after_update_code do

link from our production/config directory to the release

run “ln -nfs #{deploy_to}/production/config/database.yml
#{release_path}/config/database.yml”
end

VS

task :config, :roles => :app do
run <<-CMD
ln -nfs #{shared_path}/system/database.yml
#{release_path}/MY_APP/config/database.yml
CMD
end

after “deploy:update_code”, “customs:config”

5

Glad that helped, and thanks for the simpler script! I’ll definitely
try it on my deploy, too.