How to deploy Rails 2.3.2 app with Capistrano from the top (for FastCGI)?

Answer 1

Updated my answer, see #3...

I don't use FastCGI for deployment, but a few things that come to mind:

1. The process scripts have been moved out of Rails core and into a plugin, which you can grab from GitHub.

2. Looking at my deploy.rb file, you'll likely need to pass the RAILS_ENV environment variable into the script through the command line, similar to:

   run #{current_path}/script/process/reaper RAILS_ENV=#{rails_env} --dispatcher=dispatch.fcgi

3. EDIT: Actually, it is slightly odd to have your tasks in the Capfile instead of deploy.rb - although looking at this thread on the Capistrano Google Group, it's not completely frowned upon. Up to you/your team, I suppose.

Hope this points you in the right direction.

Answer 2

Here's my deploy.rb, which hasn't really been updated in a long time. I run two sed commands to set the environment inside my :after_update_code task. I'm certain there's an easier way to do it, but this is my current method.

require 'erb'

before "deploy:setup", :db
after "deploy:update_code", "db:symlink" 
after "deploy", "deploy:cleanup"

def prompt_with_default(var, default)
  set(var) do
    Capistrano::CLI.ui.ask "Enter #{var} [#{default}] : "
  end

  set var, default if eval("#{var.to_s}.empty?")
end

default_run_options[:pty] = true 

set :rake, "/usr/local/bin/rake"

set :user, "your username"
set :application, "application name"
set :repository,  "svn repository path"
set :host, "domain name"
set :db_host, "DB host name"
set :db_user, "DB user name"
set :db_prefix, "any DB name prefix your host might require"
set :rails_env, "production"

set :deploy_to, "/home/username/rails/#{host}" # your deployment directory

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

set :use_sudo, false
set :checkout, "export"

#
# TASKS
#
desc "Tasks to execute after code update"
task :after_update_code, :roles => [:app, :db, :web] do
  # Make sure we're running in production
  run "sed -i -e '/ENV.*RAILS_ENV/s/# //' #{release_path}/config/environment.rb"
  run "sed -i -e '/ENV.*RAILS_ENV/s/production/#{rails_env}/' #{release_path}/config/environment.rb"

  # Add banned IPs
  deny_lines = []
  File.readlines("#{release_path}/config/banned_ips").each {|ip|
    deny_lines << "deny from #{ip}"
  }

  ip_ban_block = <<EOBAN
# Bannination
order allow,deny
#{deny_lines.join}
allow from all
EOBAN

  run "sed -i -e 's/# BANNED IPS/#{ip_ban_block}/' #{release_path}/public/.htaccess"

  run "chmod +x #{release_path}/script/runner" 
  run "chmod +x #{release_path}/script/process/reaper" 
  run "chmod +x #{release_path}/script/process/spawner" 
  run "chmod 755 #{release_path}/public/dispatch.*" 
end

desc "Restarting after deployment"
task :after_deploy, :roles => [:app, :db, :web] do
  run "cd #{current_path} && rake RAILS_ENV=production db:sessions:clear tmp:clear"
  # fix permissions
  run "dos2unix #{release_path}/public/dispatch.*"
  run "dos2unix #{release_path}/public/.htaccess"
  run "chmod -R 755 #{release_path}"
  run "chmod -R 775 #{release_path}/log #{release_path}/tmp #{release_path}/script"
  run "find #{release_path}/ | xargs touch"
  run "touch #{deploy_to}/current/public/dispatch.fcgi"
end

desc "Restarting after rollback"
task :after_rollback, :roles => [:app, :db, :web] do
  run "touch #{deploy_to}/current/public/dispatch.fcgi"
end

namespace :db do
  desc "Create database yaml in shared path" 
  task :default do
  prompt_with_default(:db_password, "")
  db_config = ERB.new <<-EOF
base: &base
  adapter: mysql
  port: 3306
  host: #{db_host}
  username: #{db_user}
  password: #{db_password}

development:
  database: #{db_prefix}#{application}development
  <<: *base

test:
  database: #{db_prefix}#{application}test
  <<: *base

production:
  database: #{db_prefix}#{application}production
  <<: *base
EOF

    run "mkdir -p #{shared_path}/config" 
    put db_config.result, "#{shared_path}/config/database.yml" 
  end

  desc "Make symlink for database yaml" 
  task :symlink do
    run "ln -nfs #{shared_path}/config/database.yml #{release_path}/config/database.yml" 
  end
end

Once I set up my variables, I have a bash script that runs:

svn export $svn_path . --force
cap deploy

That'll ask me for my password twice. Once for exporting from SVN, and once as a prompt to automatically generate my database.yml in the shared path.