capistrano deploy_symlink fails

Question

This is my first deployment. I did a cap deploy:setup which worked fine.

Then, when I try to execute cap deploy:update I run into error messages. Something along the lines of

rm: cannot remove `/var/www/app_name/current': Is a directory

Here is my capfile and directory permissions.

http://pastie.org/1189919

In general, what is the best practice as far as deployment user and permissions are concerned? Should I use root or create a different user. If a different user what exact permissions does it need?

Thanks

Answer 1

To deploy a new release you should invoke cap deploy or cap deploy:migrations, not cap deploy:update.

Answer 2

Did you create the directories within /var/www/app_name, or were they created by capistrano?

Regardless, the issue you have is that /var/www/app_name/current should not be a directory - it should be a symlink to the current release within /var/www/app_name/releases/. The failure is caused when capistrano has finished creating the new release folder within /var/www/app_name/releases/, and is trying to symlink /var/www/app_name/current to it.

You might be able to fix your issues by renaming /var/www/app_name/current (so you have a backup if things go wrong), and creating a symlink from /var/www/app_name/current to the most recent release within /var/www/app_name/releases/, and then doing a cap deploy. (Delete your backup of current if this works).

As far as best practice goes whatever you do, do not use root. Instead, set up a user (or use an existing user) that has only permissions to the required directories (didn't read your scripts closely, but probably just /var/www/app_name.