fpauser-vlad 2.2.0

data/doco/deploying-merb-with-vlad.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,155 @@
+# Deploying Merb with Vlad
+
+This tutorial has been adapted from [Deploying Merb with Vlad](http://effectif.com/articles/deploying-merb-with-vlad) by [Graham Ashton](http://effectif.com "Effectif Development").
+
+You've built your Merb app, and you want to get it running on your web server. You could use Capistrano, but if you prefer the simple things in life you might find that [Vlad](http://rubyhitsquad.com/Vlad_the_Deployer.html "Vlad the Deployer") is a better fit.
+
+This is a Merb version of the [Deploying Sinatra with Vlad](deploying-sinatra-with-vlad "Deploying Sinatra with Vlad") article that I wrote yesterday. There are big similarities to that article, but in this one we also look at how to restart Merb automatically after the code has been deployed.
+
+## Creating a sample application
+
+Let's start by making ourselves a test app:
+
+    $ merb-gen flat hi
+    $ cd hi
+
+We can check that the app works locally by running it...
+
+    $ merb
+
+...and then opening [http://localhost:4000](http://localhost:4000) in a web browser.
+
+We need to create a `public` directory too (because this is a flat app I don't already have one), as Vlad assumes that we have a `public` directory for our static assets. I'm also going to make an empty CSS file so that the directory doesn't get ignored by Git:
+
+    $ mkdir public
+    $ touch public/master.css
+
+We'll deploy our application from version control. I'm using Git, but you can use any system that Vlad supports; just check your files into a repository that will be accessible from your web server.
+
+## Configuring Vlad
+
+Okay, we're ready for Vlad. It's a Ruby gem, so it's very easy to install:
+
+    $ sudo gem install vlad
+    Successfully installed vlad-1.2.0
+    1 gem installed
+    Installing ri documentation for vlad-1.2.0...
+    Installing RDoc documentation for vlad-1.2.0...
+
+There's no need to install Vlad on your server, just your workstation.
+
+You access Vlad's functionality through Rake tasks. Add the following code to a file called `lib/tasks/vlad.rake` (you may have to make the directory first, but Merb will automatically find it):
+
+    begin
+      $TESTING = true # workaround a conflict between DataMapper and Vlad
+      require "vlad"
+      Vlad.load(:app => nil, :scm => "git")
+    rescue LoadError
+      # do nothing
+    end
+
+Note that we've told Vlad that we intend to use Git (subversion is the default). We've set `:app` to `nil` as Vlad assumes that we'll run our application with `mongrel_rails` (it seems to think everybody who uses Mongrel is using Rails). Merb has support for clusters built in, so we'll setup some simple replacements later.
+
+If you run `rake -T` now you should see a bunch of vlad tasks that are available to you. You can't run them yet; you need to configure Vlad. Create a `config/deploy.rb` file in your editor and set the following variables in it:
+
+    set :application, "hi"
+    set :repository, "ssh://your.git.server/path/to/project/hi.git"
+    set :domain, "your.web.server"
+    set :deploy_to, "/var/apps/#{application}"
+
+Make sure that `:repository` correctly references your source control system, and that `:domain` is set to the hostname of your server.
+
+I won't be able to create any directories under the `/var/apps` directory (I'm going to run vlad using my own username in this example), so I need to login to my server and make sure that I can create files in the `hi` directory:
+
+    $ ssh your.web.server
+    $ sudo mkdir -p /var/apps/hi
+    $ sudo chown yourusername /var/apps/hi
+
+Now you can try running Vlad, to create all the directories necessary to serve your project. Back on your workstation, type:
+
+    $ rake vlad:setup
+
+You should find that some directories have been created within `/var/apps/hi` on your server.
+
+Let's trying deploying some code:
+
+    $ rake vlad:update
+    (in /Users/graham/data/effectif/projects/hi)
+    Initialized empty Git repository in /var/apps/hi/scm/repo/.git/
+    Switched to a new branch "deployed-HEAD"
+
+You should now find that if you ssh into your server that you can run the application:
+
+    $ ssh your.web.server
+    $ cd /var/apps/hi/current
+    $ merb
+
+Try making a change to your source, committing it to your repository, then run `vlad:update` again. Your code will be updated. If you restart Merb in the new directory you'll see your changes in the browser.
+
+If you're following along with these commands, be careful that you're running `merb` in the freshly deployed directory. `current` is a symlink to a specific release directory, so you'll need to leave the directory and return to it to see the new source code (i.e. symlinks don't get updated under your shell's feet). This should do it:
+
+    $ cd ~ && cd -
+    $ merb
+
+Okay, we're nearly there. All we need to do now is to automatically restart Merb when we deploy a new copy of the code with the `vlad:update` task. Add the following code to the bottom of your `config/deploy.rb` file:
+
+    Rake.clear_tasks("vlad:stop", "vlad:start")
+
+    namespace :vlad do
+      def stop
+        run "merb -m #{deploy_to}/current -K all"
+      end
+  
+      def start
+        run "merb -m #{deploy_to}/current -e production -c 2"
+      end
+  
+      remote_task :start, :roles => :app do
+        stop
+        start
+      end
+  
+      remote_task :stop, :roles => :app do
+        stop
+      end
+  
+      remote_task :update do
+        Rake::Task["vlad:start"].invoke
+      end
+    end
+
+Note that in this example we've started a two process cluster with the `-c` option in the `start` method.
+
+You'll find (with the `vlad:start` command I've shown above) that Merb is running on port 4000. If you want to run Merb on port 80 then I would recommend running these Merb processes behind Nginx, but I'll leave configuring Nginx as an exercise for the reader (Google will help you out there).
+
+Let's just make sure that it's working. Run `rake vlad:update` a couple of times and check that Merb is getting stopped and started properly (it fails to stop Merb on the first run below simply because this was the first time I'd started it):
+
+    $ rake vlad:update
+    (in /Users/graham/data/effectif/projects/hi)
+    Loading init file from /Users/graham/data/effectif/projects/hi/config/init.rb
+    Initialized empty Git repository in /var/apps/hi/scm/repo/.git/
+    Switched to a new branch "deployed-HEAD"
+     ~ Could not find a PID file at /var/apps/hi/current/log/merb.main.pid. Most likely the process is no longer running and the pid file was not cleaned up.
+     ~ In 7643
+    $ rake vlad:update
+    (in /Users/graham/data/effectif/projects/hi)
+    Loading init file from /Users/graham/data/effectif/projects/hi/config/init.rb
+    Initialized empty Git repository in /var/apps/hi/scm/repo/.git/
+    Switched to a new branch "deployed-HEAD"
+     ~ Killing pid 7643 with INT
+     ~ In 7840
+
+Now point your browser at port 4000 of your server – your application should be running!
+
+## Deploying from a Git branch
+
+If you want to deploy from a specific Git branch (`master` is the default) you can set the `:revision` variable in `deploy.rb`:
+
+    set :revision, "origin/mybranch"
+
+## Deploying as a different user
+
+It's not a great idea to deploy and run applications as your own login name (it's better practice to run web applications as users that don't have many privileges). I've not really addressed users in this article in order to focus on the basics of Vlad, but if you're interested you can deploy as a different user with these settings in `deploy.rb`:
+
+    set :user, "deploy"
+    set :domain, "#{user}@domain.com"

data/doco/deploying-sinatra-with-vlad.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,119 @@
+# Deploying Sinatra with Vlad
+
+This tutorial has been adapted from [Deploying Sinatra with Vlad](http://effectif.com/articles/deploying-sinatra-with-vlad) by [Graham Ashton](http://effectif.com "Effectif Development").
+
+So you've just written a nice new [Sinatra application](http://www.sinatrarb.com/ "Sinatra"), and you want to get it running on your web server. How hard can it be? Well with [Vlad the Deployer](http://rubyhitsquad.com/Vlad_the_Deployer.html "Vlad the Deployer"), it's actually rather easy.
+
+## Creating a sample application
+
+Let's start by making ourselves a test app:
+
+    $ mkdir hello
+    $ cd hello
+    $ touch app.rb
+
+Open `app.rb` in your editor and put this code in it:
+
+    require "rubygems"
+    require "sinatra"
+
+    get "/" do
+      "Hello!"
+    end
+
+We can check that the app works locally by running it...
+
+    $ ruby app.rb
+
+...and then opening [http://localhost:4567](http://localhost:4567) in a web browser.
+
+We need to create a `public` directory too, as Vlad assumes that we have a `public` directory for our static assets. I'm also going to make an empty CSS file so that the directory doesn't get ignored by Git:
+
+    $ mkdir public
+    $ touch public/master.css
+
+We'll deploy our application from version control. I'm using Git, but you can use any system that Vlad supports; just check your files into a repository that will be accessible from your web server.
+
+## Configuring Vlad
+
+Okay, we're ready for Vlad. It's a Ruby gem, so it's very easy to install:
+
+    $ sudo gem install vlad
+    Successfully installed vlad-1.2.0
+    1 gem installed
+    Installing ri documentation for vlad-1.2.0...
+    Installing RDoc documentation for vlad-1.2.0...
+
+There's no need to install Vlad on your server, just your workstation.
+
+You access Vlad's functionality through Rake tasks. This means that we need a `Rakefile` which loads the Vlad code. Create `Rakefile` in the same directory as `app.rb`, then add the following code to it:
+
+    begin
+      require "vlad"
+      Vlad.load(:app => nil, :scm => "git")
+    rescue LoadError
+      # do nothing
+    end
+
+Note that we've told Vlad that we intend to use Git (subversion is the default). We've set `:app` to `nil` as Vlad assumes that we'll run our application with [Mongrel](http://mongrel.rubyforge.org/ "Mongrel - Trac"). I'm not going to use Mongrel here, so we don't want Vlad to load its Mongrel recipes.
+
+If you run `rake -T` now you should see a bunch of vlad tasks that are available to you. You can't run them yet; you need to configure Vlad with a `config/deploy.rb` file:
+
+    $ mkdir config
+    $ touch config/deploy.rb
+
+Open `deploy.rb` in your editor and set the following variables:
+
+    set :application, "hello"
+    set :repository, "ssh://your.git.server/path/to/project/hello.git"
+    set :domain, "your.web.server"
+    set :deploy_to, "/var/apps/#{application}"
+
+Make sure that `:repository` correctly references your source control system, and that `:domain` is set to the hostname of your server.
+
+I won't be able to create any directories under the `/var/apps` directory (I'm going to run vlad using my own username in this example), so I need to login to my server and make sure that I can create files in the `hello` directory:
+
+    $ ssh your.web.server
+    $ sudo mkdir -p /var/apps/hello
+    $ sudo chown yourusername /var/apps/hello
+
+Now you can try running Vlad, to create all the directories necessary to serve your project. Back on your workstation, type:
+
+    $ rake vlad:setup
+
+You should find that some directories have been created within `/var/apps/hello` on your server.
+
+Let's trying deploying some code:
+
+    $ rake vlad:update
+    (in /Users/graham/data/effectif/projects/hello)
+    Initialized empty Git repository in /var/apps/hello/scm/repo/.git/
+    Switched to a new branch "deployed-HEAD"
+
+You should now find that if you ssh into your server that you can run the application:
+
+    $ ssh your.web.server
+    $ cd /var/apps/hello/current
+    $ ruby app.rb
+
+Try making a change to your source, committing it to your repository, then run `vlad:update` again. Your code will be updated. If you restart Sinatra in the new directory you'll see your changes in the browser.
+
+If you're following along with these commands, be careful that you're running `app.rb` in the freshly deployed directory. `current` is a symlink to a specific release directory, so you'll need to leave the directory and return to it to see the new source code (i.e. symlinks don't get updated under your shell's feet). This should do it:
+
+    $ cd ~ && cd -
+    $ ruby app.rb
+
+You may now be wondering how to get Thin running automatically, and how to re-start it when you run `vlad:update`. That should be the subject of my next blog post (you can [subscribe](/articles.xml) if you need it).
+
+## Deploying from a Git branch
+
+If you want to deploy from a specific Git branch (`master` is the default) you can set the `:revision` variable in `deploy.rb`:
+
+    set :revision, "origin/mybranch"
+
+## Deploying as a different user
+
+It's not a great idea to deploy and run applications as your own login name (it's better practice to run web applications as users that don't have many privileges). I've not really addressed users in this article in order to focus on the basics of Vlad, but if you're interested you can deploy as a different user with these settings in `deploy.rb`:
+
+    set :user, "deploy"
+    set :domain, "#{user}@domain.com"

data/doco/faq.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,136 @@
+== Rake & Recipes
+
+=== Q: Why is there no vlad:restart?
+=== A: It is cleaner!
+
+We don't want to have to think about what state we're in and where. So vlad:start does a restart if necessary. Restart is just "start again" after all... That is what start does.
+
+=== Q: Why is there no vlad:deploy?
+=== A: Because everyone is a unique beautiful flower.
+
+Everyone's deployment is different. Everyone. Unique scaling
+requirements. Yadda yadda yadda. So rather than supply something that
+nobody will use, we decided not to supply anything at all. Here is an
+example deploy that I stole from the web (and improved) that you may like:
+
+    desc "Full deployment cycle"
+    task "vlad:deploy" => %w[
+      vlad:update
+      vlad:migrate
+      vlad:reset_session
+      vlad:start
+      vlad:cleanup
+    ]
+
+Just pop that in your config/deploy.rb, tweak it as necessary, and have at it.
+
+=== Q: Why are there no before_action and after_action hooks?
+=== A: Because we use rake!
+
+Rake don't need no stinkin' hooks! They're too clever. Last I checked before_after_before_start worked in cap... how? why? I dunno...
+
+To extend a task (adding something after), just define it again:
+
+  task :action1 do
+    puts "one fish, two fish"
+  end
+
+  task :action1 do
+    puts "red fish, blue fish"
+  end
+
+To prepend on a task, add a dependency:
+
+  task :action2 do
+    puts "red fish, blue fish"
+  end
+
+  task :myaction do
+    puts "one fish, two fish"
+  end
+
+  task :action2 => :myaction
+
+=== Q: How can I replace a rake task instead of just adding to it?
+=== A: Use Rake.clear_tasks str_or_regexp
+
+NOTE: Rake.clear_tasks was moved to Hoe so it could be used more generally.
+
+  require 'hoe/rake'
+  
+  namespace :vlad do
+    # Clear existing update task so that we can redefine instead of
+    # adding to it.
+    Rake.clear_tasks('vlad:update') 
+  
+    remote_task :update, :roles => :app do
+      #custom update stuff
+    end
+  end
+
+=== Q: How do I invoke another rule?
+=== A: The easiest way is via dependencies.
+
+  task :shazam! => [:action1, :action2]
+
+ The other way is to look it up and call invoke:
+
+  task :shazam! do
+    Rake::Task[:action1].invoke
+    Rake::Task[:action2].invoke
+  end
+
+(Or, cheat and call out to rake again: sh "rake action1")
+
+== Using SSH
+
+=== Q: Is there any way to set the ssh user?
+=== A: Yes, using ~/.ssh/config
+
+  Host example.com
+    User fluffy_bunny
+
+OR: Alternatively, you can do this within your recipes like so:
+
+  set :user, "fluffy_bunny"
+  set :domain, "#{user}@example.com"
+
+=== Q: Is there any way to speed up ssh connections?
+=== A: Yes, add to your Host entry in ~/.ssh/config:
+
+  ControlMaster auto
+  ControlPath ~/.ssh/master-%r@%h:%p
+
+=== Q: I'm tired of typing in my password!
+=== A: Me too!
+
+Put a password on your key, distribute your public key to the server and then use ssh-agent.
+
+Check out this tiny tutorial at LBL: A brief ssh-agent tutorial <http://upc.lbl.gov/docs/user/sshagent.html>
+
+If you're on a mac (on tiger, not leopard), use SSHKeychain, we love it. <http://www.sshkeychain.org/>. If you are on leopard, you get all of this for free.
+
+=== Q: How do I use Vlad with a gateway?
+=== A: Add the following to your deploy.rb variables:
+
+  set :ssh_flags, "-A #{mygateway}"
+  set :rsync_flags, "--rsh ssh -A #{mygateway} ssh"
+
+=== Q: OMG subversion is stupid! It keeps asking for "Authentication Realm"
+=== A: Yes, yes it is.
+
+If you're seeing local checkouts work fine but they don't over ssh
+(even to localhost!) then ssh into that machine (yes, even localhost)
+and do a checkout there to a temporary directory. From then on,
+checkout over ssh should work fine.
+
+  % svn co https://blah/blah /tmp/happy
+    ... works fine ...
+  % ssh localhost svn co https://blah/blah /tmp/sad
+    ... asks for authentication and then hangs ...
+  % ssh localhost
+  % svn co https://blah/blah /tmp/sad-no-happy
+    ... asks for authentication ...
+    ... works fine ...
+  % ssh localhost svn co https://blah/blah /tmp/happy2
+    ... works fine ...

data/doco/getting_started.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
+
+== Quick Start for a 1-Server Solution:
+
+=== Setup
+
+* Create a deploy file, usually in "config/deploy.rb":
+
+    set :application, "project"
+    set :domain, "example.com"
+    set :deploy_to, "/path/to/install"
+    set :repository, 'http://svn.example.com/project/branches/stable/'
+    
+This defaults to using 'svn export' from +repository+, and a single
+server for +app+, +db+, and +www+. If you need to tweak these things,
+refer to the variable documentation.
+
+* If you want a multi-config environment, change your config like so:
+
+    set :application, "project"
+    set :repository, 'http://svn.example.com/project/branches/stable/'
+    
+    task :beta do
+      set :domain,    "beta.example.com"
+      set :deploy_to, "/path/to/install-beta"
+    end
+    
+    task :dev do
+      set :domain,    "dev.example.com"
+      set :deploy_to, "/path/to/install-dev"
+    end
+    
+    task :prod do
+      set :domain,    "example.com"
+      set :deploy_to, "/path/to/install"
+    end
+
+* Add the following to your Rakefile:
+
+    begin
+      require 'vlad'
+      Vlad.load
+    rescue LoadError
+      # do nothing
+    end
+
+Vlad.load has a lot of flexibility. See the rdoc for full information.
+
+You don't need the begin/rescue/end block if you ensure that Vlad is
+installed on all your servers. To be lazy, you can install vlad via:
+
+    % rake vlad:invoke COMMAND='sudo gem install vlad -y'
+
+=== Initial Launch
+
+* Run <tt>rake vlad:setup vlad:update vlad:migrate vlad:start</tt>
+
+=== Subsequent Updates:
+
+* <tt>rake vlad:update vlad:migrate vlad:start</tt>
+
+Each step may be run separately.